Broadcast (band)

Broadcast were an English art-pop band formed in Birmingham in 1995 by James Cargill and Trish Keenan, fusing pop songcraft with experimentally minded electronic music into a contemporary blend of psychedelia.¹ The original lineup also included guitarist Tim Felton, keyboardist Roj Stevens and drummer Steve Perkins.^{1 • 2} After early releases on small independents, the band signed to Warp Records and stayed there for the rest of its career, becoming one of the label's most revered cult acts.¹ Keenan died in January 2011, and Cargill completed the band's final score, Berberian Sound Studio, released in 2013.^{2 • 3}

Early years

Cargill and Keenan assembled the band with Felton, Stevens and Perkins after hearing the cult 1960s psych band The United States of America during a night out at Birmingham's Sensateria club; that group's lone 1968 self-titled album, with its fusion of psychedelia, primitive frequency modulations and sociopolitical lyrics, was a revelation to them.¹ Their early work also drew on British and French library music pioneers such as Ron Geesin, Roger Roger and Basil Kirchin, the musique concrète of the BBC Radiophonic Workshop, and the atmospheres of Italian giallo cinema.¹

An early profile in The Independent in 1996 described the five-piece as a melting pot of spooky keyboards, fragrant female vocals and waltz-time early 1960s melodies; keyboardist Roger Stevens said the band was "more into soundtracks" than guitar rock, acid jazz, or post-rock.⁵ Keenan rejected comparisons with contemporary bands. "Stereolab and Portishead," she said. "I think we're influenced by their influences more than by them. It's horrible to be compared to bands around now, it makes us sound secondhand."⁵

Duophonic and Warp. After sending a demo tape to Stereolab, Broadcast were courted by manager Martin Pike, and their next release appeared on Stereolab's Duophonic imprint: The Book Lovers EP (1996), their first real breakthrough.¹ After one last single for Duophonic, the band signed to Sheffield's Warp Records; their first release for the label was the compilation Work And Non Work (June 1997).^{1 • 3} The signing was, at the time, a surprising and somewhat controversial move for a label whose catalog dealt almost exclusively with acts outside pop music.¹ The first taste of fresh material on Warp was the instrumental "Hammer Without A Master", considerably more weighty and muscular than anything they had recorded before.¹

The studio albums

The Noise Made By People, released 20 March 2000, was the band's debut album proper.³ The quintet attempted to record it in several studios with different engineers and producers before recording it themselves to get the desired sound.⁶ Its single "Come On Let's Go" remains one of the band's most beloved songs.¹

Haha Sound followed on 11 August 2003. Cargill has often stated it was the closest the group came to having its initial vision reflected in the final product, with songs inspired by the cult Czech film Valerie And Her Week Of Wonders and composers Basil Kirchin, Roger Roger and Nino Nardini.¹ A contemporary review praised the album's balance of pop accessibility and artistic experimentalism.⁷

Reduction to a duo. After Haha Sound, the band lost both Roj Stevens and Tim Felton, leaving Cargill and Keenan as the creative core; mainly out of necessity they recorded their next album as a duo.¹ Tender Buttons, released 19 September 2005, was the most dramatic recontextualization of their sound to date, trading the kaleidoscopic psychedelia of earlier records for buzzing 8-bit synths, an acoustic guitar (previously unheard on a Broadcast song) and Keenan's stern recitations of cut-up texts derived from automatic writing.¹ The record divided fans of the earlier retro psychedelia while drawing in others.¹ The band's live presence in this period was deliberately reserved: one reviewer at the Cat's Cradle described the group as buttoned-down, with Keenan in a glittery silver dress easing her "icy coo" through songs from Tender Buttons and Haha Sound.⁸

Later collaborations and the final years

The band's only other constant besides the Cargill-Keenan partnership, which was both creative and romantic, was graphic designer and recording artist Julian House, responsible for the group's visual identity since their first demo and, via his Ghost Box label, a creative foil as The Focus Group.¹ In 2009 Broadcast and The Focus Group released Broadcast And The Focus Group Investigate Witch Cults Of The Radio Age, an ambitious concept album assembled from improvised recordings, Keenan's vocal loops and incantations recorded in her local church, and fragments of fully written songs.^{1 • 3} Before that, the duo had relocated from Birmingham to the country town of Hungerford, and released the bucolic tour EP Mother Is The Milky Way (2009).^{1 • 3}

Keenan and Cargill were at work on both a new Broadcast album and the score to Peter Strickland's film Berberian Sound Studio when, in late December 2010, Keenan contracted a sudden illness on tour in Australia.^{1 • 9} She died at 9am on 14 January 2011 in hospital, from complications with pneumonia after two weeks in intensive care; Warp announced she had also contracted the H1N1 flu virus.² Her obituary in The Guardian recorded that Patricia Anne Keenan was born in 1968 and died aged 42, and that parts of Haha Sound had been recorded in a church hall where she had attended a jumble sale, reflecting her magpie-like approach of searching obscure corners of pop culture.¹⁰ A posthumous appearance followed on Prefuse 73's album The Only She Chapters, for which she had recorded vocals before falling ill.⁹

Cargill finished the Berberian Sound Studio score, released to acclaim in January 2013, and said there would be one final Broadcast album of proper songs, with all of Keenan's vocals already recorded.^{1 • 3}

Legacy and posthumous releases

The band's sound drew comparisons throughout its career to Stereolab and Portishead, in part because two of its first three releases appeared on Stereolab's record label, though listeners and critics have often found the two bands less similar than the shorthand suggests.^{1 • 11} The Warp catalog treats Broadcast as a missing link between the hypnagogic post-rock of Stereolab and Pram and later dreamstate psychedelia, softening kosmische pulses with a space-rocker's ear for texture.¹² Keenan's trademark vocals, described as sleepy, sing-song and sonorous, are frequently heard in later bedroom pop and shoegaze artists.⁶

Posthumous catalog. Warp has continued to issue the band's work: Microtronics - Volumes 1 & 2, Mother Is The Milky Way and the Maida Vale Sessions all appeared on 18 March 2022, and two collections of demos followed in 2024, Spell Blanket - Collected Demos 2006 - 2009 (May 2024) and Distant Call - Collected Demos 2000 - 2006 (September 2024).³ Keenan's stated credo summarized the band's project: "The avant-garde is no good without popular, and popular is rubbish without avant-garde."¹

References

1. Mikey IQ Jones (2015). The Essential… Broadcast. Fact.
2. Ian J Griffiths and Dafydd Goff (2011). Broadcast singer Trish Keenan dies after suffering pneumonia. The Guardian.
3. Broadcast – Official Store, Warp Records
4. Strickland soundtracks: Berberian Sound Studio, Glissando (2015)
5. Angela Lewis (1996). Angela Lewis on pop music. The Independent.
6. Broadcast: Five Key Records, Norman Records UK
7. RiFL Spring 2004 (WRFL program guide)
8. Brian Howe (2005). Broadcast article. Pitchfork.
9. Sean Michaels (2011). Broadcast's Trish Keenan makes posthumous appearance. The Guardian.
10. Pat Long (2011). Trish Keenan obituary. The Guardian.
11. Broadcast vs Stereolab, ILX thread
12. Label Watch: Warp, Norman Records UK
13. Distant Call - Collected Demos 2000-2006, by Broadcast
14. 1505017 Distant Call Collected Demos 2000 2006, broadcast.warp.net

Initially written Sep 17, 2026 · Reviewed: Oct 25, 2026 · Edited: Oct 15, 2026; Oct 25, 2026

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