The Introduction
They are Reasonable People - so they told us - but even so, releasing a box set that cost around £100 (or equivalent in your currency) to celebrate the twentieth anniversary seemed to be pushing it. Nonetheless, the Warp fanatics gathered up the pennies and bought one - or two, if they had an eye on eBay.

But what kind of person spends that kind of money on a label? Individual artists have released expensive box sets this year (a fresh edition of Miles Davis' Kind of Blue, or The Stone Roses marking the 20th anniversary of their debut album) but few labels would take the step. Island turned 50 this year and brought out several low-key, affordable triple disc sets. At the other end of the spectrum, Hyperdub turned 5 with a bunch of 12" singles handily packaged into a double CD set. But Warp20 is a different beast altogether as, presumably, are the Warp fans. I should know - I am one.

Autobiography
Allow me to distract you for a moment with a little anecdotal evidence. I was bitten by The Black Dog's (Bytes) back in the day (1993 to be precise), lured in to play the opening track in HMV in Manchester by pristinely designed cover. The record sleeve mentioned that (Bytes) was part of a series of Artificial Intelligence albums so, over time, I got hold of these. From there, I began exploring the back catalogue of Warp, and when David Holmes brought out Johnny Favourite, I decided that everything thing on the label was at the very least worth a listen, both past, present and future. So until 2007 I pretty much gathered as much as I could, which is why I have not only AFX's Hangable Auto Bulb on CD but also the two vinyl releases. And the Routine compilation. And the Blech cassette. And a couple of pin badges. And some good memories of the Lighthouse Party in 2000 where I led a desperate search for a functioning toilet. Yes, I've got it bad, but I could compare myself to a good friend who was even more of a completist and kid myself I was normal. Having eased off the compulsive Warp buying (helped by their move to download only singles and releasing enough records I didn't actually like that much), I found myself back off the wagon in 2009 with a whole array of interesting records to dabble in, and when the box set was announced I didn't need much persuading. My name is Jeremy and I'm a Warpoholic.

History
Warp began in 1989 out of a Sheffield record shop, with Steve Beckett, Rob Mitchell and Robert Gordon - the latter a music producer responsible for the first single, the Forgemasters' "Track with No Name" and a few of the other early classics. Associating themselves with Sheffield legend Richard H. Kirk (from Cabaret Voltaire) and discovering LFO and Nightmares on Wax, Warp had early success with a distinct brand of bleepy techno. The departure of Gordon led to the realisation that albums would have greater longevity (and sales) than 12" singles so the emphasis was placed on electronic home listening music, out of which came records from Richard D. James (as Polygon Window), Richie Hawtin (as Fuse) and others besides. The roster would steadily expand, eventually moving beyond what was the early electronica remit with the likes of Vincent Gallo and Broadcast. If the presence of guitars on records alarmed the hardcore fans, they were pacified by the arrival of Boards of Canada and Aphex Twin's "Windowlicker" - the single, the video, the calendar - which put a seal on the first decade of Warp.

The second decade saw expansion into the US, the establishment of Warp Films, the move to London, the sad death of Rob Mitchell aged 38 from cancer, and, naturally, some fantastic singles and albums. A hip-hop sub-label, Lex, was set up (it now stands alone) and a brief attempt to reconnect to the dancefloor through Arcola was made in 2003. The mix of the high profile electronic producers and the quiet experimental types was added to in the shape of !!!, Gravenhurst and Antipop Consortium. The arrival of Maximo Park - there's no getting round it, a guitar driven indie band - surprised many who had Warp penned down as an electronic label whose occasional diversions outside that sphere resulted in pleasant late night listening at the very least. But Maximo were different, and they were successful to boot, so consequently Warp have been adding other bands to the label who don't hide behind laptops and blurry photographs, with the biggest success so far being Grizzly Bear, who broke into the Top 10 US album chart with Veckatimest.

So it comes to pass that Warp go into their 21st year in rude health and commemorate the moment with a box that brings together old, new, favourites, unreleased, and tracks that go on and on and on and on. Let's get the box out and see what treasures lie within...

