Warped and confused

It's not all garage rock/indie pop (and ska) round here. Back in the day I'd go into Warp records at least once a week. It wasn't really my scene but through friends I listened to a lot of house/techno and from time to time would actually go forth and buy some. This involved going to the small section at the back of the shop and trying to make sense of all the identical sleeves that housed this type of music. I'll be honest, I was out of my element and often came away empty handed. I rarely persevered as most of the time the counter was swamped by a horde of acolytes all waiting to use the headphones.

Unlike the stereotype the vibe, even towards longhaired weirdoes in drainpipes, was actually pretty friendly. In contrast I remember clanging down the steps into Eastern Bloc Records in Manchester's Corn Exchange one time. On my entrance the record on the turntable screeched to a hideous stop and in the otherwise deserted shop a huddle of about five ferret faced youths in baseball caps and puffa jackets turned to stare at me. I made a perfunctory survey of the dub section and got the fuck out of there.

Anyway, the music. I've heard it catergorized as machine music and criticised for lacking emotion or human warmth. This is ridiculous as it's still humans creating it. Somehow, somewhere the cool perfection of these recordings is what, for me, seems to create the emotion. Admittedly in most cases the feeling aroused by the tracks that I really like is one of slight sadness or maybe yearning.

Beaumont Hannant: The Hunted


Still, a nice juicy two minute bass guitar solo to hang onto in "The Hunted", "Utuba" on the other hand is probably the most alien sounding, most completely created track I've ever heard.

Beaumont Hannant: Utuba