How do you go about reviewing a multi-disc collection which has taken on almost iconic status before it was even released? No doubt many of you, as I did, voted in Warp’s online survey which helped choose which tracks made it onto the ‘greatest hits’ component of the collection – Warp20 (Chosen). So that’s the problem I’ve been contemplating for the last few days, what can you possibly say?
Ultimately, the quality of the tracks on the (Chosen) two disc set are pretty much beyond dispute. The first disc is the top 10 tracks as voted on the aforementioned web poll and it really does read like a list of the key moments of electronic and other underground offshoot musics of the last two decades – Aphex Twin, Boards Of Canada, Battles, LFO, Luke Vibert, Autechre – you get the idea. Choosing to sequence the tracks in chart order makes for sometimes incongruous listening as 2007 processor/math-rock rubs up against 1991 Sheffield-acid, for example, but each piece lets you know exactly why it’s considered a modern classic. Disc Two sees Warp co-founder Steve Beckett present his top (14) list, again presumably in chart order. This list heads a little deeper into the back catalogue, but it’s still mostly filled by the big names – those previously listed as well as Broadcast, Flying Lotus, Nightmares On Wax. Again, no surprises that the quality is uniformly brilliant if not aesthetically uniform.
The (Recreated) collection is much easier to review, the weight of history is not quite so heavy here. Generally, it’s a much more organic affair than the ‘greatest hits’ collections, displaying the shift the label has taken from it’s purely electronic foundations. The conceit for these two discs is that currently rostered artists cover tracks from the back catalogue. While stray melodies are obviously recognisable, there’s quite a freedom taken in most of the renditions, to the point where John Callaghan’s rendition of Autechre’s ‘Tilapia’, for example, is given a new name, ‘Phylactery’, and credited as “based on”, rather than being a direct cover. So artists like Bibio or Leila (covering Boards Of Canada and Aphex Twin respectively) mix their quirky processed/acoustic minimalism (or in the latter’s case, simply sit at a solo piano) into grainy, earthy renditions. There are still heavy electronic pulses though – no-one is expecting Rustie, Luke Vibert or Clark to suddenly turn to folk, no matter how fashionable it might be! The nature of these two discs, however, means they can be sequenced in a more coherent fashion. It’s still wildly eclectic, but there are sonic connections made to help things flow.
From the four discs I have been listening to, things are very clear. Warp has never rested on its laurels – the current diversity of its artists and the manner in which they differ from its historical giants demonstrates a label that has continually evolved and moved. This is why Warp can be 20 years old and still be associated with new groundbreaking music rather than becoming an artefact of genre past. This strength means that any collection which attempts to condense a relatively long and very rich and wide history will, by definition, be all over the place stylistically. However, track by track, that collection is a mix of some of the most important pieces of music of the last two decades combined with new work of the highest, consistent quality.
Adrian Elmer
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