Chosen
The lead discs in the box, and one of the sets available separately, Chosen is pretty self-explanatory. Disc 1 presents us with the label's highlights from the point of view of the fans and opens with a quintet of tracks that any label, any time, would kill for. Aphex Twin's "Windowlicker" is a decade old and still sounds ahead of its time, LFO's "LFO (Leeds Warehouse Remix)" was the label's breakthrough track in terms of UK chart success, hitting the Top 20 (a place that was pretty much off limits until Maximo Park arrived) and showing that Warp were, first and foremost, a dance label (a theme emphasised by the inclusion of Squarepusher's "My Red Hot Car" and Battles' "Atlas" - there is as much emphasis on the feet as the mind here). The second half of the fans' choice (and, disclosure time, I was one of those who voted) seems a little weaker with surprising selections from Plaid and Autechre and the inclusion of two artists with only a small output on the label: Jimmy Edgar and Luke Vibert, who get the nod over artists with a larger back catalogue and arguably better tunes.

Seven of the tracks here have had videos made, so possibly this selection is unwittingly shaped by the fans' memories of favourite tracks being triggered visually, and not via the ears. The democratic selection process seems to have attracted fans of electronic music (I guess a sizeable percentage would have been males aged 25-35) rather than fans of the bigger selling indie groups and as a result it is work by the better known electronic artists (on and off the label) that dominate here; the beneficial side-effect is that Chosen forms a comparatively cohesive selection, rather than flying off all over the place. Whether by luck or a bit of tweaking, the CD ends well with Clark's "Herzog" waving the flag for the newer wave of electronic artists on Warp.

In contrast to the opening selection, Disc 2 is one man's choice - that of Warp MD Steve Beckett and feels much more like a mixtape, touching upon his favourite tracks from across all the years and genres that Warp have covered. It is, understandably, a much broader selection than the fans' choice, and not only reminds us of several acts that should have been on disc one (Broadcast and Nightmares on Wax) but also of several less obvious tracks by the big names of the label.Jamie Lidell's "Daddy's Car" appeared on Muddlin Gear, and in retrospect acts as a signpost for what was to come on Multiply. The Black Dog's "Carcares Ex Novum" off (Bytes) is the quintessential Artificial Intelligence track (a sequence of six albums and two compilations that defined Warp as the label for home electronic listening). Aphex Twin's "Bucephelus Bouncing Ball" is Beckett's favourite Warp track so of course gets included (it only made number 14 in the fan's list and yet is also beloved of Britain's top light entertainer, one Mr Vic Reeves) but recent signings are for the most part overlooked. Still, it is hard to quibble with an individual's selection of Warp favourites, especially when that individual runs the record label, and this Chosen is a pretty good mix, distilling the cream of some 3000 tracks into 80 minutes.

If disc one was all about democracy, and blowing one's socks off with the likes of "Windowlicker" and "Roygbiv", then the personal voyage through Warp's back catalogue, and some of its less frequented back waters is as good an introduction as any to the wonderful world of Warp. Any inquiring minds, with interest piqued by the 20th anniversary celebrations could do far worse than invest in this starter kit. On the other hand, Recreated is a different proposition for the potential purchaser...

Recreated
Warp have dipped their toes in the realm of re-inventing the back catalogue before, with the 10th anniversary set that saw the likes of Pram take on LFO and Aphex Twin, Mogwai rework Link and a sizeable queue lining up to remix Autechre. This time, the re-styling is billed not as remixes but as recreation - presumably because a decent percentage of the roster nowadays aren't necessarily remixers. To emphasis the artistic shift of the label, Recreated Disc 1 opens with Canadian indie trio Born Ruffians having a go at Aphex Twin's "To Cure a Weakling Child" and "Milk Man" (which falls some way short of a similar cover by Adem on Takes last year), and, a couple of tracks later, sees Maximo Park take on Vincent Gallo's "When".

