WARP REMIXES
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- In fact NOW's first album in 1991, A Word Of Science, contained elements of four tracks on Smokers, while the single "A Case Of Funk" (heard on Classics) played with the kind of jazz/soul bytes found later on Mo Wax releases.
- We're working on a new album at the moment in a little studio in Waterloo and we're hopefully going to record that by the end of the year. At the moment the name is Our Aim Is To Satisfy - Red Snapper. A friend of ours, on holiday in Texas, found a diner with a huge neon sign saying that. He took a photo of it and it seems to suit what we're going through at the moment (laughs)."
Warp's anniversary Remixes compilation features 26 (mostly unreleased) versions of tracks from the label's catalogue. Warp veterans, like Autechre, Plaid and Jimi Tenor remodel tunes by Nightmares On Wax, Autechre and Sweet Exorcist (respectively).
One surprise is that a lot of the guest remixers from other labels come from that illusive category of "post rock." These are the guitar bands with dancing and lounging pretensions like Stereolab, Pram, Four Tet and Tortoise's John McEntire, that some say Warp is leaning towards with their new signings of Broadcast and Plone. Rumours are even circulating that Warp are wanting to sign Scotland's Mogwai, who smudge the delicate lines of Link aka Reload/Global Communication's idm classic "Arcadian" with Slowdive-style shoe-gazing guitars. I'm not overly enamoured of "post rock," hearing only retreads of shoegazing and Sonic Youth on the "rock" side, and nothing that This Heat or Faust didn't do twenty years ago on the "experimental" side.
More pleasing on Remixes are the breaks and funk tracks from producers with more experience with rhythms than the dilletantes from the guitar bands. The highlights include Winston & Ross' robotic dancehall remix of Sweet Exorcist's "Testone" and Luke Vibert's lively remake of DJ Mink's Coldcut-style "Hey Hey! Can U Relate?" (although the "Sunshine Dub Instrumental" mix by Fon Studio/Moloko's Mark Brydon and DJ Parrot on the flip, had the Warp techno flavour).
The DJ Mink release was Warp's fourth single, which was the first indication that they didn't intend to just release "bleep" records. Many people seem to forget the breaks/funk side of Warp's early output (heard previously on the Evolution Of The Groove comp), thinking that the downtempo grooves of Nightmares On Wax's 1995 hit album Smokers Delight arrived with the then-new trip hop scene.
When the Mo Wax sound was sparking a renewed interest in breaks in 1994, Warp responded by signing Red Snapper. The group's acoustic bass-led jazz-funk/hip hop grooves were first heard on three independent singles, which Warp collected for the Reeled & Skinned CD. Stand up bass is heard everywhere now, thanks to Roni Size and many other born again jazzers, but at the time the Red Snapper sound was quite unique.
"Warp signed us on the back of our performance at Glastonbury," remembers Red Snapper bassist Ali Friend. "They were very into the sound of the drum kit and the bass. You know, the question we get asked more than anything is: "why on earth did you go to a label who does bleep music?" And they don't just do bleep music, they do everything. Everything which is unusual and pretty well anything which another label is unlikely to take up, they'll go for. Which is positive. And ten years down the line they have produced some of the most ground-breaking and inspiring music. People like Aphex Twin, but also Nightmares On Wax, one of their first signings."
One of Red Snapper's early tracks, "Hot Flush" had been remixed by Andy Weatherall (who also borrowed their drummer Richard Thair for the live gigs of his band Sabres Of Paradise). For the Remix collection Red Snapper chose to interpret Weatherall's off-the-wall track "Wilmot" which broke with the Sabres' techno/trance past by sampling a jaunty muted-horn melody from a Mexican mariachi tune. "Wilmot"'s surreal skank helped to create a weird carnival vibe for the Sabres' second album Haunted Dancehall. To emphasise this other-worldly theme "Wilmot" the single (Warp's fiftieth) sported a famous photo associated with anthropologist Zora Neale Hurston's book on zombies, Tell My Horse - Voodoo and Life in Haiti and Jamaica (also used on the French version of the first Gun Club album).
""Wilmot" is one of those tunes which was quite inspiring for us, from back in the day. It was a real risk to do it because it was such a seminal track. We approached it the way we always approach our remixes, which pretty well inevitably means that I come up with another bass line on the double bass. Playing it out works really well.
What Warp is going through now, after their special anniversary events in November, is settling into new offices in London. Yes, they've finally left Sheffield to be closer to the heart of music biz beast in the south. Hopefully when they get their truck load of money from the bogus L.F.O. they'll be investing in more wild Aphex Twin videos, subversive Squarepusher tunes and classic LFO sub-bass.
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