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 luke vibert interview
 to access audio and video on collective you need real player.The passion of the Christ. Luke Vibert, the eminently multi-pronged bedroom producer-stroke-DJ, is a Cornishman of many aliases and musical styles, ranging from drum’n’bass to acid techno, twisted breaks, country (even) and, more recently, “proper disco”. His new LP as Wagon Christ, Sorry I Make You Lush, is a gleefully odd corker, all exotic-sounding flourishes, synth squelches, psychedelic squirts, whistles, cowbells, loopy vocal cut-ups and tasty melodies. “I wanted to make a positive, happy-sounding record,” says Vibert. Something lush? “God, I use that word all the time for anything good or weird,” explains Luke from his temporary UK base in Hackney, having now set up home in Marseilles with his girlfriend and two nippers. “Aphex [Twin] will use the word ‘lush’ when something weird happens,” he adds, referring to his longtime pal and kindred spirit. Like Richard D James, Luke burst from the Cornwall Skool in the early 90s with a welter of electronic ideas. Vibert recalls how, “Around ’93 when I chose the name Wagon Christ, everyone [techno] was called X1 or X3... That’s why I came up with the name Wagon Christ to be totally the opposite of that.” Wagon Christ is, of course, only one part of Vibert’s multi-aliased “self”. He tallies up the monikers: “Well, there’s Plug, Kerrier District, Amen Andrews…” Are these names devices to help separate his musical styles? “In a way, but also because of record label reasons,” he explains. “Sometimes I can get more money. Kerrier and Amen are both on Rephlex but the rest are all on different labels.”  Underpinned by deep bass rumbles and topped off by beautiful, sweet, girlie vocals (sampled) that dip in and out of the heatwave, Sorry I Make You Lush also includes a vocal rendition from Vibert on I’m Singing. “Not quite so beautiful,” laughs Luke. “I’m singing in a dodgy 80s way.” “My girlfriend says I have quite a pained expression on my face when I’m making music,” says Luke, by way of digression, referring to his utterly absorbed demeanour, hunched over a laptop during his many live outings. Does he miss having racks of gear to fiddle with? “In a way, knobs and things are better because it feels so much more musical somehow,” comes his reply. “Laptops feel like emails, writing letters. You can’t feel funky working off a laptop. But now I DJ off them, put it up high and get into it. Every so often I’ll get my analogue stuff out cos it’s so nice to play keyboards.” There is, quite possibly, no electronic musician busier than Luke Vibert right now. His itinerary for the summer is plain bonkers. “I’m really looking forward to playing at Roskilde,” he says of one booking, through a sneeze. “I’m hay-feverous but I’ll be out in the sun,” he continues, another atishoo a-brewing. “I’m staying off the antihistamines though, cos they make me drowsy.”
Stuart Turnbull
Wagon Christ - Sorry I Make You Lush, released 28 June 04 on Ninja Tune.
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