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Warp Records (or simply Warp) is a British
independent record label An independent record label (or indie label) is a record label that operates without the funding or distribution of major record labels; they are a type of small- to medium-sized enterprise, or SME. The labels and artists are often represented ...
founded in
Sheffield Sheffield is a city status in the United Kingdom, city in South Yorkshire, England, whose name derives from the River Sheaf which runs through it. The city serves as the administrative centre of the City of Sheffield. It is Historic counties o ...
in 1989 by record store employees Steve Beckett and Rob Mitchell and
record producer A record producer is a recording project's creative and technical leader, commanding studio time and coaching artists, and in popular genres typically creates the song's very sound and structure. Virgil Moorefield"Introduction" ''The Producer as ...
Robert Gordon.Southern, Richard (2003) "Label of Love: WARP", X-RAY, April 2003, Swinstead Publishing It is currently based in London. In the early 1990s, the label initially became associated with the UK's northern
bleep techno Bleep techno (or simply bleep) is a regional subgenre of techno which developed in the late 1980s in Northern England, specifically Yorkshire. Named after its minimalistic synthesizer sounds, bleep techno combined influence from American techno a ...
scene, including acts such as LFO, Sweet Exorcist, Forgemasters and Nightmares on Wax. The 1992 label compilation ''
Artificial Intelligence Artificial intelligence (AI) is intelligence—perceiving, synthesizing, and inferring information—demonstrated by machine A machine is a physical system using Power (physics), power to apply Force, forces and control Motion, moveme ...
'' helped establish the electronic subgenre known as intelligent dance music (IDM). Subsequently, Warp became the home of influential acts such as Aphex Twin, Autechre, Squarepusher, and Boards of Canada. Current artists signed to the label include Flying Lotus, Oneohtrix Point Never, Danny Brown, Brian Eno, Hudson Mohawke, Kelela and Yves Tumor. In 2004, Warp opened the online store Bleep.com, which sells downloadable music free of digital rights management (DRM) features.


History


1989–1991: Bleep techno

Warp was founded amidst the development of Northern England's "
bleep techno Bleep techno (or simply bleep) is a regional subgenre of techno which developed in the late 1980s in Northern England, specifically Yorkshire. Named after its minimalistic synthesizer sounds, bleep techno combined influence from American techno a ...
" scene, often characterized as the first uniquely British rave style. While drawing influence from American
techno Techno is a Music genre, genre of electronic dance music (EDM) which is generally music production, produced for use in a continuous DJ set, with tempo often varying between 120 and 150 beats per minute (bpm). The central Drum beat, rhythm is typ ...
and house, bleep artists also utilized electro-style synthesizer sounds and unusually heavy
bass Bass or Basses may refer to: Fish * Bass (fish), various saltwater and freshwater species Music * Bass (sound), describing low-frequency sound or one of several instruments in the bass range: ** Bass (instrument), including: ** Acoustic bass gui ...
. In addition to its simple synth tones (the eponymous "bleeps"), sub-bass inspired by reggae sound systems, and sparse instrumentation, bleep techno also utilised breakbeat-inspired drum machine patterns. Warp was opened in 1989 by Steve Beckett and the late Rob Mitchell, who had both gained experience working at Sheffield's FON record shop, alongside
record producer A record producer is a recording project's creative and technical leader, commanding studio time and coaching artists, and in popular genres typically creates the song's very sound and structure. Virgil Moorefield"Introduction" ''The Producer as ...
Robert Gordon. The name was chosen because the original name, 'Warped Records', was difficult to distinguish over the telephone.The first release (WAP1) was by Forgemasters (produced by Robert Gordon), whose 500 copy pressing of "Track with no Name" was financed by an Enterprise Allowance grant and distributed in a borrowed car. It set a trend for the early releases both in terms of sound, and the use of purple sleeves (designed by The Designers Republic). The follow-up was Nightmares on Wax's "Dextrous", which sold around 30,000 copies. This led to greater commercial success; by its fifth release the label had its first Top 20 chart entry with LFO and their eponymous single, "LFO", which sold 130,000 copies and peaked at No. 12 in the
UK Singles Chart The UK Singles Chart (currently titled Official Singles Chart, with the upper section more commonly known as the Official UK Top 40) is compiled by the Official Charts Company (OCC), on behalf of the British record industry, listing the top-s ...
in July 1990; by coincidence, that same month another Warp act, Tricky Disco, reached No. 14 in the UK chart with another eponymous single, "Tricky Disco". Warp's third record, "Testone" (1990) by Sweet Exorcist (
Richard H. Kirk Richard Harold Kirk (21 March 1956 – 21 September 2021) was an English musician who specialised in electronic music. His career began as a co-founder of the influential industrial music band Cabaret Voltaire, formed in 1973. He subsequently ...
and Richard Barratt), defined Sheffield's
bleep techno Bleep techno (or simply bleep) is a regional subgenre of techno which developed in the late 1980s in Northern England, specifically Yorkshire. Named after its minimalistic synthesizer sounds, bleep techno combined influence from American techno a ...
sound, by making playful use of sampled sounds from Yellow Magic Orchestra's " Computer Game" (1978) and the film '' Close Encounters of the Third Kind'' (1977). The first album released was Sweet Exorcist's ''C.C.E.P.'' in 1991. In the same year Robert Gordon left Warp acrimoniously.


