Woob is the stage name of Paul Frankland, a British ambient musician of the 1990s. Woob’s albums combine elements of ambient, dub and world music, with samples from field recordings, movies and television. Frankland has also recorded with collaborators under the names of Journeyman and Max & Harvey. As Woob, he made a comeback with new material and re-releases in 2009.
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Paul Frankland started writing music as a teenager, and went on to get a Masters in Film while also working as a DJ.[1]
He first came to attention in the early 1990s when he submitted the track Void to the Nottingham-based t:me [sic] recording company. The track was included on the first release by t:me’s new downtempo label Em:t, a compilation album titled em:t 0094, which led to Woob signing with the label.
Woob's first full length album, Woob 1194, was released by Em:t in 1994 and was immediately regarded as a milestone in ambient music.[2] Production involved an Atari ST work station, Akai s950 sampler and a Gem s2 synthesizer. The tracks were mixed and performed live, which contributed to the organic and evocative nature of the music.[3]
Following the success of his first album, which was re-released in the United States by Instinct Records, Woob contributed tracks to more Em:t compilations and to trance label Flying Rhino Records. In late 1995, he released a second album on Em:t titled Woob2 4495 which garnered further praise. A third Woob album was being planned in 1998 when Em:t went out of business. [1]
After a hiatus of more than a decade, during which Frankland's musical output was limited to a few tracks under the name Max & Harvey, a new productive period was heralded by the re-release of Woob 1194 at the end of 2009. The 10 minute single, "Unknown Quantity", was released on January 1, 2010, followed in May of the same year by the album Repurpose which combined remixes of old material with new tracks.
The "Paradigm Flux" EP was released in September 2010. Woob initially announced that the EP was a taster for a soundtrack album of the same name, but it was followed in November 2011 by "Into the City" a full-length album to accompany a film described as a 'Paradigm Flux Prologue'.
In 1994, the year of the first Woob album, Frankland also started recording with DJ Colin Waterton under contract to NTone, a sub label of Ninja Tunes. The duo released two albums under the name 'Journeyman'. The first album, 'Mama 6', came out in 1994, featuring long ambient dub soundscapes, with samples of world music and movie dialogue of the kind that could be found on the Woob albums. By contrast, 'National Hijinx', released in 1997, had shorter tracks with elements of drum and bass.
The album cover for National Hijinx was designed by a friend of Frankland, Mark Butt (a.k.a. Scabboy).[1] In 1998, Frankland started putting out tracks under the name 'Max & Harvey' which was purportedly a collaboration with Butt.[4] The compilation album 'Hybrids' on the Hypnogogia label is notable for including the first track by the new duo called simply 'Max & Harvey', in addition to a Woob collaboration with Tim Grabham (credited as 'Woob vs The Deep Chamber') and a track by Paul Coates (using the alias 'Anomali') that was engineered by Woob.
The next release by Max & Harvey was on the 'Xen Cuts' compilation released by Ninja Tunes in 2000. The track was called 'Big Amoeba Sounds', which subsequently became the name of Paul Frankland's own label. Over the next decade, a handful of Max & Harvey tracks appeared on compilation albums released by Ninja Tunes and Flying Rhino Records. Two EPs containing both old and new material by the duo were released by Bigameobasounds in 2010. The Max & Harvey website also announced there would soon be a debut album and an animated film. The lack of any credits to Mark Butt on these releases suggest that Max & Harvey is a largely a solo project not a collaboration.
Riad Abji, who at one time once shared a flat with Frankland[1], has played bass, guitar and cello on tracks by Woob, Journeyman and Max & Harvey.
The All Music Guide has described the first two albums, Woob 1194 and Woob2 4495 as 'among the most praised and encompassing documents of post-rave ambient of the last several years',[5] while the Ambient Music Guide describes them as 'among the most refined, subtle and innovative examples of the meeting between electronics and live instruments that flowered in the ambient environment of the 1990'[6]
More than 15 years after it was released, Woob 1194 still appears on lists of best ambient albums, along with artists such as Brian Eno, Biosphere, The Orb and The Future Sound of London.[7] The original CDs are sought after by ambient music collectors and regularly sell for many times the original price.[8]
With the release of "Into the City" in November 2011, the Electronic Music Guide described Woob as 'an ambient music genius'. The guide rated the new album 9.9 out of 10 and stated that it was contender for 'soundtrack of the year'.[9]