Various Artists: Warp 10: Influences, Classics & Remixes

The electronica revolution never appeared to arrive in force, and with good reason: Most people were looking in the wrong places. The artists heralded as the "next big thing" were often just retooled versions of the same old thing. The Prodigy, The Chemical Brothers, and Fatboy Slim were, and still are, praised in part because they sound—with their blatant samples, superfluous scratching, and eager-to-please attitude—quite a bit like conventional rock acts. But the revolution has been in full effect for quite a while, so much so that vital compilations documenting the past two decades of electronic music keep showing up. Tommy Boy's Perfect Beats series collected songs from the roots of electro to Latin hip hop. Double-disc sets documented Detroit giants Derrick May and Kevin Saunderson, two respected progenitors of techno. And now the esteemed British label Warp has released a six-disc set chronicling the rise of electronica, with a focus on the British beat masters who, inspired by Detroit techno, took up the mantle themselves. While anything with a beat seems to get tagged "electronica," there's a big difference between a disco-inspired house track, with its roots in corporeal instrumentation, and the dark programming of techno. The artists who recorded for Warp have for the most part gone missing in the American popular press, perhaps because their cold beats, inspired soundscapes, and exclusively (or exclusionary) British sense of humor came across as foreign to those looking for populist revolutionaries. Yet Warp did lead the way, issuing a statement of purpose with its Artificial Intelligence series, featuring artists who worship blips, bloops, and ambient swooshes because they sound like music from the future. Of course, blips and bloops had been around for a while, both in techno and in the first generation of music-makers raised on techno. The two Influences discs include 22 tracks that inspired artists on the Sheffield-based label, including Mr. Fingers (whose "Can U Feel It" remains a highlight of the collection), Unique 3, and 808 State. Classics collects Warp's first wave of singles, including works by Nightmares On Wax, Sweet Exorcist, and LFO, whose Mark Bell is currently Björk's muse. These four discs do such a fine job of showing what Warp has done for much of its 10-year existence that the two discs of remixes—generally consisting of non-Warp artists remixing current Warp stars—serve as icing on the cake. It would have been better to just get tracks from the likes of Aphex Twin, Autechre, Boards Of Canada, Two Lone Swordsmen, and Seefeel, but it's nice to hear what's done to them by their fellow Warp mates and admirers. If you're still wondering what happened to the digital revolution, look no further: It's not all here, but what's compiled gives a good glimpse of what you may have been missing.