Warp Factor 20

This week I've been writing about the financial problems of Nicolas Cage and been wholly unsettled by Paranormal Activity. So it was something of a relief to immerse myself in the world of Warp Records this morning, in preparation for speaking to George Evelyn, he of Nightmares On Wax fame, about the worldwide Warp20 celebrations.

Warp is no longer a Sheffield label of course, but I can clearly remember going into their record shop in Sheffield in my early 20s and being utterly terrified by a) the records they were playing and b) the cool people looking at the floppy fringed indie kid (ie, me - I really hope I wasn't wearing my Kingmaker T-Shirt) nervously flicking through the vinyl.

Anyway, seeing as everyone is doing end of year/decade lists, here are my Top 5 Warp tunes from the past 20 years, in no particular order. Most of them are on the Warp20 boxset, which, ahem, would be a rather good Christmas present for a once inquisitive indie kid who's now very much in his thirties...

1. Nightmares On Wax: Nights Interlude/Les Nuits

My memory of the mid 1990s is, er, hazy. But I'm pretty sure I came home from Sheffield that time with Smokers Delight tucked under my arm. This was the fantastically chilled out first track from that record, destined to soundtrack a million holiday programmes featuring desert islands. It was also on his follow up album as Les Nuits, too. I never quite understood that, but Evelyn told me this afternoon that Les Nuits is with a full live orchestra. Record DNA fans will be interested to learn Nights Interlude is based around a sample of a Quincy Jones track, which is in itself a cover of Summer In The City by The Loving Spoonfuls.

2. LFO: LFO

Again, this takes me back to my days as a student in Yorkshire. Not least because the possibly more famous remix (no video, sadly) is called the Leeds Warehouse mix, and I used to frequent that very club. Fantastically Kraftwerkian synths give way to a properly mean, deep bass breakdown. Perhaps all dubstep comes from here.

3. Aphex Twin: Windowlicker (video not safe for work!)

No Warp list would be complete without an Aphex Twin track. I've always filed him under 'easy to admire, difficult to love' and he is often wilfully unlistenable. But Windowlicker is intriguing beyond the headline-grabbing and unsettling Chris Cunningham video (I didn't realise until today it had a four-minute spoken word intro - without it you can see why its take-off of hip hop bling was misconstrued as being misogynistic). Back then it sounded like nothing else on earth, now it sounds like it could the backing to a pop song Justin Timberlake might sing over. So much of The Neptunes' sound surely came from this song.

4. Maximo Park: Apply Some Pressure

Walking into the Warp shop, my 20-year old indie kid self would have loved this. So there's something very satisfying about this bouncy pop song ending up being massively out of place on the Warp label. I know, I could have included Boards Of Canada or Squarepusher, or Autechre. But for a while at least, Maximo Park were a great indie-rock band. They're still a great live band. And this is them at their best.

5. Battles: Atlas

And finally, a song that seems to sum up where Warp are at now. What sounds a little like the Windowlicker vocals laid upon a thumping post-rock freak out, it somehow contains a little bit of everything Warp throughout its 20 years: the electronics, the strange sounds, the tribal percussion and most importantly, the sense that this is something completely new. I can't wait to see them live in Manchester in a few weeks.

Hooting And Howling in Suffolk

Seeing as this blog is called East Angles, so it would be a dereliction of duty if I didn't feature East Anglia at least once. I was back in Norfolk for, well, not long actually - but it was odd to see the Subversive Spaces exhibition I really enjoyed at The Whitworth in Manchester take pride of place at the Sainsbury Centre.

The real reason for being back in the land of milk and honey was to usher at my cousin Richard and his new wife Jess' beautiful wedding in Suffolk. This is supposed to be a culture blog so I won't go all Country Living on you, but I was really impressed by the way the idyllic country manor they had their reception in had not only beautifully refurbished rooms but a really sympathetic modern extension. No horrid mock Tudorness here (it's slide 36).

Anyway, we spent the best part of the rest of the week in a tiny village called Dallinghoo. A proper country retreat, where I read Sarah Waters' The Little Stranger in prep for an interview. What a fantastic ghost story/social commentary/thriller - and it got me thinking that perhaps where you read a book impacts on your enjoyment of the story. Usually, I'm sitting on a comfy leather bucket seat (no, I'm not wearing a smoking jacket at the same time) but this time I was in a 400 year-old thatched cottage in the middle of nowhere. The Little Stranger is set in a mysterious old hall, and Dallinghoo Hall was just across the field.

