Luke Vibert (born 26 January 1973) is a British

electronic music Electronic music broadly is a group of music genres that employ electronic musical instruments, circuitry-based music technology and software, or general-purpose electronics (such as personal computers) in its creation. It includes both music ...

ian and producer, also known for his work under several aliases such as Plug and Wagon Christ. Raised in

Cornwall Cornwall (; or ) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South West England. It is also one of the Celtic nations and the homeland of the Cornish people. The county is bordered by the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, ...

, Vibert began releasing projects in the 1990s across varied genres, including

techno Techno is a genre of electronic dance music (EDM) which is generally produced for use in a continuous DJ set, with tempos being in the range from 120 to 150 beats per minute (bpm). The central rhythm is typically in common time ( ) and often ...

drum and bass Drum and bass (commonly abbreviated as DnB, D&B, or D'n'B) is a genre of electronic dance music characterised by fast Break (music)#Breakbeat (element of music), breakbeats (typically 165–185 Tempo, beats per minute) with heavy Bass (music) ...

, and

trip hop Trip hop is a musical genre that has been described as a psychedelic music, psychedelic fusion of hip hop music, hip hop and electronica with slow tempos and an atmospheric sound. The style emerged as a more experimental music, experimental var ...

. He has recorded on labels such as Rephlex,

Ninja Tune Ninja Tune is an independent record label based in London, with a satellite office in Los Angeles. It was founded in 1990 by musicians Matt Black and Jonathan More, known collectively as Coldcut. The label was established as an outlet for Col ...

Planet Mu Planet Mu is an English electronic music record label created and run by Mike Paradinas. The label started out as a subsidiary of Virgin Records then Paradinas set up the label independent of Virgin. After releasing intelligent dance music, the ...

, and

Warp Warp, warped or warping may refer to: Arts and entertainment Books and comics * WaRP Graphics, an alternative comics publisher * ''Warp'' (First Comics), comic book series published by First Comics based on the play ''Warp!'' * Warp (comics), a D ...

Early years: 1990s

Vibert's first musical output was in a variety of bands, including a

punk Punk or punks may refer to: Genres, subculture, and related aspects * Punk rock, a music genre originating in the 1970s associated with various subgenres * Punk subculture, a subculture associated with punk rock, or aspects of the subculture s ...

act called Five Minute Fashion and later a

Beastie Boys The Beastie Boys were an American Hip-hop, hip hop and Rap rock, rap rock group formed in New York City in 1979. They were composed of Ad-Rock, Adam "Ad-Rock" Horovitz (vocals, guitar), Adam Yauch, Adam "MCA" Yauch (vocals, bass), and Mike D, ...

-esque group called the Hate Brothers, but he quickly moved into the low-cost environment of solo electronic composition. Vibert grew up in Cornwall and attended the Wesleyan Methodist

Truro School Truro School is a coeducational private boarding and day school located in the city of Truro, Cornwall, England. It is the largest coeducational independent school in Cornwall with over 1050 pupils from pre-prep to sixth form. It is a member s ...

along with a number of key members of

Aphex Twin Richard David James (born 18 August 1971), known professionally as Aphex Twin, is a British musician, composer and DJ active in electronic music since 1988. His idiosyncratic work has drawn on many styles, including techno, ambient music, ambi ...

Rephlex Records Rephlex Records was a record label launched in 1991 in Cornwall by Electronic music, electronic musician Richard D. James (aka Aphex Twin) and Grant Wilson-Claridge. The label coined the term ''braindance'' to describe the output of Aphex Twin ...

crew. Luke and another school friend, Jeremy Simmonds, released an album on Rephlex under the name of ''Vibert/Simmonds'' which attracted attention from the Rising High

music label "Big Three" music labels A record label or record company is a brand or trademark of music recordings and music videos, or the company that owns it. Sometimes, a record label is also a publishing company that manages such brands and t ...

. As a result of the popularity of the style in the early 1990s, Rising High commissioned an

ambient music Ambient music is a genre of music that emphasizes Musical tone, tone and atmosphere over traditional Musical form, musical structure or rhythm. Often "peaceful" sounding and lacking Musical composition, composition, beat, and/or structured melod ...

album from Vibert, who delivered ''Phat Lab Nightmare'' under the alias Wagon Christ in 1993. Vibert pioneered the "

drill 'n' bass Drill 'n' bass is a subgenre of drum and bass which developed in the mid-1990s as intelligent dance music, IDM artists began experimenting with elements of jungle music, jungle and breakbeat hardcore, breakbeat music. Artists utilized powerful ...

