Warp | The Grain

BROADCAST AND THE FOCUS GROUP

I always felt Broadcast were somewhat under appreciated in their heyday, spending a little too much time in the Stereolab shadow, without some of their genuinely inspiring moments finding as large an audience as they could (and possibly should) have. So it’s nice to hear they will be reappearing in the 20th anniversary of Warp’s foundation, albeit with a collaborative mini-album ‘Broadcast & The Focus Group Investigate Witch Cults of the Radio Age’, as opposed to their own full-length (which incidentally is apparently due out next year).

The Focus Group is but one man, Julian House, who is the co-founder of the Ghost Box label, and an artwork designer. For those who don’t know Ghost Box, its a label that churns out sounds influenced by those 70s soundtracks, found sounds, library recordings, and musique concrete, with artwork courtesy of Mr House himself.

Check out the audio trailer below for an enticing sample of the psychedelic influenced collaboration, with more than a hint of Ghost Box audiophile finger prints on it, and celebrate in Broadcasts return by watching ‘Witch’s Cults’ above.

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BATTLES’ TYONDAI JACKSON SOLO ALBUM PREVIEW: PLATINUM ROWS

Tyondai Jackson

Battles’ Tyondai Jackson is due to drop his full length solo debut ‘Central Market’ on Warp records on the 14th of September and the boys from Warp have already labelled it a ‘masterpiece’ – their words not ours. Billed as Battles’ meets modern orchestration, and apparently inspired by Igor Stravinsky, Bernard Hermann, Brian Eno, John Adams and Swans, it has mostly been scored for a large ensemble and certainly sounds interesting. So here’s a preview, have a listen to ‘Platinum Rows’ taken from the album and decide whether this has got you excited at the prospect of a piece of genius, or has it left you a little flat whilst awaiting a record of Battles played by a somewhat unconventional orchestra?

‘Platinum Rows’ includes Vox, Synths, Piano, Guitars, Basses, Electronics, Violins, Violas, Cellos, Double Bass’, Clarinet, Bass Clarinet, Flute, Piccolo, Trumpets, Horns, Xylophone, Glock & Harp, but the real question should be, is this the most prominent kazoo in popular music in recent memory? Discuss.

‘WE HEAR YOU’ BY LUKE VIBERT (…AND RONSEAL)

We Hear You by Luke Vibert

I feel a palpable sense of disappointment at the output of the stars of electronica as they were (in what I will refer to as simpler times for no apparent reason) in their post-Warp-heyday era, but perhaps this is just because LFO, Aphex Twin, Squarepusher, Autechre et al propelled themselves so far ahead of everything else surrounding them, sonically as well as simply in terms of concept and enterprise, that there was nowhere left to go. For a brief moment, electronica seemed so futuristic, so innovative and at times plain mind blowing (a much overused term I know, but really, think about the first time you heard Aphex/Autechre/Squarepusher) that it never really occurred to me that those same artists would, well, plateau (to be polite), satisfied to fall back into the cult they loved and receive a little less exposure delivering acid sets and producing music for their friends alone. All have maintained a consistency, a continuation of ideas, but really never moved into the places we dreamt they might push us.

Richard James may have been the poster boy, but Luke Vibert was as much part of this scene as anyone, perhaps suffering only from not having an identity quite as distinct as the members of the Warp stable; his forays into the Ninja Tune/Mo Wax brand of dance and hip hop, his love of all things acid, making him a jack of all trades rather than a master of anything specific. Through his various projects (Wagon Christ, Plug etc) he has undoubtedly produced a few classic tunes (‘Receiver’ from his Ninja Tune days and ‘I Love Acid’ come straight to mind as particularly memorable singles), but also suffers from an inconsistency that has left him without the recognition he perhaps deserves as a producer (and he is, incidentally, as good a DJ as I have seen; there‘s something immensely satisfying about dancing to quelching, bastardised electro for 30 minutes until ‘Take On Me’ emerges for a brief moment of clarity before the musical perversion recommences).

With this in mind his new record for Planet mu, We Hear You, fails to dispel the doubts, instead simultaneously enforcing the view of an artist too eclectic and inconsistent to produce an album that will become as memorable as Richard D James (or one of the ‘trip hop’ classics), and one that is criminally underappreciated, with more vitality and spark than many of his contemporaries. We Hear You also serves as a reminder that Vibert was as influenced by hip hop as anything else, and perhaps this is what sets him apart, and gives him an outlook of his own. Read the rest of this entry »

BIBIO’S AMBIVALENCE AVENUE, HAZY SUMMERS AND EMULATION

Bibio - Ambivalence Avenue

Bibio, aka Stephen Wilkinson, has dropped his first album, Ambivalence Avenue, for the much venerated Warp records, following his time spent on Mush. It is a hazy lo-fi summer mix tape of a record, picking up on the melody of sixties and seventies pop, with an eclectic and updated glitch edge. His sound is probably most reminiscent of Boards of Canada (who apparently brought him to wider attention) and Koushik, who’s releases on the Stones Throw label are downbeat 60s pysche pop, soul and hip hop offerings with soft layered vocals drifting over, that occupy much the same space . Perhaps Ambivalence Avenue’s most surprising attribute though is this marrying the sound of the releases that built Warp records throughout the 90s and early 2000s, with undeniably appealing West Coast American pop.

Despite the similarities, Ambivalence Avenue has a wider, more varied base from which it draws inspiration than any of Koushik’s records to date. Bibio has dramatically expanded his sound, adding song structure, moving far beyond the ambition of the solid but somewhat limited Compost. Ambivalence Avenue effortlessly breezes through genres, maintaining coherence and wearing its influences on its sleeve; from the warped Sly Stone wah wah guitar funk of ‘Jealous of Roses’, with distant echoing vocals mixed down in the track, to the Boards of Canada homage ‘Sugarette’, which adds squelches of bass, cut up vocoder snippets and spectrum-esque bleeps and FX to the formula, while keeping the same dreamy atmospheric aesthetic.

Bibio doesn’t have the stylistic limitations of some of the Warp stalwarts most strongly associated with label, stretching his range far beyond the glitch electronic template. ‘Lovers Carving’ has a sunny and simultaneously melancolie guitar line leading into a lilting, uplifting, West Coast pop inflenced, hand clap driven number, with a hint of (now increasingly prominent) African melody. Maybe, dare I say it, even a touch of Paul Simon drifts into the mix. There is an indie folk presence, acoustic tracks where dreamy vocals and harmonies weave in and out, distorted harpsicord, bouncing flute, and wonky guitar loops infiltrate, while ‘The Palm of Your Wave’ sounds like a mellow Neil Young offering circa the After the Gold Rush era. Read the rest of this entry »