Warp Records

Profile:

British electronic label.

Founded by Robert Gordon, Warp (originally to be named Warped, but shortened for communication ease, and later expanded by the backronym "We Are Reasonable People"), is one of the world's most respected, influential, and loved electronic/experimental dance labels. After many years in Sheffield, UK, they later moved to and are based in London, UK.

Bleep.com, Warp's digital music sales site, was also pioneering in being amongst the first to provide high-quality variable bit rate MP3s for sale (later FLAC and other lossless formats). It ed a slew of attempts at selling music online, and included exclusive tracks, samplings of forthcoming albums, and rarities.

UK label, label code: LC 2070 / LC 02070.

Related labels:
Night Slugs - Warp partner labels.

In winter 2005, the book "Warp" by Rob Young was released as the first volume in the "Labels Unlimited" series. It gives a fully illustrated overview of the label's history and also confirms the following gaps in the cat#'s, though with some mistakes:

Albums:
WARP 13 / WARP 99 / WARP 113 - no releases.
WARP 93 - Priest "Untitled" (unreleased).
WARP 109 - Squarepusher "Budakhan Maximized" (unreleased).
WARP 118 - Chris Morris "Blue Jam II" (unreleased).

Singles:
WAP 13 - supposedly unreleased, but some copies of WARP LP 1 were pressed with this cat#.
WAP 30 - flyer for WARP Party at the Leill, Sheffield, Fri 8 Jan 1993.
WAP 85 - is given to Take Me Baby" but was never used, as it was actually released by Rough Trade with no Warp cat# on the release.
WAP 99 - unique set of artwork by The Designers Republic (tDR).
WAP 113 / WAP 131 / WAP 143 / WAP 148 - no releases.


NOTE: Many Warp releases were licensed to record labels outside the UK. Some of these releases include a Warp cat# as well as their own. These labels include:
- Indisc - usually uses the Warp cat# with an extra 107 before the number in addition to the Indisc cat#. Sometimes it uses just a Warp cat#.
- Zomba Records - uses the Warp cat# on releases that use the Warp label code in addition to the RTD 126.XXXX.X cat#. Prior to this when the releases featured the RTD/Zomba label code (LC 5661) the Warp cat# did not appear.

Parent Label:

Warp Records Limited

Sublabels:

Warp20 (Classics²), ...

Info:

(current)
Warp Records
PO Box 25378
London NW5 1GL
UK

(obsolete)
Warp Records
PO Box 474
Sheffield
S1 3BW
UK

(obsolete)
tel: +44 (0)742 757586
fax: +44 (0)742 757589

Manufacturer

Warp Records Spectrum House 32-34 Gordon House Road London, NW5 1LP UNITED KINGDOM https://discogs.suserie.com/cdn-cgi/l/email-protection" class="__cf_email__" data-cfemail="8aefeee3fee5f8cafdebf8faf8efe9e5f8eef9a4e9e5e7">[email protected]

Manufacturer EU

https://discogs.suserie.com/cdn-cgi/l/email-protection" class="__cf_email__" data-cfemail="c7a2a3aeb3a8b587b0a6b5b7b5a2a4a8b5a3b4e9a4a8aa">[email protected]

Links:

warp.net , warppublishing.net , Bandcamp , earth.warp.net , Facebook , Facebook , Instagram , MySpace , Soundcloud , Soundcloud , Tumblr , X , X , Vimeo , Wikipedia , YouTube

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Reviews

  • hifur's avatar
    hifur
    Edited 2 years ago
    Anyone notice WARP 13 and WARP 93 aren't around anywhere? Nonetheless, very good label.
    • JUSTGROOVES's avatar
      JUSTGROOVES
      Does anybody know why there's not a WAP 30? (vinyl single). Seem to miss that number out.
      • Bayoo's avatar
        Bayoo
        Warp Records is very ahead of it’s time. Their releases are great.
        • Trevor-Nichols
          Warp Records, in my opinion, is the Fertile Crescent of amazing music.
          • crapsearch's avatar
            crapsearch
            cannot make up a reason why people go on with this warp bashing ...having lost its soul....blabla
            Its a cradle of great music, was is and will be exclamation mark
            dug into their sound midnineties so i´m no first gen, and maybe the ol´rave sound is not there anymore, but hey you can listen over the old stuff again! Thank you for Battles, Bibio, Hudson Mohawke, Grizzly Bear, Kelly Moran and countless others. Sure every artist tends to undulate in of quality and some releases of previously marvellous artists seem to lower warps overall quality - but this means in turn they keep up loyalty to their gs and don´t just kick ´em out on a low.
            WARP YEAH WARP!!!!
            • kristopher.gif's avatar
              kristopher.gif
              Decent year for the label, but if it weren''t for Autechre and g Squid (that band will go places), it would look worse, since Lorenzo Senni, Darkstar, Yves Tumor and Bibio were average at best. OPNs new album is great, though.
              • hyperpowered23's avatar
                hyperpowered23
                idk about you guys, but i still believe warp records is still going strong with some very strong releases; Lorenzo Senni's new LP and Bibio's minialbum come to mind in the last several months alone.
                • SudoMusic's avatar
                  SudoMusic
                  Nothing lasts forever guys. All the greats have come and gone WARP is no different. Thanks for all the great music and artist who's styles I've always found most intriguing. I'm always 7 years behind anyway so I have no idea what's new but I'm sure it's crap at least for the next 7 years.
                  • elekktro's avatar
                    elekktro
                    Which is why i have decided its time to sell my warp records collection. I stopped collecting after about 125 releases on vinyl. Managed to get many promos and rarities but i would agree with most that it lost its way many years ago. They are now following the money and making more for the film industry.
                    • cornejod's avatar
                      cornejod
                      Did it ever occur to anybody that the new bands issuing repetitive , crappy music that fans of Warp despise so much, could be the result of larger labels with more cash attracting the types of bands that "would have been cool" on Warp? Another possibility could be that this is the type of crap that most bands are putting out now - even the venerable ones from yesteryear, as they are too afraid to create something new, and prefer to put out the same shit everybody else does, just to be safe and keep those checks coming. When you are 20 something and put out a crap record, you have nothing to lose. When you are 30 -40 something and you've put out successful records in the past decade, you now have much to lose if you try being a 20 something and put out something that could now wreck your career. Ask Sir Macca.