When I started this series the idea was to focus on some lesser known Andrew Weatherall remixes, the less celebrated or widely known ones. That's pretty subjective and my idea of less well known may be different from yours or from the man in the streets. I'm also jumping around in a fairly haphazard fashion rather than working in any logical order. When I posted my Hardway Bros mix last Sunday Cal Gibson, the man behind The Secret Soul Society, left a comment saying 'Sean [Hardway Bros] works on advice from Mr. Weatherall when remixing: pick 3 or 4 elements from the original and go from there'.
Andrew's remixes from c.2009 onwards are cases in point, where usually either with Timothy J. Fairplay or Nina Walsh as studio engineer/ assistant, he'd select a few of those elements from the source track and add his own, extending them out for several minutes longer than the original. In 2012 he remixed Brighton five piece Toy, a group who were already fairly psychedelic/ krauty/ shoegaze.
Andrew sent Toy further into motorik, cosmische, 1970s West German heaven than they'd previously been- a buzzing synth/ organ riff, a meandering, wobbling synth part, and maybe some distorted guitars are joined by Andrew's echo- clap drum track, cavernous space and FX. A two finger keyboard part that picks out a melody at three minutes in and at five minutes a very Michael Rother- esque lead guitar line takes up the foreground. Delightfully absorbing, head nodding, transportative stuff, that glides on and on towards eight minutes before ending.
1 comment:
One of the great things about Andrew Weatherall was that, whether a major or indie label, megastar or bedsit songwriter, he was guided by the same principles and always found those key elements to lift out and transform the music. I love this period of remixes as much as anything he did in the 1990s.
Post a Comment