This, then, underlines the nature of Warp nowadays - their success essentially founded on the electronica beloved of their obsessive fans but now releasing work by bands who don't appeal to these followers (although, with remixes by Four Tet and Christian Vogel, Lord knows they are trying). It might annoy the hardcore but the guitar bands sell more than the IDM-types and sales is what keeps record labels afloat. It may seem like a dilution of Warp's identity to be associated with indie rock (and the label knew it themselves in the early days when they financed Pulp through Gift Recordings) but it is, essentially, progression. We may not always like it but it is necessary.

Aside from those pesky guitar bands, Recreated is mostly an odd mix of former label stars (Jimi Tenor, John Callaghan - a brilliant reinvention of an Autechre track by the way), new associates (Rustie, Hudson Mohawke) and a few of the bigger names helping out here and there. Some tracks are more obvious than others - Clark reworks his mate Milanese, Bibio pulls on his fanboy hat and gives a sweetly folk version of Boards Of Canada's "Kaini Industries". There are surprises though - Jimi Tenor and Rustie both tackle Elecktroids (an album plus EP project from the men behind Drexciya), Russell Haswell dips far back into the archives to deconstruct Wild Planet's "Cabasa Cabasa".Seefeel return with their version of Maximo Park's "Acrobat", which is only recognisable by the name - much to the relief of the hardcore fans, one imagines.

The problem with Recreated is the (in)consistency of the album, and as a complete work it isn't going to appeal to everybody - it is more like a variety box that one can dip into from time to time rather than enjoy as a whole. That said, the white chocolate truffles in this instance are the underrated Mira Calix doing whatever she does to BOC's "In A Beautiful Place Out In The Country" and, especially Mark Pritchard reinventing The Black Dog's "3/4 Heart" in a sumptuous off-kilter neo-ambient work with real instruments replacing the electronics of the original. "3/4 Heart" is a personal favourite of mine off (Bytes) that I thought was perfect as it was but, improbably, Pritchard wrings every drop of fragile beauty out of the track in a hauntingly lush version. It's enough to make a grown man pretend to have something in their eye.

Elemental
The remaining three parts (four if you include the book) of the box are not currently available to the general public but are worth an examination. The Warp catalogue has been remixed / spliced / whatever you choose to call it before, most recently with the WarpVision DVD set (by Buddy Peace and Zilla) but most successfully on the Blech tape and Blechsdottir CD, both mixed by PC and Strictly of the Ninja Tune.Osymyso handles the Elemental mix with his customary skills, but it lacks the joie de vivre and irreverence of his copyright troubling Intro-Inspection 12". The advantage that the Blech boys had on their mixes was that, at the time, Warp was pretty much all electronic with even the further out artists (Jimi Tenor, Mira Calix) fitting into the overall mix. Nowadays, Osymyso looks at the catalogue and sees Gravenhurst, !!! and Pivot - and he sees them as a challenge to include alongside Forgemasters, Prefuse 73 and LFO.

So perhaps the mix suffers because of the elements used - the early days of Warp were a success because the tracks mixed in so smoothly together (much of that thanks to Robert Gordon, the unsung original third member of the label). The latter days of Warp enjoy a degree of success precisely because the majority of tracks produced don't mix in neatly together. Osymyso opens with about 12 tracks in 5 minutes but then has to include a long stretch of "Atlas" which sees the pace slacken, and later on Grizzly Bear's cover of "He Hit Me" kills the pace almost entirely. Nevertheless the result is better than the WarpVision effort and it's a pretty good blindfold listen for the Warp obsessive to see how many tracks they can spot.

