Plaid

British electronic duo Plaid began issuing inventive electronic material in the early 1990s, work defined by whimsical melodies and intricate rhythmic patterns. Formed by Ed Handley and Andy Turner, both founding participants in Black Dog Productions, the pair fused 1980s electro and Detroit techno references, thereby helping shape the British home-listening variant of techno that later received the IDM label. After parting ways with Black Dog Productions in 1995, the duo joined Warp and issued widely praised albums including 1997’s Not for Threes, which featured contributions from frequent associates Björk and Nicolette, and 2001’s Double Figure. During the latter half of the 2000s Plaid concentrated on film scores such as Heaven’s Door (2008), later resuming studio activity with Reachy Prints (2014) and Polymer (2019), both of which merged acoustic and electronic components. Their 2022 release Feorm Falorx examined science-fiction and artificial-intelligence themes.

Although Plaid existed independently beforehand and released their scarce, vinyl-only debut Mbuki Mvuki in 1991, Handley and Turner devoted most of their initial studio years to Ken Downie within Black Dog Productions, whose dancefloor-defying approach they shared. Aligning with Downie’s hybrid post-techno aesthetic and cryptic subject matter, the two introduced several early Plaid compositions to the 1993 Black Dog Productions album Bytes, a set assembled from recordings by different combinations of the three musicians. Throughout the first half of the 1990s the trio produced multiple albums and EPs that helped establish a dance-music style positioned slightly apart from conventional 12-inch techno releases; Handley and Turner’s shared affinity for early hip-hop supplied Black Dog Productions with additional street-level edge.

In 1995 the pair separated from Downie and redirected their energies full-time, first with the Android EP on the neo-electro Clear label and subsequently with a contract at Warp. They also completed an album with European techno artist Mark Broom under the Repeat alias, two tracks of which appeared on the South of Market EP issued by Jonah Sharp’s Reflective imprint. Plaid’s initial two widely available albums, 1997’s Not for Threes and 1999’s Rest Proof Clockwork, reached the United States via Nothing; once Warp established an American base the duo transferred to the label for the retrospective Trainer, which gathered much of their previously hard-to-find early material. Their fourth proper album, Double Figure, arrived in spring 2001, followed in 2003 by the remix anthology Parts in the Post on Peacefrog and the fifth studio LP Spokes at year’s end.

After several years without new recordings, Plaid resurfaced in mid-2006 with the mini-album Greedy Baby, credited jointly with visual artist Bob Jaroc. Two years later they composed the score for the Japanese film Heaven’s Door directed by Michael Arias. Scintilli appeared on Warp in 2011, and three years afterward Reachy Prints evoked the brighter, playful textures of their late-1990s output. The 2016 album The Digging Remedy revisited the Detroit techno roots of their earliest work and included flute and guitar contributions from Benet Walsh, a musician who had participated in most Plaid albums since Not for Threes. Polymer, the duo’s tenth album and tenth studio release, arrived in June 2019 and addressed environmental subjects. Stem Sell, a benefit compilation of their remixes for artists including Red Snapper, John Tejada, and As One, was issued by Touched in 2021. Feorm Falorx, presented as a recreation of the duo’s live set at a festival on a remote planet, emerged on Warp in 2022 together with a graphic novel produced through artificial-intelligence methods.