1992–1999: ''Artificial Intelligence''

Warp went on to release a series of singles and albums from 1992 under the ''
Artificial Intelligence Artificial intelligence (AI) is intelligence—perceiving, synthesizing, and inferring information—demonstrated by machine A machine is a physical system using Power (physics), power to apply Force, forces and control Motion, moveme ...
'' heading, a series of experimental electronic music releases by artists such as Aphex Twin (as Diceman and later Polygon Window), Autechre, B12, The Black Dog, Richie Hawtin and Alex Paterson (of The Orb). Initially all the album releases used gatefold sleeves and coloured vinyl, often designed by The Designers Republic or Phil Wolstenholme. A VHS compilation of digitally animated music videos called ''Motion'' was released in conjunction with the second ''Artificial Intelligence'' compilation, and featured an early work by director David Slade. In 1996, Warp started the Blech club night in Sheffield, also in London between 1997 and 1999, and released an accompanying compilation CD under the same name. The artwork, created by the
Designers Republic The Designers Republic (also tDR, and styled as The Designers Republic™) is a British graphic design studio based in Sheffield, England, founded in 1986 by Ian Anderson and Nick Phillips (graphic designer), Nick Phillips. They are best kno ...
, had a distinctive Japanese
manga Manga ( Japanese: 漫画 ) are comics or graphic novels originating from Japan. Most manga conform to a style developed in Japan in the late 19th century, and the form has a long prehistory in earlier Japanese art. The term ''manga'' is use ...
influence. Blech club nights include: * Blech01 (31 Oct 1997): Seefeel with Boards of Canada * Blech 02 (28 Nov 1997): Autechre with Cylob * Blech 03 (30 Jan 1998): Plone In 1998, Warp signed Boards Of Canada, a duo that would go on to release some of the most highly revered electronic music albums of their time: '' Music Has the Right to Children'' (1998), ''
Geogaddi ''Geogaddi'' is the second studio album by Scottish electronic music duo Boards of Canada. It was released on 13 February 2002 in Japan, then five days later in Europe, by Warp. The album is aesthetically and stylistically darker than the approa ...
'' (2002), ''
The Campfire Headphase ''The Campfire Headphase'' is the third studio album by Boards of Canada. Released by Warp Records in October 2005, the album featured the addition of more organic musical elements, including heavily treated acoustic guitars and more conventional ...
'' (2005) and '' Tomorrow's Harvest'' (2013). In 1999, the label released '' Warp 10: Influences, Classics, Remixes'', a compilation spanning six discs, featuring early
acid house Acid house (also simply known as just "acid") is a subgenre of house music developed around the mid-1980s by DJs from Chicago. The style is defined primarily by the squelching sounds and basslines of the Roland TB-303 electronic bass synthes ...
and techno music that influenced the label and its artists, as well as tracks from Warp's back catalogue, and new remixes of Warp material. The collection celebrated the label's tenth anniversary.


