PLAID

We're delighted to announce that Warp records favourites Plaid make a welcome return to Dublin to perform in the temple bar music centre this summer. Plaid's fragile melody lines juxtaposed with dexterous grooves have had fans of all kinds of electronic music dancing for the last ten years, from techno heads to breakbeat lovers.

This performance will be a collaboration with underground film and video artist Bob Jaroc, with whom they have released a new AV album "greedy Baby". With support on the night comes from Giles Armstrong, resident DJ at Dublins top techno night "electric city", expect this to be the club event of the summer.

Plaid and Bob Jaroc are to release a 5.1 surround sound Audio Visual (AV) album entitled Greedy Baby. Warp is excited to be releasing thisunique project that is pioneering in nature and rich and varied in content. In keeping with their reputation, Ed Handley and Andy Turner aka Plaid deliver an album written (not just mixed) for surround sound systems and integration with Bob Jaroc's unique filmic video work. The result is a truly collaborative creation that takes listeners well beyond stereo sound into an audio-visual spatially dynamic experience.

An integral part of Warp's proud legacy, Plaid has a solid reputation that was sown through their previous incarnation The Black Dog, whose flowing techno masterpieces riddled with mythological references still command reverence today. In 1996 Ed and Andy cut loose from the dog and ventured forth as Plaid. Their now stalwart fan base continues to swell across the globe, drawn to Plaid's impressive output of fragile melody lines juxtaposed with dexterous grooves.

Plaid has a tendency to collude with curveball characters such as Bjork and Nicolette whose eclecticism and melancholic beauty mirror their own. It is then a natural progression for Greedy Baby to offer the vibrant fruits of a six-year collaboration, this time with underground film and video artist, Bob Jaroc.

Developed over 4 years Greedy Baby has evolved from their long and varied relationship, touring and continually developing their live audio-visual show to packed audiences from Buenos Aries, to Tokyo, Istanbul, London's Imax and beyond.The creation of this new album marks a truly pioneering process with tracks and video passing back and forth, inspiring and informing either parties work in a synaesthetic exchange. The result, a collection of polished gems in sound and light - a truly rich beaker of Plaid's ears and Bob's twisted eyes.

Greedy Baby will also be a live touring show, precursors of which have only been performed four times; it first showcased at the Ether Festival at the QEH in 2004, and such was the reaction they were called back immediately to perform again (a first for Ether), selling the show out on both occasions. This rapturous response lead to them being chosen to open the first ever festival of music and film at the Imax for the Optronica Festival in 2006.

Greedy baby is a moody body of work that is at times shaded and eerie and other times, warm and lively. There is a dark feel to the album that is relevant to the period it was written in, when the grave political issues surrounding America's invasion of Iraq were at the forefront of many minds. However the shaded ambience of this album is inter-dispersed with the rich tones of warm chimes, harps and bells that resonate in the spaciousness of the music. Similarly any bleak cinematography Bob conveys is always distilled with flickers of light.

Many of the pieces in Greedy Baby are seemingly normal though underneath there is a loose thread of Quantum Theory, a starting block from which Greedy Baby grew. Analogies are used in the relationship of energy and matter at its most basic form with patterns of behaviour in daily life. Quantum theory provided a neat seed from which Greedy Baby evolved and extended from.

The first track War Dialler, named after a hacking utility, uses found recordings from War Diallers lonesome attempts to find modems at the end of phone lines. Voices answer to this silent digital stalker, gathering into an intense plethora of clicks, tones and fractured utterances.

A jewel in the crown, Super Barrio offers pioneering animation, directed by Bob Jaroc, which gives voice to a real life super hero 'Super Barrio', a Mexican wrestler and political mouthpiece for the common people. The piece brings celebrated animator Andy Ward and recordings of Super Barrio himself together with Plaid's intense deeply layered tones underscoring and uplifting the piece to a climactic crescendo.

Greedy Baby at last offers a healthy portion of this collaborative genius that is Plaid and Jaroc in a form we can take home and inflict on our own living rooms. Break out the 5.1!

Greedy Baby live review:
"most of the videos ranged from the beautifully sublime (who'd have thought a Tokyo dentist surgery could look so good) to the brilliantly funny..." Pixel Surgeon

Quotes from their last album, SPOKES:

"(Plaid) created some of the most emotive electronic music of the 90'¹s... their 11th album is a shadowy affair, overflowing with fractured breaks, amoebic bass and emotive medieval chords... Plaid excel" Q

"A remarkable set of sound sculptures, this is intelligent and addictive" 4/5 Uncut