Unheard
The Unheard set of three 10" slabs of vinyl was probably the enticement that most Warp followers needed to stick their hands in wallets and part with the cash. Not only are the label followers obsessive on their own but also they dovetail neatly with others who feel obliged to collect everything an artist releases. Warp have three such artists in the shape of Aphex Twin, Autechre and Boards of Canada - the latter's fans are particularly rabid, perhaps because deep down they know they will never get their hands on a pristine edition of Hooper Bay. To make up for that, everything else must be tracked down, snapped up and analysed for deeper, probably numeric, meaning. Because the compilers aren't idiots, Boards Of Canada's "Seven Forty Seven" (from 2001) gets a side to itself and everyone else - yes, even Autechre - has to share. Fortunately, "Seven Forty Seven" is another great BOC tune, with a woozy choral floating over a sludgy, slowed down hip hop beat, and what sounds like the titular aeroplane taking off in the middle. Music for airports, indeed.

Autechre's "Oval Moon (IBC Mx)" is a lost early work, presumably left off Incunabula when that was compiled. It is scarcely recognisable to the Ae of today but a delight for those that still dig out "Eggshell" and "444" from time to time and proof that Brown & Booth were among the finest exponents of ambient techno before they turned their hands to deconstructing the genre. Verily, they are the Mondrian of music. Other recoveries from the archives include Elecktroids, Nightmares on Wax and a Peel Session track from Broadcast. Clark's "Rattlesnake" just about pre-dates everything else he's released (assuming the sleevenotes are correct), as does Flying Lotus' brilliant "Tronix", a five year old slab of ambience that washes over the listener. Plaid offer up a pair of new tracks, and Seefeel also provide the shock of the new. Having contributed "Acrobat" on Recreated and now "As Link" here, it seems that they are once again active after a long break, which is good news indeed.

Warp described Unheard as 'exclusively on vinyl' in the launch notes for the box set and sure enough, a CD edition is being prepped for November. So if you're willing to shell out about a tenth of the price of the box, you'll get your hands on the real gems in the set. It is a move that will upset a fair number of box set buyers who would have been hoping to remain smug about owning this selection of tracks until at least 2010, and given the completist way a Warphead works, they will almost certainly shell out for the CD edition as well, just so they don't have to keep touching that precious vinyl. Warp will say they are responding to public demand, but to many this just smacks of a further way to fleece the fans. The least the label could have done is offer box set buyers a complimentary download - as it is there is a sense that the label are becoming greedy bastards. We would expect Universal to pull off a trick like this but not Warp. Still, nobody made us buy the set and those who read the small print knew what to expect. It leaves a nasty taste in the mouth though.

Infinite
It is highly unlikely that the final pair of records will appear on CD - locked groove technology managed to outwit the technology's inventors and given the way the end of that medium is being talked up, it is unlikely to appear now.Infinite provides some 50 locked grooves from artists across the board, with a drum loop here, a synth wash there. All the pieces are taken from previously released tracks - except one. Tucked away toward the end of the record is "Spiro", a 1.8 second sample from an otherwise unheard Boards Of Canada track (it has, according to those who study these things, been played live by the duo and is available on bootlegs). It's unexpected but it isn't enough to make one run onto the street in delight. Apparently the thought behind the locked grooves is to add a handy dimension to one's DJing skills when cueing up that particular Warp track (be it V.L.A.D. or Disjecta) but I honestly cannot imagine many taking these particular pieces of precious vinyl out of the house, never mind sticking them on a strange pair of decks. It is much more likely that these discs find themselves being used to loop alongside each other to create new works (Leila vs DJ Maxximus, perhaps?) or to play as a kind of extension to the Buddha Machine.

The Book
The final part of the puzzle is the book that, aside from a foreword from Steve Beckett, consists solely of covers from the entire Warp back catalogue with release info. It is handy for filling in a few gaps in the discography and for forming a sort of chronology (the WARP and WAP numbers frequently slipped a few months or even a year or two). It is also useful to follow the label's identity from the Designer's Republic aesthetic of the early years to a far more diverse array of design nowadays. On a purely observational level, the quantity of Jamie Lidell and Maximo Park releases is just overwhelming (no wonder I stopped collecting everything). It makes a fine companion to Rob Young's Labels Unlimited book which dealt more with the history of the label, and included only the occasional aside to the design. But this is less likely to be dipped into, other than for discussions about the finest cover artwork, the consistency of design and the use of the colour purple (Pantone 2695, if you must know).