2000–2009

In 2000, the label moved its operations to London along with its physical music and merchandise store Warpmart. Co-founder Rob Mitchell was diagnosed with cancer in early 2001. He died later that year, aged 38. In January 2004, Warp launched an online digital music and entertainment store, Bleep.com, notable for being the first store in the world to completely avoid all digital rights management features in the downloadable tracks, unlike other music stores such as iTunes and Rhapsody. Warpmart has now been absorbed into Bleep.com. Today Bleep sells a carefully curated selection of music from a diverse range of labels. The site has also released its own limited edition LPs The Green Series, and an annual digital release comprising the Top 100 tracks of each year. On 27 September 2004, Warp released its second music video compilation, named '' WarpVision'', featuring most of the videos produced from 1989 to 2004. 2005 saw the release of ''Warp'', the first book in the
Labels Unlimited ''Labels Unlimited'' is a series of books designed to give an illustrated overview of influential record labels. Publications *''Warp'' by Rob Young (Black Dog Publishing, 2005: ) *''Rough Trade'' by Rob Young (Black Dog Publishing, 2006: ) *' ...
series. Written by Rob Young, the book gave an illustrated history of the label, as well as offering a complete discography. The Warp website said the book was "A very beautiful thing and like our very own This Is Your Life",West, Paul (Spring 2006)
Eye Magazine , Review , Behind the bleeps
''eyemagazine.com''. Retrieved on 26 February 2013.
referring to the ''
This Is Your Life This Is Your Life may refer to: Television * ''This Is Your Life'' (American franchise), an American radio and television documentary biography series hosted by Ralph Edwards * ''This Is Your Life'' (Australian TV series), the Australian versio ...
'' UK TV series. The label continued to expand its roster, signing acts including
!!! !!! ( ), also known as Chk Chk Chk, is an American rock band from Sacramento, California, formed in 1996 by lead singer Nic Offer. Members of !!! came from other local bands such as the Yah Mos, Black Liquorice and Pope Smashers. They are curre ...
, Battles, Born Ruffians, Maxïmo Park, Gravenhurst and Grizzly Bear. For the label's 20th anniversary in 2009, several Warp20 concerts took place in Paris, New York City, Sheffield, Tokyo, Berlin and London. Warp also celebrated by releasing the Warp20 box set, composed of six parts: * ''Warp20 (1989-2009) The Complete Catalogue'': a 192-page book of artwork from every Warp release since the label began. * ''Warp20 (Chosen)'': a double CD album, with ten songs chosen by Warp fans and ten chosen by founder Steve Beckett * ''Warp20 (Recreated)'': a double CD album that included twenty brand new cover versions of Warp songs by Warp artists past and present * ''Warp20 (Unheard)'': a triple 10" vinyl set of unheard tracks from artists such as Boards Of Canada, Autechre and Broadcast. * ''Warp20 (Elemental)'': a CD album featuring an hour-long piece by
Osymyso Osymyso (real name Mark Nicholson) is a musician and DJ from the United Kingdom who specialises in the genres of mashup / bastard pop and breakbeat. He has been making music since 1994 and released his first album, '' Welcome to the Pailindrome'' ...
, made from sections, samples and fragments of Warp music from the previous twenty years. * ''Warp20 (Infinite)'': a double 10" vinyl of loops from Warp tracks.


