Bleep that

At the moment, I'm working on a project that requires me to research electronic music from the early 90s. It's not as interesting as it seems, but it has given me the opportunity to discover a bit more about UK bleep techno. I already knew and loved some of the big tunes - Unique 3's 'The Theme', Forgemasters' 'Track With No Name' and LFO's 'LFO' (Simon Reynolds did an excellent introduction to bleep for Fact a few months back if anyone is interested) -  but my research has allowed me to dig a bit deeper and to discover records like Black Knight's 'Moody Balance'. The work of Ray Gordon, one third of the Forgemasters, its arrival in 1994 is perhaps too late to be considered an essential part of the bleep scene. Indeed, its stripped back arrangements, which make nods to the minimalism emerging from the US, surging, moody sub-bass licks and sense of foreboding sound like a progression from what was a more wide-eyed approach a few years previously. If bleep was the soundtrack to the party, then this record documents the weary, chemically-depleted journey home. The fact that it still has a resonance, 14 years after its release, says a lot about the quality and originality of Gordon's production. It's no wonder that Neil Landstrumm raves about it and has used bleep as the source of inspiration for some of his albums, including 'Restaurant of Assasins' (although that was also shaped by dubstep), and I'm sure that the Black Knight record is probably the tip of the iceberg. So does anyone know of any good places to track down more bleep records - and what do people make of this music?

Comments

[Tunetourist]

A couple of bleepers featured in this post from last year:

http://tunetourist.blogspot.com/2007/09/not-another-acid-house-compilation.html

I've got quite a few bits in my record collection, though nothing wildly rare I don't suppose - on labels like Bassic, Network etc as well as Warp. Got an odd track attributed to LFO (which clearly isn't that LFO but is ace and was a big tune at Venus in Nottingham back in '91) also stuff by Nexus 21 (Detroit-influenced early incarnation of Altern 8)

If you're restricting it to that Northern sound of circa '91, there wasn't that much made was there?

[ilya]

I made a list of some bleep records and labels. I hope you find it helpful.

http://www.ilyay.com/serv.php?file=music/bleep