Mo’ Wax — Where Are They Now: Andrea Parker (1996)
Mo’ Wax was a record label started by James Lavelle in 1992, which closed about ten years later. Initially they released 12" singles and licensed a compilation from Japan of Japanese Hip Hop, until 1994 when they began releasing albums of their artists original work. While some of these artists such as DJ Shadow, DJ Krush, and Money Mark continued releasing music after Mo’ Wax closed, others have seemingly disappeared from the music scene. In this series I will look at each artist on Mo’ Wax and try to find out where are they now…
Andrea Parker released her Mo’ Wax debut Melodious Thunk in January 1996, but as the press release explained, she was “no way a newcomer to making music.”
In the early 1990’s Parker had moved to London from Kent to focus on music, and she began collecting records, amassing a collection of sound effects and library music which she started using for mixes. After playing some of these mixes to friends she was soon getting booked as a DJ, and would play experimental sets utilising three turntables to create one coherent mix.
Parker also explored work as a vocalist, working under pseudonyms as a session singer for hardcore/breakbeat producers. Unfortunately she hasn’t revealed who exactly she worked with, so none of these early sessions are known of, apart from her work on Koh Tao’s Sundown. She described the unknown early session to Clash in 2007:
I had done a bit of session work but it was me singing over hardcore sped-up like I was on helium. That’s when I realised that I’d better go and work out how to make some beats as I couldn’t be doing THAT for rest of my life.
Andrea Parker next took a class on Cubase and sequencing and began to write her own music, and began collaborating with other producers.
In 1993 Parker teamed with Alex Knight and Ian Tregoning releasing two 12" singles as Inky Blacknuss, and in 1994 Parker formed Two Sandwiches Short Of A Lunchbox with David Morley, releasing one 12". For these recordings Parker was credited as Andie, and she also produced at least one solo track under that name, with Stampede appearing on the 1995 compilation Apollo 2 — The Divine Compilation. 1995 also saw the release of Andrea Parker and David Morley’s Angular Art 12", and both Parker and Morley would continue to work together on Parker’s future solo output.
In 1995 Andrea Parker had produced a demo tape and spent a week visiting record labels with the hope of finding a record deal. The executives she met initially would only offer her deals if she agreed to work with an outside producer, such as Nellee Hooper as they sought artists who could emulate the success of Björk. At her final meeting Parker met with James Lavelle at the Mo’ Wax office and played her tape.
In Muzik’s September 1995 issue (published in August) they announced Andrea Parker had been signed and was working with an orchestra for her first single on Mo’ Wax The Rocking Chair, with an album titled Yesterday’s Weirdness Is Tomorrow’s Reason Why planned to follow after.
The Rocking Chair single was delayed though, and Melodious Thunk became Andrea Parker’s Mo’ Wax debut in January 1996, entering the UK Singles Charts for one week in February at #94.
The artwork for Melodious Thunk features a painting by She One, aka James Choules or BlackAtelier, and was designed by Ben Drury and Will Bankhead. She One later discussed his time with Mo’ Wax in an interview in 2013:
I had been working with MoWax making livepaints on tour with RPM and when Krush and Shadow toured England, so James and Shadow came to what was actually my first exhibition, James bought 3 pieces from the show including the one on metal that became the cover [of Melodious Thunk]…James asked me about using the work, obviously I thought it was a good fit with the music but Ben and Will did the design and photography, I remember at the time Ben said he took the red from the painting and used it for the typography.
In early 1996 Muzik hailed Parker as one of their “Faces of ’96”, and she discussed her plans for the year which included “working on my album, which is due out in the summer.” Her next 12" The Rocking Chair was released later in 1996 following delays of almost a year due to the bass being too strong and too many ssss sounds in the vocals causing technical issues.
The Rocking Chair featured a 40-piece orchestra, production from Rob Dougan of Clubbed To Death fame, and remixes by fellow Mo’ Wax artists Attica Blues, and Major Force West. In October 1996 it reached #96 in the Scottish Singles Chart, and in Novemeber entered the UK Singles Charts, spending one week at #86.
Following The Rocking Chair, Parker’s album was planned for a release in 1997, but it was delayed again, and was first released in Japan in 1998 via Toy’s Factory, who handled many Mo’ Wax artists at this time. Unfortunately UK fans would have to wait a bit longer before the album was finally released for them due to issues behind the scenes.
