Plaid is a British electronic music duo comprising Andy Turner and Ed Handley, taking their name from the Welsh word 'Plaid' [pronounced 'Ply-ed'] meaning 'Party'. Although Plaid pre-existed the association, the duo's Ed Handley and Andy Turner spent most of their early recording years with Ken Downie as the dancefloor-confounding Black Dog Productions. Meshing well with Downie's vision of heavily hybridized post-techno and obscurantist thematics, the pair brought several nascent Plaid tracks to the Black Dog table on the group's debut, Bytes, a collection of tracks recorded by various iterations of the three members. The group recorded several albums and EPs throughout the early and mid-'90s, helping to forge a style of dance music one step removed from the 12" considerations of the average faceless techno act; Handley and Turner's mutual love for early hip-hop contributed BDP's more bawdy, street-level grit.
The pair split from Downie in 1995, and began rechanneling their efforts full-time with an EP on the neo-electro Clear label before signing to Warp. (The pair also recorded an album with European techno figure Mark Broom under the pseudonym Repeat, two tracks of which also made it onto the South of Market EP, released on Jonah Sharp's similarly located Reflective imprint.) Both of Plaid's first two full-lengths, 1998's Not for Threes and the following year's Rest Proof Clockwork, were issued in the U.S. through Nothing. Once Warp set up a home on American shores, however, Plaid made the natural switch with the long-awaited collection Trainer, a retrospective including much of their early, pre-BDP work. The proper third album, Double Figure, followed in spring 2001, and the handy Plaid remix collection Parts in the Post was issued in 2003 by Peacefrog. The end of the year brought the duo's fourth proper LP, Spokes. Plaid was quiet on the recording front for several years, returning finally in mid-2006 with a mini-album that found the pair co-billed with visual artist Bob Jaroc, whose animations often accompanied the music during live performances. They developed a DVD consisting of new material and video artwork to accompany the music, entitled Greedy Baby. The project was completed on July 20 2005, and was first shown at the Queen Elizabeth Hall in the South Bank Centre, and subsequently at the BFI Imax cinema in Waterloo, London. Greedy Baby was released on DVD from Warp Records on June 26, 2006.
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Plaid - Rest Proof Clockwork (99 * 99mb)
Plaid's second full-length displays the same intriguing mix of old-school flow and electronic programming clout, plus an odd tendency to play with certain synth presets that would make most electronica technicians cringe. When it comes down to it, the technical differences between Rest Proof Clockwork and Plaid's debut Not for Threes are minimal. In fact, two of the most beautiful tracks of Plaid's long career are right here. The first is "Buddy," a yearning downtempo track with echoing effects; the second is "Dead Sea," a beatless piece of glorious synth-strings. So, in sum, Rest Proof Clockwork is yet another production masterpiece to file on the shelf with the rest of Plaid's work. The element that puts them far, far ahead of every other beatminer out there is a growing sense of spirit that lets the machines do the singing.
01 - Shackbu (5:26)
02 - Ralome (4:28)
03 - Little People (4:06)
04 - 3 Recurring (0:44)
05 - Buddy (6:33)
06 - Dead Sea (4:19)
07 - Gel Lab (4:14)
08 - Tearisci (0:56)
09 - Dang Spots (3:57)
10 - Pino Pomo (5:07)
11 - Last Remembered Thing (4:19)
12 - Lambs Eye (1:18)
13 - New Bass Hippo (5:42)
14 - Churn Maiden (1:14)
15 - Air Locked (4:23)
16 - Face Me (4:18)
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Plaid - Double Figure (01 * 99mb)
After the release of the Trainer retrospective, Plaid returned in 2001 with an LP of tough machine music, closer to the melancholy beatbox style of their mid-'90s singles than the rangy, dynamic sound of 1999's Rest Proof Clockwork. Except for the cycling guitar-like lines on the opener "Eyen," there aren't many traditional-sounding instruments on Double Figure. Instead, the duo balances precise, simple-yet-subtle percussion programs and heavily evocative techno . As always, Handley and Turner take great care with their productions, using a continually building style of electronic composition that gradually adds new effects, then even more gradually tweaks those effects for maximum subtlety. By stretching techno into new territory thru working in traditional sounds, Plaid recorded one of their most intricate, rewarding, best albums.
01 - Eyen (4:20)
02 - Squance (5:01)
03 - Assault On Precinct Zero (4:28)
04 - Zamami (4:05)
05 - Silversum (4:15)
06 - Ooh Be Do (4:27)
07 - Light Rain (3:49)
08 - Tak 1 (1:01)
09 - New Family (5:17)
10 - Zala (4:45)
11 - Twin Home (5:11)
12 - Tak 2 (1:08)
13 - Sincetta (4:56)
14 - Tak 3 (0:50)
15 - Porn Coconut Co. (4:52)
16 - Tak 4 (0:59)
17 - Ti Bom (4:52)
18 - Tak 5 (0:50)
19 - Manyme (4:48)
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Plaid Remixes - Parts In The Post I & II (03, 112min * 198mb)
Parts in the Post takes nearly all of Plaid's remixing work following their 1995 split with Ken Downie (Black Dog), though the styles heard range far into the past, back to the ghostly electro of early-'90s classics like "Choke and Fly" ( Funki Porcini's "King Ashabanapal" or Studio Pressure's "Relics"). Like all the great electronic remixers, Plaid can go both ways with their work, either remaking a track with little relation to the original or essentially re-producing the artist by integrating their style into the framework of the song. Here, the original of Nicolette's "Wholesome," is integrated perfectly into the Plaid sound, with close attention paid to even her vocal pauses. Handley and Turner also have no trouble creating productions with more relation to the subject than the artist had even attempted; another Nicolette original, the surprisingly utopian "No Government," is taken into an anarchic direction with stark beats, dental-drill effects, and an amelodic tune. Ironically enough, Plaid's more obscure jobs, including tracks heard here like Dropshadow's "Disease Fototienda" and Jung Collective's "Street Preacher," are some of their most intriguing and distinctive productions. The lone new track, a Plaid original named "Wrong Ways," is a charmer as well, with a tippling, squelchy bassline.
Plaid Remixes - Parts In The Post I (03 * 99mb)
01 - Björk - All Is Full Of Love (4:18)
02 - Tao - Riot In Lagos (5:08)
03 - EBZ - Malawi Gold (6:02)
04 - Sieg Über Die Sonne - You'll Never Come Back (5:41)
05 - Reflection - Spiral Bits (4:08)
06 - Koolaking - One Latin (4:53)
07 - Gregory Fleckner Quartet - Juicy Jazz Girls (7:42)
08 - Studio Pressure - Relics (7:10)
09 - Grandmaster Flash & The Furious Five - Scorpio (4:57)
10 - Nicolette - No Government (6:34)
Plaid Remixes - Parts In The Post II (03 * 99mb)
11 - Plaid - Wrong Ways (5:48)
12 - UNKLE - Coffehouse Conversation (5:22)
13 - Nicolette - Wholesome (4:40)
14 - Goldfrapp - Utopia (4:42)
15 - Funki Porcini - King Ashabanapal (7:00)
16 - Dropshadow Disease - Fototienda (6:32)
17 - Sensorama - Zone 30 (6:58)
18 - Herbert - Foreign Bodies (5:14)
19 - Jung Collective - Street Preacher (5:11)
20 - Coba - After Dinner (4:58)
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