The urban animal is a furtively mistrustful being. Naturally cynical, a discerning arbiter of popular tastes. Strange that the more consumers are bombarded with advertising images fed from active monitors, beseeching conflicting directives, the higher the risks of saturation and a nation turning off en-masse.
By extension, consumers like their artists to suffer for their work. Ironic given that some of the greatest tunes of the Twentieth Century have often been rolled out on conveyor belt manufacturing plants like Motown and Stax. Nowadays, it seems, musicians have to self-inflict pain or be slain by the roadside for sales to be affected.
But it's not a problem that has ever bothered Luke Vibert much. Part of the sprawling Cornish electronica crowd, Vibert, whose contemporaries include Aphex Twin, Mike Paradinas (aka µ-Ziq, Jake Slazenger and Gary Moschelles) and Global Communications, is already well known for his precious Wagon Christ material. Vibert has of late kept busy with various remix duties with his alter ego, Plug, as well as a well-received solo album for James Lavelle's uber-kool Mo' Wax label last summer. Plug recently caught the ear of Nine Inch Nails frontman Trent Reznor who signed the act to his US based Nothing label. It is credit to Vibert's musical diversity that he can run the pure drum 'n' bass of Plug alongside the weird, sci-fi sampling, downtempo feel of the Luke Vibert Mo' Wax material. The labour-intensity of a hectic work schedule doesn't seem to bother him either.
"I churn out music all the time," he laughs. "If people only let me, I would love to do nothing more than bring an album out a week. It's almost like a conveyor belt for me when I'm in the studio. With Wagon Christ the music doesn't really have any pretensions; it's not supposed to be overly analysed at all. I hate it when people read too much into dance music, mostly it exists to promote a kind of hedonism. It is not supposed to be analysed and ripped apart. Some of the best dance music is often the most kitschy of them all."
Which leads nicely to Wagon Christ's latest album, "Tally-Ho" - so called as Vibert says, "to deliberately conjure up images of a colonial UK. There's a lot to be said about the naffness of our heritage and I thought that the title said it all." Like previous Wagon Christ material, "Tally Ho" rarely takes itself too literally. Unlike the studied seriousness of his solo shot, the album celebrates the side of dance most pretentious listeners would rather forget. But then, everyone has a skeleton in his or her closet.
Says Vibert, "There's a kind of talent that goes into making music nowadays that has a sense of humour. A lot of dance music specifically takes itself far too seriously with notions of society and all that philosophy. People still see it as very much machine music, made by faceless things called keyboards and computers. What they forget is that on the other side there is always a human involved. That's where the humour can and should be injected into dance music. This isn't to be taken too seriously."
So why has Vibert taken so long to make the transition from independent curiosity to major manufacturer of electronic pastiche? The composer seems unsure himself, but like his music, offers no apology for taking his time. Even in the hurried blur of the Nineties, he seems to be saying, the best opportunities arrive when you expect them the least. It's a rationale his other contemporaries would do well to take stock of.
"There's no denying that I've been around for a while. But it's taken me a while to get to this stage in his career, but that's mainly because I don't see this as a job. Many musicians have this yearning for other to hear their music, as if it justifies some sort of need within them. I've never really chased that. I mean, I'd love to make some corny pop stuff, but not because of the money. I'd like to see what I could get away with."
Vibert admits that he's never come close to achieving the kind of lighthearted electronica he sought, until now. But then, he says, even that has been purely accidental. "Tally Ho" has few points of reference, and few would buy the album if they were spelled out here. Let's just say that Vibert has crafted out a music to accompany school disco well into the next century.
"I'd like to say that to get this far hasn't really taken much planning on my part. It's not like I'm consumed by what I do and the kind of music I make. I have a laugh at what I do and enjoy it thoroughly. Not many people can say that about their job, can they? Music and the perception of it is such an amorphous thing. It's best to take it all in your stride and try and create as diversely as possible."
"There's too much doom and gloom available," pronounces Vibert. "When I did my solo album, Mo' Wax wanted the stuff that fitted into people's perception of what Mo' Wax is all about. That hasn't been a problem with this Wagon Christ album. I've been allowed to run riot on this one."
Selected Discography
Albums
Vibert & Simmonds
Weir (Rephlex, 1994)
Wagon Christ
Phat lab Nightmare (Rising High, 1994)
Wagon Christ
Throbbing Pouch (Rising High, 1995)
Plug
Drum & Bass For Papa (Blue Planet, 1996)
Luke Vibert
Big Soup (Mo Wax, 1997)
Wagon Christ
Power of Love (Astralwerks/Virgin, 1998)
Wagon Christ
Lovely (Astralwerks/Virgin, 1998)
Wagon Christ
Tally Ho! (Astralwerks/Virgin, 1998)
Selected Remixes
Nine Inch Nails, Howie B, Mandalay, Pitchshifter, Bowling Green, DJ Food, Moloko, Meat Beat Manifesto, Ruby
Wagon Christ Links
Here's a couple of links for Mr. Vibert. Know of others? Send your suggestions to astralwerks@astralwerks.com.
Phat Luke.NightmareLuke Vibert: Plug, Wagon Christ and more
