IT WAS A DECADE IN WHICH A GROWING ARMY OF FACELESS TECHNO ACTS COULD SUDDENLY MAKE MUSIC ON CHEAP SYNTHS AND DRUM MACHINES. AS DANCE MUSIC BEEPED AND BLEEPED TO THE FORE, WARP BECAME A BEACON FOR THEM, SWEEPING UP THE BEST AND LAUNCHING THE CAREERS OF MANY A SEMINAL NAME, NOT TO MENTION THE VERY GENRES IN WHICH THEY OPERATED…

ANDY JONES

You could easily see Warp’s emergence in 1989 as the next chapter of an electronic music story that started in its home city of Sheffield back in the 70s. At that time, creatively-minded youths would meet at the influential Meatwhistle workshop and would end up – highlighting the greatest argument for funding youth centres that we’ve ever heard – forming the likes of Clock DVA, The Human League and Cabaret Voltaire, spilling their various industrial electronic music wares onto the streets of Sheffield and beyond for the next decade and more. And while Warp’s story is not really the direct sequel, it certainly contains large crumbs of that legacy, and the industrial heritage of Sheffield that contributed so much towards it.

Warp was formed by Steve Beckett and Rob Mitchell who worked in the city’s FON record shop, and Robert Gordon, who was a successful engineer/producer at the associated FON Studios. The studio was originally set up by the band Chakk, who have one of the most obvious links back to that first wave of electronica in Sheffield, as their debut single was produced by Cabaret Voltaire’s Richard H Kirk. The band ultimately didn’t have enough commercial success but did leave the FON name (from ‘F*** Off Nazis’ –a piece of 1940s Sheffield graffiti) with the studio who were fast becoming successful in their own right, as were the associated record label and shop. With FON attracting big names for recording – everyone from more underground names including In The Nursery and Age Of Chance to popsters such as Erasure, Pop Will Eat Itself and Yazz came through their doors – Gordon was honing his production skills.

Everything was in place for a new start: a recording studio and producer, a label to release and even a shop to sell their wares, but Steve, Robert and Rob’s initial idea for Warp wasn’t so much as a label, but simply a way of spreading the word about the music that they loved – ‘dance music’ or ‘techno’. Remember those heady days when just a couple of names covered a multitude of styles?