Warp, indé et stylé

To look at the history of the Warp label is to relive a fascinating human adventure, to understand a whole part of the electronic music of these last thirty years, and to witness its overflow on the whole of the current production.

Everything starts in the North of England at the end of the 80s. In the city of Sheffield, which already gave birth to avant-garde synthesizer pioneers such as Cabaret Voltaire or The Human League, Steve Beckett and Rob Mitchell ran the record store Fon Records. Excited by the rave movement and the second Summer of Love in 1989, they added a label to their store, which eventually disappeared, leaving only Warp Records.

His first releases are impregnated with the house music of the moment but already try to move away from the dancefloor and the rave while remaining imbued with electronic matter. In 1990, they hit their first success with the single LFO from the duo of the same name. 

Allergic to the principle of industrialization in records, Steve and Rob gradually garnered legitimacy on the techno scene and linked up with radical artists, whose creativity thumbed its nose at the commercial criteria of the majors. In exchange, Rob and Steve committed to giving them full power and protecting their stylistic freedom. Since 1994, Warp has become a prescriptive brand, offering only the best, with a singular visual universe that cultivates mystery, thanks to the work of Designer Republics' graphic designers or the young video artist Chris Cunningham, whose clips sting both the eyes and the ears.

In the early 2000's, Rob was taken by illness. The label moved to London to better anticipate the changes in music. He understood that he would no longer have the exclusivity of electronic music and that its influence would spill over to other styles, the production techniques of Warp artists becoming examples for rap and pop. With varying degrees of success, and sometimes delay, the label opened up to folk, pop, rap, rock and soul. In 2004, it created the music download service Bleep to distribute its catalog directly.

It’s necessary to wait until the year 2010 for it to bloom with all the superb new names it currently holds under its wings, from Flying Lotus to Lonelady through Gonjasufi, Oneohtrix Point Never, Hudson Mohwake... 30 years ago Warp embarked in an identified madness as it now still embarks in the most total unknown. And this is the most beautiful quality that we can expect from an independent label today.