2010–present

Warp continued to release albums, from artists such as Hudson Mohawke, Flying Lotus, Mark Pritchard, Bibio, Jamie Lidell, Lonelady,
Leila Leila may refer to: *Leila (name), a female given name, including a list of people with the name and its variants Film and television * ''Leila'' (1997 film), an Iranian film * ''Leïla'' (2001 film), a Danish film * ''Leila'' (TV series), a ...
, and
Gonjasufi Sumach Ecks (born 1978), better known by his stage name Gonjasufi, is an American vocalist, producer, disc jockey, and yogi. Life and career Ecks was born in 1978 to a Mexican mother and an American-Ethiopian father. He spent his formative yea ...
. Signings included Brian Eno, Oneohtrix Point Never, Mount Kimbie,
Kwes. Kwes (; sometimes stylised as ''kwes'', ''kwes.'', ''Kwes.'' or '' =o'' ) is a British music producer and artist from London, England. Kwes is also currently signed to Warp as a solo artist and released his debut album, '' ilp'' in October 2013 ...
, Darkstar, Kelela, patten and Jeremiah Jae. 2013 saw the release of Broadcast's album '' Berberian Sound Studio,'' the soundtrack to the film of the same name. Warp released a split remix 12" for Record Store Day, which was a collaboration between Brian Eno, Nicolas Jaar and Grizzly Bear. In March, Autechre broadcast two 10-hour radio shows to celebrate the release of their 11th album, ''
Exai ''Exai'' is the eleventh album by electronic music duo Autechre, released on Warp Records. The double album was released in digital form on 7 February 2013, with double CD and quadruple vinyl versions released on 5 March 2013. At the time of its ...
''. Boards of Canada's fourth studio album ''Tomorrow's Harvest'' charted worldwide, reaching No. 7 in the UK Albums Chart, and No. 13 in the US
Billboard 200 The ''Billboard'' 200 is a record chart ranking the 200 most popular music albums and EPs in the United States. It is published weekly by ''Billboard'' magazine and is frequently used to convey the popularity of an artist or groups of artist ...
– vinyl reissues of their albums and EPs followed in October and November. Nightmares On Wax (George Evelyn) released his first album in five years, entitled ''Feelin' Good'', and followed this with one of his biggest ever international tours, with a live band. In 2013, Warp also won Independent Label Of The Year at the AIM Awards. In October of that year, to coincide with the ''Universal Everything & You - Drawing in Motion'' exhibition running at the National Media Museum's Media Space at
Science Museum, London The Science Museum is a major museum on Exhibition Road in South Kensington, London. It was founded in 1857 and is one of the city's major tourist attractions, attracting 3.3 million visitors annually in 2019. Like other publicly funde ...
, a 20-minute piece created by Simon Pyke (Freeform), built upon the foundations of the exhibition soundtrack, was released. In December 2013 Warp collaborated with Tate Britain to present a free evening of performance and installations, ''Warp x Tate'', alongside artist Jeremy Deller, inspired by Deller's work 'The History of the World', with contributions from Oneohtrix Point Never, Patten, Darkstar, Hudson Mohawke and Rustie. In 2019, WARP celebrated their 30th anniversary (stylized as WXAXRXP, a combination of WARP and the roman numeral for 30 (XXX)) with 3 days straight of broadcasts on NTS Radio featuring old radio performances by various artists (as well as a few new ones). In addition WARP released a 10 ep set (vinyl-only) of 20 minute radio sessions, featuring (among other things) Aphex Twin's 1995 Peel Session and a version Boards Of Canada's 2001 Peel Session that included the final track (XYZ, which was cut from almost all previous releases of the EP).


Music videos

Warp has released a number of ground-breaking and original videos that have launched their directors' careers. Much of these videos were compiled for the 2004 '' WarpVision: The Videos 1989-2004'' DVD. Pulp frontman Jarvis Cocker directed some of Warp's earliest videos while at London's Central Saint Martins art school, including LFO's eponymous " LFO" in 1990, Nightmares On Wax's " Aftermath" in 1991, and Aphex Twin's 1993 single " On".
Chris Cunningham Chris Cunningham (born 15 October 1970) is a British video artist and music video director, best known for his music videos for electronic musicians such as Autechre, Squarepusher, and most notably Aphex Twin on videos for "Windowlicker" and " ...
is a frequent collaborator with Warp artists. He has directed videos for Aphex Twin's 1997 single " Come to Daddy" and 1999's " Windowlicker", as well as "
Come On My Selector ''Big Loada'' is an EP by English electronic musician Squarepusher. It was released on 21 July 1997 by Warp in the United Kingdom. It was later released, with an expanded track listing, on 13 October 1998 by Nothing Records in the United States ...
" by Squarepusher and "Second Bad Vilbel" by Autechre. "Come To Daddy" was chosen by Pitchfork as the best video of the 1990s, and "Windowlicker" was nominated for Best British Video at the
2000 Brit Awards Brit Awards 2000 was the 20th edition of the Brit Awards, an annual pop music awards ceremony in the United Kingdom. They are run by the British Phonographic Industry and took place on 3 March 2000 at Earls Court in London. Performances Winn ...
. Cunningham's short film ''
Rubber Johnny ''Rubber Johnny'' is a 2005 British experimental film, experimental short film/music video written, directed, and produced by Chris Cunningham. Plot The film, entirely presented in infrared vision, begins with an out-of-focus closeup of Johnn ...
'', soundtracked by Aphex Twin, was distributed by Warp Films in 2005. In 2013, Kahlil Joseph's short film for Flying Lotus' "Until The Quiet Comes" won a Short Film Special Jury Award at the 2013 Sundance Film Festival and Video of the Year at the 2013 UK Music Video Awards. On 12 April, Adam Buxton hosted BUG: Warp Records Special at the
BFI Southbank, London BFI Southbank (from 1951 to 2007, known as the National Film Theatre) is the leading repertory cinema in the UK, specialising in seasons of classic, independent and non-English language films. It is operated by the British Film Institute. Hist ...
, as part of Warp Films' 10th Anniversary.


