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Plaid (UK)
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September 04, 21:00
Sixteen Tons 
Plaid, are London based producers Andy Turner and Ed Handley. Much of their earlier work was released under the name The Black Dog.
Plaid can be definitely attributed to the first wave of the IDM trend in music, they started their musical career along with such pioneers of the genre as Autechre, Aphex Twin, Boards of Canada. Plaid have always differed from their colleagues with their lighter, more warm and melodic sound. Besides creating their own unique music style, Plaid have much influenced the public opinion about what the IDM style actually is and how diverse it can be. As time passed the sounding of the band evolved - the attraction to techno and ambient techno gave way to experimenting with a beats and cold, "glass" sounds. Finally the band formed their own unique style characterized by melodic multi-layered tracks with complex patterns and variable tempo. But the Plaid never stopped developing - the band's style changes and evolves together with the group itself.
Andy Turner and Ed Handley are old school friends who have been producing music together since 1989, when they founded, The Black Dog, with Ken Downie. Their first album as Plaid, Mbuki Mvuki, was self-released on their label, Black Dog Productions in 1991 and led to their signing to Warp Records. They wrote two albums for Warp with Downie, as The Black Dog, Bytes and Spanners, before leaving to pursue their Plaid collaboration. Since, they have released the albums, Not for Threes, Restproof Clockwork, Trainer, Double Figure, Spokes and Scintilli, often collaborating with acoustic musicians for the recordings.
Their passion for collaboration has enabled them to embrace diverse musical and visual influences. Producing recording artists such as Bjork (One Little Indian), Mara Carlyle (Accidental Records) and Nicolette (Talking Loud), as well as developing shows with The Southbank Gamelan Players, The London Sinfonietta and academics from SARC (The Sonic Arts Research Centre in Belfast) amongst others. They have been involved in the development of various new music technologies, Bruno Zamborlin's Mogees system, Felix Thorn's project Felix's Machines and other software production tools, most notably being featured artist for Apple's Logic Studio software.
Plaid's interest in live audio visual performance, led to their work with the visual artist Bob Jaroc and their surround sound DVD release, Greedy Baby. They have also collaborated on short form video with other directors including the Parisian collective, PLEIX (for Creative Review), Chris Turner (for the English National Ballet) and Evan Boehm (for The Creators Project). They composed the soundtracks for Michael Arias' feature films, Heaven's Door and Tekkonkinkreet, awarded a Japanese Academy Prize in 2006 for best Animated picture.
Plaid's first proper album in nearly a decade, Scintilli, was a slightly tentative return that ultimately felt like a warm-up for Reachy Prints. With its juxtapositions of the prickly and the funky, the electronic and the orchestral, the duo's sixth album evokes Not for Threes while giving the often-delicate sonics of their previous album more impact on tracks such as Hawkmoth. Even more so than on Scintilli, Ed Handley and Andy Turner know when to be complex and when to be direct. Each approach delivers highlights: Liverpool St. closes Reachy Prints with a psychedelic swirl of rubbery beats, flutes, and woodwinds that perhaps nods to the duo's years of composing soundtracks; "Slam" winds on itself hypnotically, its rhythms and melodies avoiding easy paths with a surprising grace. Meanwhile, the crisply twinkling Matin Lunaire brings things into sharp focus, and Tether's sliding, clicking, and crashing sonics are so kinetic that it's easy to hear why it was also released as an interactive app. Throughout Reachy Prints, Handley and Turner refine the core of their sound, whether displaying their continuing mastery of shapeshifting tracks like Nafovanny, which subtly morphs from spare and squiggly into something more effervescent over the course of five minutes, or proving that there's still a place for songs like the expansive, skittering Wallet, which manages to exemplify a certain strain of the music formerly known as IDM, and sound fresh at the same time. It's to their credit that Plaid aren't preoccupied with being cutting-edge on Reachy Prints. Instead, they bring the playful, brainy spirit of their best work over the years into the 21st century with lively results.
The band's European tour started in May 2014 with shows in Manchester and the Village Underground in London.
"Unique collision of choppy electronics and chirpy melodies has been delighting listeners since 1988" (Fact Magazine).
"There are not many artists who sound even remotely like him" (XLR8R).
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