In 1995 Mo’ Wax had partnered with A&M who financially supported the label, but this deal ran out in 1998. What perhaps hadn’t been clear to James Lavelle was that each artist he signed to Mo’ Wax was now signed to A&M, so when Lavelle decided to sign a new partnership between Mo’ Wax and Beggar’s Banquet he unfortunately lost many of his artists. Further complicating matters was that A&M had merged with PolyGram/Universal while negotiations were ongoing, and that while some artists were allowed to move with Mo’ Wax, others were expected to stay. Andrea Parker was one of the artists initially expected to stay with PolyGram/Universal, but Mo’ Wax was able to hang on to Parker and her debut album, now titled Kiss My Arp, eventually saw a UK release in 1999.
Regarding the delay, Andrea Parker told Wow in 1999, “The album seems so old to me now that it’s just a bit of a shame really…While people have been waiting for this album for three years, it’s actually taken me ten years of my life to make it.”
Kiss My Arp featured a new version of The Rocking Chair, and across the album there was a mixture of Parker’s vocal and instrumental tracks. Kiss My Arp was released by Mo’ Wax in July 1999, with an instrumental version arriving in September. Later in the USA the album was released in a new form, combining tracks from the UK releases of Kiss My Arp and Kiss My Arp Instrumentals. The album was given 4/5 by Muzik, 8/10 by Spin, and 3/5 by NME who called it a “is a stylish, intelligent, beautifully crafted debut.”
As its title suggests Kiss My Arp featured sounds from old synthersisers, but also samples Parker recorded from sources as varied as a car wash, cutlery, and sneezing. During an interview in 1999 Andrea Parker discussed the sounds she used:
I sample a lot of organic sounds from outdoors. Metal hits and wooden hits…I’m always listening for sounds and rhythms. I like the organic and heaviness of analog [synthesisers] that you don’t get with digital sound. In keyboards now you get like a hundred presets. There’s not that much choice for me, but I love the fact that with an analog synthesizer you can make one kick sound, but you’ll never be able to make that sound again. Therefore every time I’m creating something, I’m creating something new.
Following Kiss My Arp, Parker left Mo’ Wax and in 2001 released her next mini album The Dark Ages on Quatermass. The entirely instrumental release took its title from how Parker’s music was often referred to as “dark”, to the point that she decided to embrace it and use the term for herself. Quatermass explained that The Dark Ages was “surely the purest electro sound you’ll find, but don’t expect Andrea Parker to make music for dancefloor addicts only. these tracks are ready to make you move…this might be the missing link in the mutually exclusive worlds of ‘techno’ and ‘experimental music’, now breathing side by side.”
Parker also set up her own record label Touchin’ Bass in 2001, and following The Dark Ages release on Quatermass all of Parker’s solo EP’s have been released on Touchin’ Bass, up until her most recent in 2008.
In 2009 Paker set up Aperture, a new label which she runs alongside Touchin’ Bass. While Touchin’ Bass calls themselves the “home of cutting edge experimental, bass-heavy electro and intelligent electronic music”, Aperture refers to themselves as “a label which combines all things experimental. breaking from convention. based around concepts and soundscapes.” Both labels have continued to release regularly, with Touchin’ Bass due to release their 50th release soon, while Aperture’s next will be their 15th. Both labels most recent releases were in 2019.
Andrea Parker’s most recent release was in 2011 when she teamed with Daz Quayle for the album Private Dreams and Public Nightmares, an album which samples music from Daphne Oram to create new music. The album was released on Aperture after Parker had initially been invited to create one track based on recordings within the Daphne Oram archives. Quayle and Parker performed the piece live, but then wanted to explore the idea further in the form of an album. Parker explained further in 2016:
We spent hundreds of hours sampling these sounds and treating them through various noise reduction processors, trying to strike the balance between making them audible in the mix without losing the individual characteristics of the original sounds. We wanted to use some of the less-obvious, unnerving sounds we found in the archives to explore a different side of Daphne Oram, a darker side, incorporating them alongside sounds from my own archives.
Since the albums release Parker has continued to manage both of her record labels and perform live, and more recently in 2019 she collaborated together with She One on a live performance in Spain, with Parker creating a soundtrack while She One created a live digital artwork that appeared on screens behind the pair.
While 2020 will likely still see new releases from Touchin’ Bass and Aperture, Andrea Parker has remained quiet about when her next solo release will appear. As recently as 2017, Parker mentioned that she hoped to finish her next solo album soon, but it has yet to see release.
