'Reachy Prints' Is Warp Heroes Plaid's 10th Album in 25 Years, and It's Freaking Great

This article was originally published on THUMP UK

If you're having a conversation about electronic music in 2014, there's a fair chance that the majority of the eye rolls will be reserved for the guy that uses the phrase "IDM." What does Intelligent Dance Music even mean now? For the 90s babies, it's hard to understand the phrase as little more than underhand snobbery, but IDM really did create a huge sea-change. Aphex Twin, Autechre, Squarepusher: monolithic names whose outputs are more archived than active these days. Not Plaid, though.

Plaid have been releasing game-changing music through Warp Records for nearly 25 years now, and this month sees the release of their 10th full length, Reachy Prints. There's no creaking of old bones or prodding awake of long dormant ideas here, either. Reachy Prints is pretty great in fact, so we caught up with them (Andy Turner and Ed Handley) ahead of the release and upcoming live show, to chat about how the duo stay inspired after all these years.

THUMP: So hey, congratulations on Reachy Prints. It's also your 10th album, which is pretty nuts. How has your working relationship grown over time? It's a long time to be making music as a duo.

Andy: I think we work together pretty well by virtue of the fact that we've known each other for so long. We know when's not a good time to work together and when is, so it seems to flow quite naturally in that respect. We work in different spaces and have done for the past year, which makes it more difficult, but we get to work together in the shed at least a couple of times a month, and in busy periods like now we're seeing each other every week. It's quite a healthy relationship, I'd say.

Ed: We can be extremely honest with each other, but as with any working relationship you also have to be sensitive the amount of time someone's put into the material. You can't obviously just rubbish it on a whim. We're like brothers. The benefit of working as a duo is that there has to be some level of compromise. In those situations, you can often come up with more interesting and less indulgent music. 

Andy: And yeah, the other side of that is being able to push each other as well. If one of us is getting a bit slack, positive words go a long way with someone you've known for that long. You know it's more than likely that they'll be sincere and honest.

I'm curious: you must have an insane body of work that never gets released, that just end up saved as jam sessions, ideas, whatever. When you do sit down to work together, are you always writing an album? 

Andy: I think it's more to do with the collective body of work; that everything flows together, which hopefully the album does to some degree. There will be some ideas that basically don't fit in with a particular album and that may be rejected in favour of creating a body of work that is something in itself, rather than just a compilation of tracks.

Ed: Generally someone will lead on a track, and if that gets rejected for whatever reason then that's a compromise, because that's been worked on for a long time. But it's for the greater good at the end of the day. Andy might write a bassline that I just think is terrible, and I have to go with it for whatever reason—and vice versa.

Andy: I think that's right. For Reachy Prints there's a few tracks that didn't really quite fit because they had a distinctly different sound. They weren't using the same technology or production techniques so they didn't end up on the final piece, and that can be quite upsetting if they're your tracks, but it's essential to make an album that makes sense.

Ed: Yeah, we write constantly. What tends to happen is that we write tracks and then play them out live, but most of those don't end up on an album. When we get up to the date for album delivery, that's around the time that we start to panic; most of the live tracks have been put onto YouTube, or we've played them to death and we're bored of them, so we end up having a manic writing session post-delivery.

Andy: A lot of the ideas that do end up on the album might have been germinating years before but they're finished. Certainly for the last two, that's been the process. I find that compressed writing time is really fun. I find the pressure is conducive to getting good material. When you have a leisurely year to write, it doesn't necessarily make it better. We function better with the pressure of having to deliver.

What about writing for live shows? 

Andy: Well, we definitely write more for the dance floor with live tracks than for the album. We want to entertain in that kind of way, so that's one big difference. It does feel like perspective. A lot of the environments we're asked to play are clubs, so we can't play anything too noodle-y because it doesn't go down well with the majority. You definitely get more freedom to experiment with an album.

Do you develop a new live show fairly regularly? Are you working on a new one for Reachy Prints?

Andy: Funnily enough, we were just discussing that now. We're working with some new controllers that have developed. It's something we've really been focusing on leading up to the Manchester show. We're aiming for a bit more freedom within the performance, particularly in trying to arrange the visual aspect of the show in such a way that it can be triggered live as much as possible. That allows us to adapt the music for the specific evening. We're using a variety of other midi controllers to give us more flexibility.

