Antipop Consortium est un groupe américain de rap alternatif et de musique électronique, originaire de New York. Le groupe se forme en 1997 lorsque Beans, High Priest, M. Sayyid et le producteur Earl Blaize se rencontrent lors d’une battle de slam à New York. Antipop Consortium est vite remarqué pour son esprit d’invention et ses productions électroniques expérimentales. Il a été fréquemment comparé à d’autres rappeurs aux paroles décalées, tels que Kool Keith, MF Doom ou bien Aesop Rock.

Signé sur le label Warp Records, le groupe se sépare en raison des différends artistiques en août 2002. Fin 2007, le groupe annonce sa reformation et un album à sortir sur le label Big Dada.

Plus de détails ici : http://www.wordsound.com/antipop.html

Thom Yorke, en tant que fan du groupe (lui-même fan de Radiohead !), a souvent cité le groupe comme une de ses influences. A partir de 1999, Thom cherche de nouvelles idées musicales et écoute beaucoup ce qui est signé sur le label WARP, dont Anti-pop…

Colin Greenwood aime bien, lui aussi :

[quote cite=”culture lab, juin 2001″](source) C.G. Warp was important to Thom about two years ago when he was looking for different sounds. I don’t really know anything on Warp Records. I like the Anti Pop Consortium (12), they’re good.

K.E. They’re lyrically advanced and sonically brutal.

C.G. You should approach technological things in a nostalgic way. You should approach a sequencer like you would a Dobro guitar. You shouldn’t think of it as the latest thing I’ve downloaded. You should think of it as ‘look what I’ve dug up from the attic’. If you think of it like that you start making music on it as supposed to like becoming an engineer.[/quote]

Radiohead les a invités à faite les premières partie de ses concerts, sur plusieurs dates en septembre 2001, lors de la tournée en Europe. Au détour d’une interview du groupe, on apprend que APC a apprécié ces moments :
[quote cite=”hiphopsection”]Pour finir, est-ce que l’expérience Radiohead (leur tournée européenne avec le groupe. Ndlr) a-t-elle modifié votre perception de la scène ?
Anti Pop Consortium :« C’était pas très différent de nos concerts habituels, le public était attentif et réceptif à l’expérience, c’était cool. »[/quote]

Rien de fou à raconter toutefois, si ce n’est l’étonnement d’être face à une grande foule (source):

[quote cite=”Indexmagazine, 2002″]ERIC: I know you toured in Europe with Radiohead. What was that like?
PRIEST: It was interesting to play in front of fifteen or twenty thousand people, and then be at a small club like Joe’s Pub in New York the next weekend. [laughs]
ERIC: Did the tour ever get wild and crazy?
PRIEST: No, nobody was ever backstage. It was like when you have the TV on really loud and then you turn it off ­ that’s how dead it was when we’d come off stage.
ERIC: The fact that you opened for Radiohead in Europe and not here is interesting. I think your audience is less downtown New York, and more of a global underground.
PRIEST: Seven years ago or so, if you wanted to know about underground artists, you had to be a part of all these different scenes. You had to really seek that stuff out. Now, due to the media and the internet, it’s a lot easier to find experimental music. There’s more of a community today ­ you can suppose that a person who knows about Kool Keith would also know about Radiohead.[/quote]

APC reconnaît à Radiohead le fait d’avoir lancé une nouvelle ère musicale :

[quote cite=”kmag.co.uk /  4 mars 2011″]It follows too that while constantly questioning the aural limitations of their genre, APC are also keen onlookers as the digital age continues to wreak havoc on established industry models. They’ve watched former champions Radiohead’s movements with particular interest, although for the foreseeable future, Beans and co are happy to let a traditional label take some of the strain.

“Radiohead set the bar for people to follow,” Beans muses. “I think music has been going that way in general for years. No one is able to stop it from happening. I don’t know if I would let others determine the price of my album. It depends on what it cost to make and promote. You have to the resources to allow that model to happen. Not every artist is in those same positions.[/quote]