Over the 20 years of its existence, you could accuse Warp Records of being many things – singular, bloody-minded, wilful, arrogant even – but populist is definitely not something that you could have leveled at the influential indie.
As a label, Warp has always ploughed its own furrow, danced to the beat of its own 808 etc… Which is why the label founder (I presume it was he) Steve Beckett’s decision to open up the choice of the tracklisting for the label’s 20th anniversary retrospective album to something as mundane and populist as a public vote was so baffling – I wouldn’t even trust the general public to decide what trousers I was going to wear on a night out. The Warp of old would have just chosen 20 tracks, slapped them on a CD (exquisitely-packaged, naturally), lovingly flicked its fans the V-sign and been done with it.
