JAMIE LIDELL
Jim
WARP 160
Warp Records 2008
10 Tracks. 37mins52secs

The past few years have seen the summer blockbuster season start earlier and earlier. June is no longer the start of summer; as far as movie producers are concerned, mid-April isn’t too early to start rolling out the action-adventures and goofy comedies. If there’s a musical equivalent of this seasonal jumping the gun to be found in the music world, it’s Jamie Lidell’s latest offering, Jim, overflowing with ecstasy and optimism more befitting of a gorgeous summer day than rainy spring.

Jim is an album about rebirth, redefinition, and happier new dawns ahead. On Out Of My System, Lidell visits the doctor, only to be told that, “I am not a machine”. Might this be a sly dismissal of the glitchy processing to be found on his previous material, both as himself and as part of Super_Collider with Christian Vogel? Continue Reading »

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AUTECHRE
Quaristice (Versions)
WARPCD333X0
Warp Records 2008
11 Tracks. 67mins49secs

By now, listeners have had some time to digest Quaristice, the latest release from Autechre, and the new (yet also classic) approach they’ve taken this time around. In contrast to the longer, more spaced-out and fleshed-out ideas found on their previous three albums, Quaristice features twenty tracks, most clocking in at less than four minutes, featuring, alternately, spastic explosions of percussion and sampling, or lush ambient synthesizer arrangements. With Quaristice (Versions), a bonus disc released with the limited edition of Quaristice, Autechre offer a glimpse at a version of the album more in line with Untilted or Draft 7.30. There are eleven tracks here, many of which last longer than seven minutes, allowing the sequences and ideas from Quaristice more time to evolve. Continue Reading »

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Dreamy electronic popster Leila is back with a new album and single, seven years after her second album, Courtesy Of Choice was released. Having released music on Richard D. James’s Rephlex and on XL Recordings, it is now Warp that will do the honours of releasing Blood, Looms & Blooms on 9 June. The album will be preceded by Mettle, a 10” EP, on 21 April.

The album features collaborations with Terry Hall and Tricky sidekick Martina Toppley Bird.

Leila is also scheduled to perform at this year’s Sonar festival in Barcelona.

Leila | Leila (MySpace) | Warp Records

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After fifteen years, Autechre still manage to surprise and inspire. On Quaristice, Sean Booth and Rob Brown turn their back to the ultra precise soundscapes that have defined their work in recent years and focus instead on a much more spontaneous and direct sound, developed from their live sets. Mark Flanagan talks to Sean Booth about how the band’s live sound has infiltrated their studio work, how him and Rob work together, what they think of live bootlegs, and being Myspace’d.

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AUTECHRE
Quaristice
WARPCD333
Warp Records 2008
20 Tracks. 73mins16secs

Warm and soothing electronic waves crushing over textured beat-less soundscapes haven’t been the staple diet of Autechre for some time, but it is exactly the angle that Sean Booth and Rob Brown have chosen to open the festivities on Quaristice. Far from the infinitely detailed sonic displays of their last three albums, Booth and Brown, now well into their second decade of collaborative work, have deflected their trajectory just enough to shine a very different light on their past work and give their sound a surprisingly playful twist.

The result is a thoroughly eclectic and colourful palette of short tracks, most of which clocking between three and five minutes, which alternates between hectic rhythmic constructions (The Plc, Plyphon, fwzE, chenc9), elegant melodic pieces (Simmm, Theswere) and granular atmospheric, textural or isolationist formations (Altibzz, Notwo, Outh9X). Continue Reading »

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HARMONIC 313
EP1
WAP231
Warp Records 2008
06 Tracks. 22mins43secs
Format: 12″/Digital

Mark Pritchard certainly needs no introduction. From his time as one half of Global Communication, responsible for one of the finest ambient albums ever released, to various other projects, solo, with Tom Middleton or others (Jedi Knights, Reload, Link or Troubleman to name but a few), he has made an undeniable mark on electronic music. His latest project sees him remodel Harmonic 33 by adding a one between the threes and move away from the down tempo, library music-infused sound he has developed with Dave Brinkworth on the pair’s two albums to turn his attention to classic Detroit techno and eighties electro pop. Continue Reading »

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CLARK
Turning Dragon
WARPCD162
Warp Records 2008
11 Tracks. 46mins35secs

Since he first appeared on the scene, in 2001, with his debut album, Clark has systematically upped the stakes with each new release, first by refocusing his sound essentially around electronics and gritty textures with Ceramics Is The Bomb and Empty The Bones Of You, then by refining his template and pushing into darker and dirtier territories with Body Riddle and its companion EPs, Throttle Furniture and Ted. With Turning Dragon, Clark steps up the pace, pushes up the experimentation levels and gets down and dirty on the dance floor.