Ed: It's about trying to make it more physical. We've found over the past few years that we didn't get fully involved in the live shows. It felt a bit alienating for us—as well as those who were watching. To have a bit more physicality makes it a bit more of a challenge—upping the risk more than just a computer crashing. That adds an element of excitement every night.

I personally find live techno shows are most interesting when there's a strong element of improvisation. When the live show isn't just a slavish play-by-play of album tracks.

Ed: I think the improvisational element of it will be quite apparent this time. We've been getting a little bit bored and disconnected when we've been playing older material that just sounds like album material. Striking a balance is important in keeping ourselves interested, so improvisation will be a more important part of what we do this time round.

You're one of the longest running acts on Warp Records; a label that can rightly be called seminal for UK electronic music. What do you think the continued appeal of Warp is—for you as artists, and for fans too?

Andy: I guess there's a longevity, the fact they've remained independent, and having "good" musical tastes. A taste that appeals to a certain group of people through the years. Their A&R is still very good. I don't like every act that's signed to the label, but I think it's generally of a very high standard.

They did have a very mysterious, esoteric air about them, and that was very attractive. There wasn't much else like it in the mid 90s. They were in a unique position at that moment because there was a lot of "electronic music," but nothing like Warp's output. It's not really so relevant anymore, because there's a lot of labels that produce Warp-like output, but because they were the one of the first, they have a certain special magic that other labels couldn't really get.

Ed: I remember someone at Warp saying that the label acted as a kind of filter. There's still room for a label that fulfills that duty. There is just so much music being written. Your average consumer could never hope to listen to it all and make their own judgement, so you'd always go to labels or a music distribution service and (via algorithms) be pointed in certain directions. That opens up all these different issues in which people are persuaded to like different music however…. it's basically the same game, but played in a different space.

What do you mean by these algorithms? Do you think peoples tastes are really that predictable?

Ed: Well, it really depends how the algorithms are written. If they're truly democratic then it's okay, but people (well, businesses) can buy themselves into certain situations… like I said, it's always been the case, it's just playing out online now. It could be beneficial, but it really depends how it's built, and whether it's about capitalization or if it's taste driven. A lot of it is finding someone whose taste you trust. That's the value of the label or a record shop; where a particular person who give you a stack of records that they think you might like. We need the internet equivalent of that.

There's an interactive game for one of the tracks from Reachy Prints, "Tether." Why did you decide to do this?

Andy: We're generally interested in exploring the possibilities on offer. Presenting music in a novel way. I can see it being more of a thing going into the future: adding the possibility of the listener having some input into the ways the music plays out. It's fun in of itself to create, as well as having a set piece of music as defined by the artist. It's a winning situation, really.

Ed: I'd agree with that. It's quite nice being fed music and not have to do any work, but occasionally it's nice to interact and have a play around with it. 

Finally—have you heard about the Kickstarter that's been going to Aphex Twin's Caustic Window?

Andy: No, what's happening with it?

[Editors note: The Kickstarter is now at over $61,000, with 2 days to go.] 

Well, a guy who owns a test pressing of the unreleased Caustic Window album has started a Kickstarter (after originally putting the record on Discogs for over $13,000) for people to pay for a vinyl to digital rip of it. It's got nearly a week to go, and it's over $57,000. What do you make of that?

Andy: Ultimately, it's down to Aphex Twin. They may have made the test pressing and then decided that they didn't like the release, so $50,000 might not sway them in that decision. But that's a very interesting story. I'll be following it.

Ed: I can tell you right now that none of this is about music. It's all about collecting. It's about elitism. It's about everything other than music, and especially about profiting. I don't necessarily think it's a bad idea—I think it's amusing, even—but that test pressing obviously doesn't belong to whoever's selling it. It belongs to Aphex Twin, I would have thought. 

Reachy Prints is out on May 19th on Warp Records.

They will also be headlining The Village Underground, London, on Friday 23rd May; support from Daedelus, Slugabed, My Panda Shall Fly, and Flint Kids. More information here.