As for the overall package - well it's a reassuringly heavy, solid box, with all the sleeves fitting in just so. The Möbius strip that features in the photographs gives the impression of a Pink Floyd album sleeve and it lacks the statement of intent that the Warp10 sets had (the famous purple dominating the tower blocks of inner city Sheffield). Now, the theory behind the variety of scenes (a decaying interior, a quarry and so on) is presumably to underline the breadth of artist that Warp now covers, for whom one urban setting would not suffice. But it is still oddly unconvincing.

To really nitpick, there are several sloppy mistakes in the printing.DJ Mujava's name is spelt wrong - twice - and there are a few typos in the credits. Furthermore, whilst releasing the Maximo Park guitarist's solo album may seem like the lowest ebb Warp have reached to date (I haven't heard it, so can't comment, but it does feel like it is the runt of the litter) getting the name wrong in the book seems like a shoddy bit of work. A few errors here and there give off signs that whilst Warp are trumpeting this as the summation of twenty years of quality output, they've dropped the ball on the centrepiece of the year.

Furthermore, the sloppiness extends to a couple of the music selections on Chosen. Boards of Canada's "Roygbiv" here comes complete with the tail end of "Bocuma" which gives the impression it has been cribbed from a CD edition, rather than a master. I realise I'm going to sound like a total anorak here but "Roygbiv" was a standalone track on the industry-only How To Succeed in Advertising, which Warp put out a number of years back to drum up interest in licensing their tracks. So, if that compilation could manage a clean "Roygbiv", why not Warp20? Also annoying is the sudden cut off of Clark's "Herzog" which normally segues into "Ted" but here stops dead at the end of the disc - a bit of sympathetic editing with a fade-out would have worked wonders here. Maybe they are only small details but in an expensive package, the small details matter. Perhaps Warp should pause a moment from their future plans and hire a proof-reading archivist so this sort of error doesn't recur.

The Conclusion
So, several hours or days later (depending on your locked groove fetishisation) and hundred quid lighter, what have we learned, apart from the realisation that little mistakes really irritate this particular reviewer? Well, the music is, for the most part, excellent.Chosen is a pretty good combination of greatest hits package and personal mixtape, covering most of output in one form or another - and yet two of the more prolific and varied producers, Andrew Weatherall and Scott Herren are completely overlooked, as is Antipop Consortium who, for a brief time at least, were one of the label's highest profile acts.

However, Recreated underlines the confused nature of Warp nowadays and the gradual loss of its identity from being synonymous with the finest electronica to purveyor of what is often middling indie rock, a situation unlikely to be changed by its newest signings, Lonelady and The Hundred in the Hands. Osymyso's Elemental mix perhaps unwittingly brings these confusions to the fore as he discovers that attempting to mix that which was not designed to be mixed often leads to frustration. What could be a worrying sign for Warp is that the real gems are to be found on the Unheard disc where tracks of up to twenty years vintage still manage to hold their own quite comfortably compared to the current wave of cover version contributors.

After two decades, Warp are in an enviable position for many other labels, and in fact much of their talent is acquired from the smaller companies and collectives unable to provide for the ambition of their artists. Whilst there is every sign that the new electronic producers on the label (Tim Exile, Rustie, Hudson Mohawke and especially Flying Lotus) are capable of pushing the boundaries in the future, Warp are no longer a label that are just about electronica with a few guitar-related oddities on the margins. The biggest sellers are the indie rock types Maximo Park and Grizzly Bear and signs are the label will continue to dip a toe in the mainstream, if only to provide greater financial stability for its electronic stars which have lower sales but greater kudos.

The Warp20 box and attendant events underline the label's ambitions to mark an important anniversary in its existence, but the output throughout the year (from Bibio to Tyondai Braxton, Grizzly Bear to Broadcast and the Focus Group) underline their willingness to push on, and on that evidence (more so than the box itself) one can conclude that the future's bright.The future's purple.

-Jeremy Bye