Luke Vibert

British producer and DJ Luke Vibert has explored numerous styles of electronic music since the early 1990s, with constant factors being a mastery of groove construction, a whimsical sense of humor, and a sincere love for dance music's history. His lengthy, productive career has brought acclaimed releases on several esteemed labels, including <a href="spotify:search:label%3A%22Warp%22">Warp</a>, Rephlex, <a href="spotify:search:label%3A%22Mo%27+Wax%22">Mo' Wax</a>, and <a href="spotify:search:label%3A%22Ninja+Tune%22">Ninja Tune</a>. During the mid-'90s, his material as <a href="spotify:artist:3INW2gvv9ZcgPGL0oqkOXy">Wagon Christ</a> (including 1995's Throbbing Pouch) redefined trip-hop's more abstract side, while his work as <a href="spotify:artist:02hWCZ8sbocjW8RyNq3NDq">Plug</a> (1996's Drum'n'Bass for Papa) pioneered the experimental jungle offshoot dubbed drill'n'bass. Vibert's subsequent releases under his own name ranged from chilled-out downtempo (including 2000's Stop the Panic, with <a href="spotify:artist:2k0CTSpfHwzEfYnQwNIiHq">B.J. Cole</a>) to acid house homages (2003's YosepH), while his <a href="spotify:artist:4ywTx5cZc1YOkOtVrSK6nJ">Kerrier District</a> explored electro and disco, and he further subverted jungle as <a href="spotify:artist:0uSobLDqVMPaOzd2elMNCa">Amen Andrews</a>. Keeping up his prolific pace several decades into his career, he issued a triptych of 2020 albums each dedicated to a different style (Luke Vibert Presents... Amen Andrews, Modern Rave, and Rave Hop), in addition to the first <a href="spotify:artist:3INW2gvv9ZcgPGL0oqkOXy">Wagon Christ</a> release in nine years (Recepticon). He continued releasing playful, acid-heavy efforts like 2023's Machine Funk.

The native of Redruth, Cornwall, England got into performing through a punk band, and then with a rap group. He became interested in producing hip-hop and electronic music during the late '80s. In 1993, he collaborated with Jeremy Simmonds for Weirs, an album of occasionally harsh IDM/neo-electro released on Rephlex, credited to Vibert/Simmonds. After he released influential material as both <a href="spotify:artist:3INW2gvv9ZcgPGL0oqkOXy">Wagon Christ</a> and <a href="spotify:artist:02hWCZ8sbocjW8RyNq3NDq">Plug</a>, the first proper Luke Vibert album, a set of instrumental hip-hop titled Big Soup, followed for <a href="spotify:search:label%3A%22Mo%27+Wax%22">Mo' Wax</a> in 1997.

Vibert's activity during the 2000s, including records on retro-futuristic post-disco outlet <a href="spotify:artist:4ywTx5cZc1YOkOtVrSK6nJ">Kerrier District</a>, played out like a series of diversions rather than as a linear, predictable run of releases. Much of the output released under his birth name, however, incorporated acid -- the liquid wriggles pioneered by Chicago house act <a href="spotify:artist:4y7BsfdIKQ7Of5SskHej70">Phuture</a>'s overdriven Roland TB-303 basslines. Stop the Panic (<a href="spotify:search:label%3A%22Astralwerks%22">Astralwerks</a>, 2000) was a collaboration with pedal steel guitarist <a href="spotify:artist:2k0CTSpfHwzEfYnQwNIiHq">B.J. Cole</a>. Vibert selected two volumes of library music, Nuggets: Luke Vibert's Selection (2001) and Luke Vibert's Further Nuggets (2002), for the <a href="spotify:search:label%3A%22Lo%22">Lo</a> label. The compilations seemingly informed the synthesis of '70s avant-electronics, electro, and acid heard on YosepH (<a href="spotify:search:label%3A%22Warp%22">Warp</a>, 2003).

Lover's Acid (<a href="spotify:search:label%3A%22Planet+Mu%22">Planet Mu</a>, 2005) applied acid to mostly downtempo productions; one of its track titles, "Analord," was used by Cornwall pal <a href="spotify:artist:4MereuUSDthtDmHGRbnzcF">Richard James</a> for an extensive series of like-minded <a href="spotify:artist:6ULjGlnhcCwHIJigN47K5U">AFX</a> EPs. Chicago, Detroit, Redruth (<a href="spotify:search:label%3A%22Planet+Mu%22">Planet Mu</a>, 2007) wasn't a total break from the previous release but roamed from alien, ambient soundscapes to <a href="spotify:artist:0vIY2Vkkwq0GZHCuqAdbrZ">Edwin Birdsong</a>-sampling acid-rap fusions. For Moog Acid (<a href="spotify:search:label%3A%22Lo%22">Lo</a>, 2007), he teamed with French musique concrète figure <a href="spotify:artist:09x9KmiHgFJgWySzkMRNGx">Jean-Jacques Perry</a>. Rhythm (<a href="spotify:search:label%3A%22Soundofspeed%22">Soundofspeed</a>, 2008) anthologized a series of sample-heavy instrumental hip-hop EPs. Vibert closed out the decade with the diverse and typically humor-laced We Hear You (<a href="spotify:search:label%3A%22Planet+Mu%22">Planet Mu</a>, 2009).

During the early 2010s, Vibert kept <a href="spotify:artist:3INW2gvv9ZcgPGL0oqkOXy">Wagon Christ</a> active and revived drum'n'bass alias <a href="spotify:artist:02hWCZ8sbocjW8RyNq3NDq">Plug</a> for a collection of previously unreleased material. A third Nuggets compilation was released on <a href="spotify:search:label%3A%22Lo%22">Lo</a> in 2013. Armed once more with the TB-303, he recorded Ridmik. Credited to Luke Vibert, it was released on the <a href="spotify:search:label%3A%22Hypercolour%22">Hypercolour</a> label in 2014. The following year saw the release of the mischievous Vibert album Bizarster and Kerrier District 4 (his first full-length under that name in nine years). Two contributions to the I Love Acid series preceded Luke Vibert Presents UK Garave, Vol. 1, an homage to the heyday of U.K. garage and rave that arrived in 2017. A full-length on I Love Acid, Valvable, appeared in 2019. In 2020, Vibert returned to <a href="spotify:search:label%3A%22Hypercolour%22">Hypercolour</a> with three albums each dedicated to a specific style. Luke Vibert Presents... Amen Andrews was a return to his jungle alias, Modern Rave paid tribute to the early days of breakbeat hardcore, and Rave Hop focused on downtempo breakbeats. Capping off a prolific year, he returned to his <a href="spotify:artist:3INW2gvv9ZcgPGL0oqkOXy">Wagon Christ</a> alias with Recepticon. In 2021, Vibert released an acid house EP on the We're Going Deep label. The bouncy, acidic full-length GRIT. was issued by <a href="spotify:search:label%3A%22Hypercolour%22">Hypercolour</a> in 2022, and Machine Funk appeared on <a href="spotify:search:label%3A%22De%3Atuned%22">De:tuned</a> in 2023. ~ Andy Kellman & Paul Simpson, Rovi