You can follow Lauren Martin on Twitter here: @codeinedrums

This article was originally published on THUMP UK

If you're having a conversation about electronic music in 2014, there's a fair chance that the majority of the eye rolls will be reserved for the guy that uses the phrase "IDM." What does Intelligent Dance Music even mean now? For the 90s babies, it's hard to understand the phrase as little more than underhand snobbery, but IDM really did create a huge sea-change. Aphex Twin, Autechre, Squarepusher: monolithic names whose outputs are more archived than active these days. Not Plaid, though.

Plaid have been releasing game-changing music through Warp Records for nearly 25 years now, and this month sees the release of their 10th full length, Reachy Prints. There's no creaking of old bones or prodding awake of long dormant ideas here, either. Reachy Prints is pretty great in fact, so we caught up with them (Andy Turner and Ed Handley) ahead of the release and upcoming live show, to chat about how the duo stay inspired after all these years.

THUMP: So hey, congratulations on Reachy Prints. It's also your 10th album, which is pretty nuts. How has your working relationship grown over time? It's a long time to be making music as a duo.

Andy: I think we work together pretty well by virtue of the fact that we've known each other for so long. We know when's not a good time to work together and when is, so it seems to flow quite naturally in that respect. We work in different spaces and have done for the past year, which makes it more difficult, but we get to work together in the shed at least a couple of times a month, and in busy periods like now we're seeing each other every week. It's quite a healthy relationship, I'd say.

Ed: We can be extremely honest with each other, but as with any working relationship you also have to be sensitive the amount of time someone's put into the material. You can't obviously just rubbish it on a whim. We're like brothers. The benefit of working as a duo is that there has to be some level of compromise. In those situations, you can often come up with more interesting and less indulgent music. 

Andy: And yeah, the other side of that is being able to push each other as well. If one of us is getting a bit slack, positive words go a long way with someone you've known for that long. You know it's more than likely that they'll be sincere and honest.

I'm curious: you must have an insane body of work that never gets released, that just end up saved as jam sessions, ideas, whatever. When you do sit down to work together, are you always writing an album? 

Andy: I think it's more to do with the collective body of work; that everything flows together, which hopefully the album does to some degree. There will be some ideas that basically don't fit in with a particular album and that may be rejected in favour of creating a body of work that is something in itself, rather than just a compilation of tracks.

Ed: Generally someone will lead on a track, and if that gets rejected for whatever reason then that's a compromise, because that's been worked on for a long time. But it's for the greater good at the end of the day. Andy might write a bassline that I just think is terrible, and I have to go with it for whatever reason—and vice versa.

Andy: I think that's right. For Reachy Prints there's a few tracks that didn't really quite fit because they had a distinctly different sound. They weren't using the same technology or production techniques so they didn't end up on the final piece, and that can be quite upsetting if they're your tracks, but it's essential to make an album that makes sense.

Ed: Yeah, we write constantly. What tends to happen is that we write tracks and then play them out live, but most of those don't end up on an album. When we get up to the date for album delivery, that's around the time that we start to panic; most of the live tracks have been put onto YouTube, or we've played them to death and we're bored of them, so we end up having a manic writing session post-delivery.

Andy: A lot of the ideas that do end up on the album might have been germinating years before but they're finished. Certainly for the last two, that's been the process. I find that compressed writing time is really fun. I find the pressure is conducive to getting good material. When you have a leisurely year to write, it doesn't necessarily make it better. We function better with the pressure of having to deliver.

What about writing for live shows? 

Andy: Well, we definitely write more for the dance floor with live tracks than for the album. We want to entertain in that kind of way, so that's one big difference. It does feel like perspective. A lot of the environments we're asked to play are clubs, so we can't play anything too noodle-y because it doesn't go down well with the majority. You definitely get more freedom to experiment with an album.

Do you develop a new live show fairly regularly? Are you working on a new one for Reachy Prints?

Andy: Funnily enough, we were just discussing that now. We're working with some new controllers that have developed. It's something we've really been focusing on leading up to the Manchester show. We're aiming for a bit more freedom within the performance, particularly in trying to arrange the visual aspect of the show in such a way that it can be triggered live as much as possible. That allows us to adapt the music for the specific evening. We're using a variety of other midi controllers to give us more flexibility.

