The best Plaid plans

Yer average baby takes what these days? Nine months? Pity the poor Plaid boys then – they’ve been incubating their ‘greedy baby’ for the past four years. See what we did there? Anyway, Greedy Baby is what you might call a labour of love for Plaid mainmen Ed Handley and Andy Turner. And Bob Jaroc, the visual artist they’ve been collaborating with for the past age. It might have taken its toll on the pair but it’s a mightily impressive body of work.
In a nutshell, it’s 60-odd minutes of classic Plaid electronica, coupled with tailor-made visuals from Jaroc. And – if you swing that way - it’s also recorded in 5.1 sound. What came first – the music or the visual?
“The project was always about the video, and it was quite conceptual when we first thought it up,” reveals Ed. “I suppose it’s a journal of what we’ve been doing over the past three years. Bob got to know our music pretty well, and we like the way he doesn’t go too hi-tech. We don’t feel like our music goes so well with the latest Flash animation. We really respect what Bob does – it has a good feel to it.”
How did it work in practice?
“We worked together in London and used an ftp space when we had to be in different places. We felt that this way we’d end up with more coherent work,” says Andy.
How would Andy describe the concept to his mum?
“I’d say it was like an episode of Eastenders, but that’s just because not much else will get her to sit in front of the TV.”
That’s not what we meant, but fair enough. How did you meet Bob?
“Bob is a video artist we’ve been collaborating with live for about six years. We’d seen his work at Sonar where he was appearing with a friend. The sight of two blokes crouched over laptops is not exactly a spectacular night out for the eyes, we’d been looking for a video artist to work with and Bob fitted in.”
The phrase ‘quantum physics’ is mentioned in the press release – how did this influence the process? “We needed a point to start from – and quantum physics provided a rich source of ideas and concepts. These were largely left behind as the pieces developed as we wanted the finished result to look and sound good. We didn’t want to make a ‘concept album’.”
As if collaborating in the flesh and via the web wasn’t enough, the album has also grown and changed as the trio performed Greedy Baby live over the past few years. “We learnt a lot from the live shows and made changes to the tracks before cutting them,” Andy proffers. “Live, we play pretty much the same tracks, updating a few as we go. We’re mixing them live so we can do a certain amount based on the specific night.”
Phew. It all feels like a lot of work for one piece. The kind of thing that would make anyone else steer well clear of visuals for a while. But not these two.
“We’re doing a score for the film Tekkon Kinkreet which will be out in December. Working with video and in surround is certainly a different experience. It would be good to be able to do it again.”
One of the pivotal points in Greedy Baby is ‘Super Barrio’ – the standout audio and visual moment that tells the tale of a mysterious Mexican hero of the people. “After the earthquakes in Mexico, Super Barrio became a spokesperson for the poorer areas, called barrios. He also campaigned for workers’ rights. The story [told as a voice-over] picks up from now where he has hung up his costume and become a social worker. Bob remembered a story he’d read about Super Barrio and was able to contact him directly. He recorded the voiceover!”
Is there meant to be a strong message with the record? Given the title, some of the imagery and the aforementioned track, it feels like you’re trying to tell us something.
“Some of the pieces have a political leaning that reflect ours but we’re not trying to sell a line in anything. They’re just questions that people can think about if they choose. Other pieces are more abstract. One of the beautiful things about electronic music is its abstract nature and we wanted something that reflected that.”
Plaid are one of the longest-serving members of the Warp stable. One-time members of seminal techno act The Black Dog & Balil, they've released four full-length albums and collaborated with or remixed a wide variety of artists, including Bjork. But because of their musical track record, they attract a certain type of fan still hooked on past glories (um, yours truly probably included).
So how do they describe themselves today? “We try to avoid doing that as much as possible. Hopefully it sounds together but there should be a variety of moods. We were certainly influenced by Detroit but there’s been a lot of music since then that’s also had some influence.”
What do you think of the other Black Dogger Ken Downie’s recent output?
“Very mellow. We liked it.”