Broadcast

Birmingham and Warp

Broadcast formed in Birmingham in 1995 around Trish Keenan, who sang and played guitar and keyboards and had been in the folk duo Hayward Winters, and the bassist James Cargill. They met at the Sensateria psychedelic club and first played as Pan Am Flight Bag before changing their name after a few concerts. Their debut single, "Accidentals" (1996, Wurlitzer Jukebox Records), was built on a sample from Joseph Losey's 1967 film Accident, and The Book Lovers EP followed on Duophonic on November 25, 1996, as did a John Peel session. They signed to Warp in 1997, which issued the compilation Work and Non Work that June.

The group's sources of inspiration included the BBC Radiophonic Workshop, Czech surrealism, 1970s public information films and forgotten film soundtracks. They used 1960s Eko and Vox instruments, a Fender Rhodes, a Korg MS-20 and guitars recorded through microphones instead of direct.

The albums

The Noise Made by People came out on March 20, 2000 (Tommy Boy in the US, April 18). It was recorded between 1998 and 2000 and produced by the band after dissatisfaction with earlier sessions run by outside engineers, and reached number 79 in the UK and number one on the UK dance chart. Metacritic scores it 81; AllMusic's Heather Phares gave it five stars and called it shimmering, weightless pop, and Pitchfork's Dan Gardopee gave it 7.8. Pitchfork ranked it 177th among the albums of the 2000s. "You Can Fall" appeared on the Morvern Callar soundtrack in 2002.

Haha Sound (August 11, 2003) was made with the drummer Neil Bullock, who recorded in a neighborhood church; Keenan sang with her head in a cardboard box for closeness and deadness. It reached 130 in the UK and number eight on the US dance and electronic chart, and Pitchfork gave it 8.2 and ranked it 121st of the decade; the Guardian gave it five stars. Tim Felton left in 2004 to form Seeland, and as a duo they made Tender Buttons (September 19, 2005). Broadcast and the Focus Group Investigate Witch Cults of the Radio Age, with Julian House's Focus Group, came in 2009, and in May 2010 Matt Groening invited them to play his All Tomorrow's Parties.

After 2011

Trish Keenan died on January 14, 2011, aged 42, after an Australian tour. Cargill and Julian House later issued the Berberian Sound Studio soundtrack (January 7, 2013, Warp) and the Maida Vale Sessions (2022), collecting four BBC live performances from 1996 to 2003. Spell Blanket (Collected Demos 2006-2009, May 3, 2024) gathers 36 demos and sketches from Keenan's archive of four-track tapes and MiniDiscs, and Distant Call (Collected Demos 2000-2006, September 28, 2024) is described as the group's final release. Cargill posts a tribute each September 28, Keenan's birthday. Cargill's side project is Children of Alice, with Julian House and Roj Stevens.