Mo’ Wax — Where Are They Now: Luke Vibert (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…
These days Luke Vibert is probably best known for his work with labels such as Warp and Planet Mu, but some of his first releases under his name appeared on Mo’ Wax.
Vibert first released music on Aphex Twin’s label Rephlex with a project called Vibert / Simmonds, a collaboration between himself and Jeremy Simmonds. Their album Weirs was released in 1993 and is described by All Music as “crushing industrial beats and acid synthwork…[that] might come as a bit of a shock to listeners familiar with [Vibert’s later]…more trip-hop- and jungle-inspired works.”
Weirs was followed by albums under the aliases Wagon Christ, and Plug, before the first Luke Vibert release appeared on Mo’ Wax.
James Lavelle had heard Wagon Christs’ At Atmos EP in 1994 and called Vibert about putting something out on Mo’ Wax. As Vibert explained to Muzik:
I’ve been playing him tracks and we just slowly picked out the ones for the album. He’d pick maybe one every couple of months, so it’s taken a lot longer to put the album together. I think that’s made it a lot more solid.
In August 1996 the 12" A Polished Solid was released and entered the UK Singles Chart at #98. This was followed by the album Big Soup which was released in July 1997, and just missed out on entering the UK Album Chart’s Top 100, only reaching #119. This was followed by another 12", Do Unto Others was released, which also reached #98 in the UK Singles Chart.
Big Soup received mixed reviews at the time, with Spin seemingly perplexed, and CMJ calling it “calculated electronic chaos”, but NME were slightly more open minded, writing:
Despite spreading himself thinly across multiple personalities, Vibert still seems to possess sufficient ear-warping nous and restless innovation to make every tune an idea-stuffed journey into sound. Even when broaching the ten-minute mark with generously proportioned noise casseroles such as ‘Rank Rink Ring’, the musical flow evolves and mutates through several distinct stages, from doomy church-organ rumbles to submarine bleeps, shuffling slowbeats and space-jazz oscillations.
NME did feel the album was possibly too long, and Muzik agreed, though both publications awarded it 8/10 in their reviews, and Big Soup was later given the #5 spot on Fact’s 50 Best Trip-Hop Albums Of All Time list, beating UNKLE, Psychonauts, and the original Headz compilation.
During the 2000’s Vibert released new albums under the names Luke Vibert, Amen Andrews, Kerrier District, Plug, Spac Hand Luke, The Ace Of Clubs, and Wagon Christ, across several different record labels such as Rephlex, Warp, Planet Mu, and Ninja Tune. But while he was incredibly prolific, Vibert didn’t release another album on Mo’ Wax following Big Soup, and he explained why in 2003 as he discussed his issues with record labels:
…not many labels are nice. There’s only Warp, Ninja Tune, Rephlex that I know are nice labels, that’s it. Mo’Wax were horrible, Virgin obviously… they just didn’t care about me. But it was the same with Mo’Wax. I wasn’t surprised with Virgin, like every time I went there, I had the feeling I was just nothing, but I got the same feeling with Mo’Wax which was really horrible. It really felt like the only important thing was James Lavelle and the label. He’d just leave you there to wait in some room occasionally popping to say ‘I’ll be with you in a minute’, like ‘I’ve got important things to do and you’re not important’.
Later in 2008 he told Future Music that he felt most comfortable showing his tracks to Rephlex and Planet Mu, as other labels didn’t always get his music:
I had some situations with Mo Wax and even Ninja in the past where they said weird things like, ‘yeah, we really like this track but it’s not quite ‘Ninja’ enough’, and I’d get really confused because God knows what that is. They’re not thinking about what they like so much as ‘will this be successful?’ or ‘who’s going to buy this?’, but I’m never thinking that when I make the tracks — I mean, you can’t help it sometimes afterwards, but when you’re making it you’re just trying to do the best you can.
Vibert has continued releasing music regularly, and most recently has worked with the Hypercolour label which has released two new Luke Vibert releases in 2020 as part of a trilogy alongside a new Amen Andrews album.
While he continues to release new work, Vibert’s Wagon Christ alias hasn’t seen a release since 2011’s Toomorrow album, and Vibert told Resident Advisor in 2015 that this was purely due to Ninja Tune, the label who releases his Wagon Christ work. He explained:
I’m always trying to get Wagon Christ out on Ninja, and I have a running battle with them every time — even though I signed a five-album deal, and I’ve only done three or four of them. I’m just at some stalemate at the moment with them. But yeah, I’d love to do Wagon every year.
Label issues aside, Vibert remains productive, and with such a large catalogue of aliases, collaborations, and remixes across different styles there’s always something by Luke Vibert to fit your mood. His most recent release Rave Hop only just released in July 2020, but it surely won’t be too long before we next hear from him, as Vibert is likely already back in the studio. Because as he once told Future Music, “I’m actually just a horrible person if I don’t make music.”
