An innocuous branch of Costa Coffee is perhaps not the most obvious place to consider as the birthplace of a seminal record label. But the shop housing the coffee chain on Division Street was once home to FON.
Owned by Steve Beckett and the late Rob Mitchell, it was this small shop and their vision that became Warp; firstly a record label and shop, and latterly an absolute empire of creativity.
Beckett and Mitchell were operating in Sheffield at a time where Northern England was throbbing to the beats of techno and acid house.
Tom Panton, Head of Live at the label, explains more: “Local DJs were making tracks that crossed the Detroit and Chicago template with elements of the Sheffield/Leeds/Bradford dub soundsystem culture, such as cavernous echo and massive bass.
“I think Steve and Rob’s only gameplan at that point was to release kickass dance tracks that slayed dancefloors.”
And so, from a small Sheffield office in 1989, came one of the most imaginative, broad and respected labels in the music industry.
Their first release was a limited run of 500 copies of Forgemasters’ ‘Track With No Name’, and was clad in Warp’s simple, distinctive, and eminently covetable purple record sleeve, which had been created by Sheffield graphic design company The Designers Republic.
The Warp purple globe soon became a signature of quality; what was within the packaging was going to be some of the most cutting-edge music it would be possible to hear.
Despite minimal promotion, their next release by Nightmares on Wax shifted 30,000 copies, and by 1991 Sweet Exorcist’s C.C.E.P. became the label’s first proper album release.
Panton takes up the story from here: “It was really the Artificial Intelligence series of albums in the early ’90s that marked the point of evolution of Warp into an album-based label that develops artists’ careers, which is still the heart of what we do right now in 2009.”
The series saw the likes of Aphex Twin, Autechre, The Orb and The Black Dog producing what the label described as ‘electronic listening music’; away from the club scene and towards an exploration of the ambient possibilities of electro.
Having been based in The Workstation until 2000, the label had to depart South Yorkshire and take up residency in the capital.
The need to be available to their international artists when they had only a limited time in the UK meant that Warp Records packed up the Sheffield base and headed to the bright lights of London.
The Warp presence never fully left the city as Warp Films and Warp X remain, but the record label was by this time so important that it made business sense to reside in the music industry’s commercial heart.
Looking at the label’s formidable roster, it seems impossible to shove its 400+ album and single releases into one, slightly awkward category. It’s a place where Jamie Lidell, Maximo Park, Boards of Canada and Squarepusher have all called home, and where the general ethos seems to be “Well, we like it, so let’s release it.”
“In terms of acts, Steve just signs whatever moves him and he finds exciting, regardless of genre,” says Panton.
“This was Rob’s ethos as well (he signed Vincent Gallo, Broadcast and others). The commonality is that they are all interesting or intriguing in their own field, and among the best in whatever genre they operate in.”
With such an avid interest in housing an eclectic bunch of cross-platform working artists, and the complete lack of boundaries between music, film and art, it seemed inevitable that Warp Records would spawn numerous offshoots.
Gift Records released Pulp, Arcola releases 12 inch vinyl dance singles, and Lex Records caters for mainly hip-hop; being the UK outlet for DOOM, Neon Neon and Subtle, amongst many more.
Warp beat the likes of iTunes to the gun when it came to making mp3s available free of DRM (Digital Rights Management), via its Bleep online store, and Beckett also helped set up Warp Films with Mark Herbert, the managing director of Warp Films/Warp X, to follow the record label’s ethos of giving artists freedom and being an independent.
All the Warp divisions share close relationships:
“Mark Herbert has been involved with Warp since the mid ’90s so he’s informed by the same creative processes that he’s applied to artists like Brass Eye’s Chris Morris, and This Is England’s Shane Meadows,” says Panton.
“Steve and the other company director Kev are really hands on with all the various divisions of the company, and we’ve recently relaunched all of their websites as Warp.net to reflect how we’re trying to bring it all together as simply ‘Warp’.”
Panton is also able to assure that the current buzz-topic, the dreaded “credit crunch”, isn’t yet proving disastrous for the independent company.
“Warp’s method for survival is the same now as it’s always operated – as a lean, mobile company, that is able to react quickly to changes that it faces. Of course it’s tough, but keeping the quality of output high and looking after our fans means that we do OK,” he says.
“Launching Bleep in 2004 was a real conscious decision to cater to demand from our fanbase for high quality digital files with no DRM and they loved it.
“There has been a downturn in sales of physical recorded music, but digital sales go a lot of the way to compensate, and Warp does proportionately better every year in licensing music to film, TV, advertising, and the creative use of music in other areas.
“So it’s more of a gradual paradigm shift that has been going on for a
few years now, rather than a sudden crash like in other industries.”
So, economic misery aside, 2009 is a year for Warp Records to be celebrating. Panton teasingly refuses to disclose the full 20th birthday party plans, although we do know that the purple globe is going global in honour of its two decades.
We’ve already seen the Aphex Twin-led Parisian bash, and we’re promised a return to its Sheffield home on the actual birthday weekend in August. Fans are able to vote for their definitive Warp songs, and the results will see the creation of a compilation co-curated by the fans and Beckett.
It might be best to give the last word on Warp Records, one of the most stunningly open-minded, genre-defying, and stylish labels around, to the co-founder himself.
According to Panton, Steve Beckett’s attitude is that “Warp should be seen simply as an interesting company releasing interesting art and music.
“There’s no way that everyone is meant to like all the output, but you should feel like it’s worth checking out and listening to, whether or not you end up liking it.”
Warp Records’ official website
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