" subgenre, which experimented with

jungle jungle is land covered with dense forest and tangled vegetation, usually in tropical climates. Application of the term has varied greatly during the past century. Etymology The word ''jungle'' originates from the Sanskrit word ''jaṅgala'' ...

and

drum 'n' bass Drum and bass (commonly abbreviated as DnB, D&B, or D'n'B) is a genre of electronic dance music characterised by fast breakbeats (typically 165–185 beats per minute) with heavy bass and sub-bass lines, samples, and synthesizers. The genre ...

breakbeats, on his 1995 EPs under the name Plug. He would go on further over the next few years to produce more music under the Wagon Christ name for Rising High and

2000 and onwards

In late 1999 and 2000, Vibert began touring with

BJ Cole Brian John Cole (born 17 June 1946) is an English pedal steel guitarist, who has long been active as a session and solo musician. Coming to prominence in the early 1970s with the band Cochise, Cole has played in many styles, ranging from main ...

to promote their fusion album '' Stop the Panic''. In 2002, he would begin a series of live collaborations with

. Although Aphex Twin and Luke Vibert never released an album together, Aphex Twin used the song name "Analord", from Vibert's album '' Lover's Acid'', for a series of EPs. Vibert's later releases varied in style as he released albums under various names, including Plug, Amen Andrews, Kerrier District and Spac Hand Luke. "Amen Andrews" is a

word play Word play or wordplay (also: play-on-words) is a literary technique and a form of wit in which words used become the main subject of the work, primarily for the purpose of intended effect or amusement. Examples of word play include puns, ph ...

on the name of Irish game show host

Eamonn Andrews Eamonn Andrews, (19 December 1922 – 5 November 1987) was an Irish radio and television presenter, employed primarily in the United Kingdom from the 1950s to the 1980s. From 1960 to 1964 he chaired the Radio Éireann Authority (now the RTÉ ...

, referring to the fact that each Amen Andrews track uses the

Amen break The Amen break is a drum break that has been widely Sampling (music), sampled in popular music. It comes from the 1969 track "Amen, Brother" by the American soul group the Winstons, released as the B-side of the 1969 single "Color Him Father". T ...

. In 2004, Vibert explored acid disco when he remixed a Black Devil song, which was released on '' Disco Club (Remix)'' and released his first album under the alias Kerrier District. In 2006, Vibert's song "Shadows" was featured on the DJ mix album '' A Bugged Out Mix'' by

Miss Kittin Caroline Hervé (born 15 July 1973), known professionally as Kittin, is a French electronic music producer, DJ, singer, and songwriter. Since rising to prominence in 1998 for her singles "1982" and "Frank Sinatra" with The Hacker, she has worke ...

, which charted at number one-hundred seventy on the

French Albums Chart SNEP (, in English National Syndicate of Phonographic Publishing) is the inter-professional organisation that protects the interests of the French record industry. Originally known under the acronym SNICOP, the organisation was established in 1 ...

. In 2007 he founded a club night with

Posthuman Posthuman or post-human is a concept originating in the fields of science fiction, futurology, contemporary art, and philosophy that means a person or entity that exists in a state beyond being human. The concept aims at addressing a variety of ...

called "I Love Acid" after his track. In 2019 it won Best British Club Event in the

DJ Mag ''DJ Magazine'' (also known as ''DJ Mag'') is a British monthly magazine dedicated to electronic dance music and DJs. Founded in 1991, the magazine is adapted for distribution in the United Kingdom, the United States, Spain, France, Italy, Lati ...

awards. A vinyl-only record label of the same name was founded in 2014, with Luke contributing two EPs and an album "Valvable" written entirely on three pieces of

Roland Roland (; ; or ''Rotholandus''; or ''Rolando''; died 15 August 778) was a Frankish military leader under Charlemagne who became one of the principal figures in the literary cycle known as the Matter of France. The historical Roland was mil ...

equipment: TB303, TR808, and JX3P. In 2015, he participated in the musical transmedia ''

Soundhunters ''Soundhunters'' is a transmedia musical project created by Nicolas Blies and Stéphane Hueber-Blies (also known as the Blies brothers), Marion Guth, and François Le Gall. It was broadcast on the Franco-German channel Arte in 2015 and deployed ...

'' broadcast on the Franco-German channel

Arte Arte (, , ; ' ('), sometimes stylised in lowercase or uppercase in its logo) is a European Union, European public service Television channel, channel dedicated to culture. It is made up of three separate companies: the Strasbourg-based Europea ...

. For this project, Vibert appeared in the film ''Speak the way you breathe'' directed by the American film director Antonino D'Ambrosio and composed an original music of the same name.

Discography

Albums

EPs

Compilation albums

Singles

Compilation appearances

Remixes

References

External links

* Wagon Christ Biographyat

AllMusic AllMusic (previously known as All-Music Guide and AMG) is an American online database, online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on Musical artist, musicians and Mus ...

{{DEFAULTSORT:Vibert, Luke 1973 births Living people Astralwerks artists English electronic musicians English record producers People from Redruth People educated at Truro School Ninja Tune artists Nothing Records artists Planet Mu artists Rephlex Records artists Acid house musicians Musicians from Cornwall