Recorded in his apartment in Berlin, where Clark has recently moved, Turning Dragon is a much more immediate and incendiary collection, which builds on the momentum of the recent Throttle Promoter EP, yet those expecting a whole album of blasting Dirty Pixie or Kin Griff may be in for a shock. Continue Reading »

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Mark Pritchard, one of the two founding members of the legendary Global Communication and Jedi Knights, returns to Warp at the end of February with a new EP released as Harmonic 313. Moving away from the library music tones of Harmonic 33 by adding a 1 to the name, Pritchard turns his attention to Detroit and hip-hop infused dance music and adds some very contemporary flavours to the mix.

EP1, which is due out on 12” and digital download, also includes a playful aspect with all track titles shown only as colour codes to be solved. The 12” will feature five tracks, with an extra track available to download once the code has been cracked.

The EP is out on Warp Records on 28 January, with an album announced for the summer.

Mark Pritchard (MySpace) | Warp Records

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Details of the forthcoming Autechre album, their ninth, have been revealed in a recent Warpmart newsletter. The album, entitled Quaristice, is due to be released on 3 March and is the follow up to Rob Brown and Sean Booth’s 2005 Untilted album. The album will feature no less than twenty tracks. The cover, designed, for the first time since the Cichli Suite EP, by The Designers Republic, was also unveiled.

Full track listing as follow:

1. Altibzz
2. The Plc
3. IO
4. Plyphon
5. Perlence
6. SonDEremawe
7. Simmm
8. Paralel Suns
9. Steels
10. Tankakern
11. Rale
12. Fol3
13. fwzE
14. 90101-51-1
15. bnc Castl
16. Theswere
17. WNSN
18. chenc9
19. Notwo
20. Outh9X

The band will embark on a full European tour to coincide with the release of the album. Dates as follow:

FEBRUARY
29 Manchester, UK, Music Box

MARCH
01 Glasgow, UK - Arts School
02 Newcastle, UK - Digital
03 Birmingham, UK - Med Bar
04 London, UK - Venue TBC
05 Koln, Germany - Stattgarten
06 Amsterdam, Holland - Melkweg
07 Antwerp, Belgium - Petrol
08 Hamburg, Germany - Hafenklang
09 Berlin, Germany - Berghain
10 Katowice, Poland - Jazz Club
11 Budapest, Hungry - Merlin
12 Zagreb, Croatia - Kset
13 Graz, Austria - Post Garage
14 Italy - Town and venue TBC
15 Rome, Italy - Venue TBC
16 Italy - Town and venue TBC
17 Lyon, France - Epicerie Moderne
18 Strasbourg, France - La Laiterie
19 Paris, France - Rex Club
20 Geneva, Switzerland - L’Usine, Electron Festival

Autechre (MySpace) | Warp Records

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CLARK
Throttle Promoter
WAP238
Warp Records 2007
04 Tracks. 14mins39secs
Format: Digital / 12″

The press for Throttle Promoter, Clark’s newest release, has described the EP as a “surprise”, intended to pique interest for another surprise – his upcoming full-length, Turning Dragon, due January 2008. So much for months of pre-release hype, then, but it would seem that Clark has had enough of that. 2003’s Empty The Bones Of You was promoted as a more mature, darker, and more industrial Clark (still using his full name Chris Clark at the time), a promise upon which it delivered. 2006’s Body Riddle saw another reinvention of the persona, with the now-truncated Clark focusing on intricately layered, obsessively DSP’d beats, and more delicate and emotional atmospheres. Continue Reading »

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