Warp Records
British electronic label.
Founded by [a=Steve Beckett], [a=Rob Mitchell (7)] (RIP 2001), and [a=Robert Gordon], Warp (originally to be named Warped, but shortened for communication ease, and later expanded by the backronym "[b]W[/b]e [b]A[/b]re [b]R[/b]easonable [b]P[/b]eople"), 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 joined 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:
[l=Warp Records Limited] - a Warp company, incorporated in 25 February 1993, and used for some copyright credits.
[l=Warp Music] / [l=Warp Music Publishing] - publishing companies associated with Warp.
[l=Lex Records] - former Warp sub-label.
[l=Arcola] - Warp abstract dance-oriented sub-label.
[l=LuckyMe] / [l=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:
[i][u]Albums:[/u]
WARP 13 / WARP 99 / WARP 113 - no releases.
WARP 93 - Priest "Untitled" (unreleased).
WARP 109 - [a=Squarepusher] "Budakhan Maximized" (unreleased).
WARP 118 - [a=Chris Morris] "Blue Jam II" (unreleased).
[u]Singles:[/u]
WAP 13 - supposedly unreleased, but some copies of WARP LP 1 were pressed with this cat#.
WAP 30 - flyer for WARP Party at the Leadmill, Sheffield, Fri 8 Jan 1993.
WAP 85 - is given to [a=Jimi Tenor] "[m=43418]" but was never used, as it was actually released by Rough Trade Germany with no Warp cat# on the release.
WAP 99 - unique set of artwork by [l=The Designers Republic] (tDR).
WAP 113 / WAP 131 / WAP 143 / WAP 148 - no releases. [/i]
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:
- [l=Indisc] - usually uses the Warp cat# with an [b]extra 107[/b] before the number in addition to the Indisc cat#. Sometimes it uses just a Warp cat#.
- [l=Rough Trade Records GmbH] which later became [l=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.