Ed: It's about trying to make it more physical. We've found over the past few years that we didn't get fully involved in the live shows. It felt a bit alienating for us—as well as those who were watching. To have a bit more physicality makes it a bit more of a challenge—upping the risk more than just a computer crashing. That adds an element of excitement every night.

I personally find live techno shows are most interesting when there's a strong element of improvisation. When the live show isn't just a slavish play-by-play of album tracks.

Ed: I think the improvisational element of it will be quite apparent this time. We've been getting a little bit bored and disconnected when we've been playing older material that just sounds like album material. Striking a balance is important in keeping ourselves interested, so improvisation will be a more important part of what we do this time round.

You're one of the longest running acts on Warp Records; a label that can rightly be called seminal for UK electronic music. What do you think the continued appeal of Warp is—for you as artists, and for fans too?

Andy: I guess there's a longevity, the fact they've remained independent, and having "good" musical tastes. A taste that appeals to a certain group of people through the years. Their A&R is still very good. I don't like every act that's signed to the label, but I think it's generally of a very high standard.

They did have a very mysterious, esoteric air about them, and that was very attractive. There wasn't much else like it in the mid 90s. They were in a unique position at that moment because there was a lot of "electronic music," but nothing like Warp's output. It's not really so relevant anymore, because there's a lot of labels that produce Warp-like output, but because they were the one of the first, they have a certain special magic that other labels couldn't really get.

Ed: I remember someone at Warp saying that the label acted as a kind of filter. There's still room for a label that fulfills that duty. There is just so much music being written. Your average consumer could never hope to listen to it all and make their own judgement, so you'd always go to labels or a music distribution service and (via algorithms) be pointed in certain directions. That opens up all these different issues in which people are persuaded to like different music however…. it's basically the same game, but played in a different space.

What do you mean by these algorithms? Do you think peoples tastes are really that predictable?

Ed: Well, it really depends how the algorithms are written. If they're truly democratic then it's okay, but people (well, businesses) can buy themselves into certain situations… like I said, it's always been the case, it's just playing out online now. It could be beneficial, but it really depends how it's built, and whether it's about capitalization or if it's taste driven. A lot of it is finding someone whose taste you trust. That's the value of the label or a record shop; where a particular person who give you a stack of records that they think you might like. We need the internet equivalent of that.

There's an interactive game for one of the tracks from Reachy Prints, "Tether." Why did you decide to do this?

Andy: We're generally interested in exploring the possibilities on offer. Presenting music in a novel way. I can see it being more of a thing going into the future: adding the possibility of the listener having some input into the ways the music plays out. It's fun in of itself to create, as well as having a set piece of music as defined by the artist. It's a winning situation, really.

Ed: I'd agree with that. It's quite nice being fed music and not have to do any work, but occasionally it's nice to interact and have a play around with it. 

Finally—have you heard about the Kickstarter that's been going to Aphex Twin's Caustic Window?

Andy: No, what's happening with it?

[Editors note: The Kickstarter is now at over $61,000, with 2 days to go.] 

Well, a guy who owns a test pressing of the unreleased Caustic Window album has started a Kickstarter (after originally putting the record on Discogs for over $13,000) for people to pay for a vinyl to digital rip of it. It's got nearly a week to go, and it's over $57,000. What do you make of that?

Andy: Ultimately, it's down to Aphex Twin. They may have made the test pressing and then decided that they didn't like the release, so $50,000 might not sway them in that decision. But that's a very interesting story. I'll be following it.

Ed: I can tell you right now that none of this is about music. It's all about collecting. It's about elitism. It's about everything other than music, and especially about profiting. I don't necessarily think it's a bad idea—I think it's amusing, even—but that test pressing obviously doesn't belong to whoever's selling it. It belongs to Aphex Twin, I would have thought. 

Reachy Prints is out on May 19th on Warp Records.

They will also be headlining The Village Underground, London, on Friday 23rd May; support from Daedelus, Slugabed, My Panda Shall Fly, and Flint Kids. More information here.

You can follow Lauren Martin on Twitter here: @codeinedrums