TWO AND A HALF STARS
Various Artists
Warp 10+2: Classics 89-92
Matador
1999

In the early nineties, the artists on the U.K. label Warp dogmatically embraced the kind of R2D2 stylings that techno has since tried to evolve beyond: The Warp sound is gloriously bleepy, as thinly mechanical and hypermelodic as the chime of a Casio watch but often filled with poignant beauty.

This reissue and remix series, ostensibly a celebration of Warp's tenth anniversary, is also the first domestic collection of a plethora of classic techno tunes. Influences, featuring non-Warp tracks that inspired the label's artists, is wild and often gorgeous -- the indisputable highlight is the marimbalike melody of A Guy Called Gerald's slyly beautiful "Voodoo Ray." The tracks on Classics, from the Forgemasters' dreamy "Track With No Name" to DJ Mink's scratch-happy hip-hop-house number "Hey Hey! Can You Relate?,'' distill electro, house and acid house into one tuneful strain of cybernetic funk. Unfortunately, Remixes proves that tinnitus-inducing artists like LaBradford can turn challenging music into truly difficult listening.

LFO, who shouldn't be confused with the present-day Abercrombie & Fitch-hop trio of the same name, were Warp's resident geniuses. Their eponymous track, included on Classics, is haunted by the same kind of troubled groove that pervaded Sly and the Family Stone's There's a Riot Goin' On. "LFO,'' like most of the Warp 10 series, is indispensable because it crystallizes one of the most compelling dichotomies in techno: It's machine music that sounds, to borrow a phrase from Rob Zombie, more human than human. (RS 824)

PAT BLASHILL

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(Posted: Oct 28, 1999)