Wagon Christ – Recepticon

With Reception we find Luke Vibert returning to his Wagon Christ alias. This LP is the beloved producer’s latest voyage into electronic music’s most weird and wonderful pastures. Vibert has released music under many names - Amen Andrews, Kerrier District, and Plug to name but three - but he may have no moniker more beloved than Wagon Christ. Recepticon’s playful and psychedelic electronic offerings remind the listener just why the prospect of a new Wagon Christ record sends Vibert fans both old and new into raptures.

Vibert revisits some of his most fertile sonic terrain on Reception. Downtempo, acid house, old-school rave, and IDM have long provided Vibert with jumping-off points for his sonic explorations, and while this may be the first Wagon Christ LP for nine years the record’s timbres are reassuringly familiar. However, while these genres may give Recepticon solid foundations, the tracks which Vibert builds on them have an off-kilter energy that utilises all sorts of vivid samples and Vibert’s enduringly idiosyncratic production style. The final result is an album that sits somewhere between rave revivalism, plunderphonics, and pure electronic experimentation - it’s a space that Recepticon shares with the likes of Nightmares On Wax, Plone, and Mr. Scruff.

Luke Vibert’s first LP as Wagon Christ for nine years finds the veteran producer delivering a sampledelic retro-rave delight in the form of Reception.