So for a few days we were living amongst incredibly shy wild deer, with snowy owls hooting and much howling from garrulous pheasants (that's one for the Wild Beasts fans). Fantastic stuff, made all the more interesting by the discovery of a cute gallery in Debenham down a back alley. Some lovely work in there, which if they'd been part of the Own Art scheme I might have signed up for. And now I can't find the card I picked up, so it'll forever be a lost opportunity.

And it was most serendipitous to come back to Manchester and get a commission within hours of my return to write about... a Suffolk artist. Let's say I was in the zone for this one. But going to see Maggi Hambling's work at The Lowry was a pleasure and an eye opener: as she suggests herself, she's the Constable of the sea, but there's something more modern and less twee about her work than that. I loved it. And, despite Ipswich Town, I love Suffolk, too.

An afternoon with Jarvis

Back from London/Bath/Swindon now, and what a fantastic few days it was too. I spent an afternoon in a freezing old warehouse watching Jarvis Make An Exhibition Of Himself - which involved pole dancing - for The National (see below). I played Wii Sports Resort until ungodly hours. I renewed a love for 808 State's ex:el after happening across it in my brother's CD collection. I spent a lovely hour with Samantha Harvey in Bath talking about her beautiful book The Wilderness - and then ended up wandering around my old haunts. I completely agree with Jonathan Glancey about the mock Georgian streets they've dropped onto the admittedly knackered old bus station. And finally, I landed in another old haunt - Swindon! - for the Johnstone's Paint Trophy Area Quarter Final. Blimey, what a rubbish game. But it didn't matter, we are the famous Norwich City and we're going to Wemberleee (maybe... the JPT site had Swindon winning. There wasn't that much fog...).

Anyway, hope some of you enjoy the Jarvis piece. It was a very bizarre afternoon...

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Uncommon man

Arts & Life
11 Nov 2009

A deserted, half-derelict side street on the fringes of the City of London at lunchtime. The kind of unremarkable road people pass by every day without a second glance. But today, there’s something different in the air. There’s music coming from behind...read more...

Tech Tags: Arts & Life newspaper Front Page

Sweet Billy Pilgrim + Portico Quartet, Manchester

There's a famous quote from Louis Armstrong that goes along the lines of 'if you have to ask what jazz is, you'll never know.' And certainly you could have scratched your head last night at this Sweet Billy Pilgrim and Portico Quartet gig and wondered, 'is this jazz?'. And moments later, you probably would have answered, 'does it actually matter?'

First, Sweet Billy Pilgrim. They were the token band no-one had ever heard of on the Mercury shortlist this year, but as usual with these things, completely deserved their nomination for Twice Born Men. It's a lovely record which I reviewed for Metro at the time: a bit folky, a bit proggy, a lot Elbow and, yes a bit jazzy in the switching time signatures.

The acoustics of the RNCM Theatre are incredible, which can sometimes do bands with a more traditional rock set-up a major disservice - every craggy vocal is amplified - but Sweet Billy Pilgrim rose to the occasion: There Will It End in particular sounding almost hymnal in its harmonic grace.

As they spoke of being their own roadies, getting stuck on the motorway on the way to the gig, of how their first record was annoyingly hard to get hold of, you wished that EMI would perhaps back them with a bit more cash - they deserve it. But then, they're not exactly youthful popstars with a huge hit waiting in the wings. Maybe, it's better this way.

Portico Quartet are definitely youthful. Scarily, brilliantly so. Surely it's only the inquisitive nature of youth which would encourage Nick Mulvey to buy a hang (like a mixture between a steel drum and a gamelan) at a festival, and make its uniquely mournful but somehow uplifting sound the centrepiece of his quartet.

Are they a jazz crossover band? They certainly look like they should be in a hip indie band, but anyone who grew up with indie music will have deep seated suspicion of the clattering saxophone solos on some of the tracks. This was definitely jazz. But it was never a show-off jam session: frequently, Portico Quartet sounded absolutely incredible - John Leckie has produced their new album Isla, and there's definitely an element of Radiohead to their sound, a beauty, depth and balls that means they steer well clear of the chin stroking brigade. The drumming is astonishing - you can see why the blogosphere buzz was as much from DJs as jazz fans.

Essentially, if you like Pyramid Song, and can imagine that without vocals, extended to a hypnotic eight minutes of hyperactive instrumental music, you've got Portico Quartet. And maybe, without knowing it, you've 'got' jazz, too.

Ok, this was just a test, right?

Yes, I know, I'm shamelessly self-promoting here. But I just wanted to see if it worked (you can publish on your blog from The National website direct, one click, without any html nonsense). And it clearly does. So next time I do a really long boring piece which is impenetrable online, I'll can link to the actual, more readable, paper view. Bet you can't wait, eh?

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Arts & Life
04 Nov 2009