Artists past and present


Warp subsidiaries and partnerships

Warp launched a film company, Warp Films (which also shares staff with Warp X) and digital download store Bleep in 2004. Bleep carries music from a number of smaller labels as well as Warp. In 2009, Warpmart was incorporated into Bleep, which now sells downloads, physical releases and merchandise from hundreds of record labels. Bleep also operates a record imprint of Warp. A number of music sub labels have also been set up by Warp, namely
Lex Records Lex Records is a British independent record label based in Camden, London, England. Style Lex has a varied musical output. Most releases are alternative hip hop, alternative rock or electronic. The label works with a small group of artists. ...
(now operates independently from Warp),
Gift Records Warp Records (or simply Warp) is a British independent record label founded in Sheffield in 1989 by record store employees Steve Beckett and Rob Mitchell and record producer Robert Gordon.Southern, Richard (2003) "Label of Love: WARP", X-RAY, ...
and
Arcola Arcola may refer to: Places ; Australia * Arcola, Grafton, a heritage-listed house in New South Wales ;Canada * Arcola, Saskatchewan, a town in the Province of Saskatchewan * Arcola Airport, an airport in the Province of Saskatchewan ;England * Ar ...
. Warp assists in the distribution of certain records released by LuckyMe and Night Slugs/Fade To Mind; the aforementioned labels are partner labels (not imprints) of Warp.


Selected discography


Artificial Intelligence Series

* ''Artificial Intelligence'' (WARP 6, 1992) * Polygon Window – ''
Surfing On Sine Waves ''Surfing on Sine Waves'' is a studio album by Polygon Window, a pseudonym for the English electronic music producer Richard D. James, better known by the alias Aphex Twin. It was originally released on 11 January 1993 by Warp. It is the second ...
'' (WARP 7, 1992) * Black Dog Productions''Bytes'' (WARP 8, 1993) * B12 – '' Electro-Soma'' (WARP 9, 1993) * FUSE – '' Dimension Intrusion'' (WARP 12, 1993) * Speedy J''Ginger'' (WARP 14, 1993) * Autechre''Incunabula'' (WARP 17, 1993) * '' Artificial Intelligence II'' (WARP 23, 1994)


Compilation albums


See also

* List of record labels * List of electronic music record labels * List of independent UK record labels * Intelligent dance music


Notes


References


External links

* – official site * – official site (a now independent abstract hip-hop label that branched off from Warp) *
Warp
feature story in ''
Guardian Guardian usually refers to: * Legal guardian, a person with the authority and duty to care for the interests of another * ''The Guardian'', a British daily newspaper (The) Guardian(s) may also refer to: Places * Guardian, West Virginia, Unite ...
Music Weekly''
A Warped Mind : Steve Beckett On Running A Label Legend
- IASs Blog, 27 January 2015 {{DEFAULTSORT:Warp (record label) Electronic music record labels British independent record labels Music in Sheffield Record labels established in 1989