Acid House Chancers

Tomorrow at The Social, Little Portland Street, London, an Acid House Chancers night and a Salute to Andrew Weatherall on the weekend of what would have been his 63rd birthday (6th April). It's a venue that Andrew actually played the opening night of, his association with Heavenly going back to the late 80s. 

There's a stellar line up of DJs including at the top of the bill Alex Knight (Sabresonic and Fat Cat Records) and Johnny Aux of Paranoid London plus Rude Audio (often found at this parish) and lower down proceedings, in the downstairs bar/ space from 6.30pm your friendly neighbourhood Flightpath Estate DJs. Me, Baz and Mark on this occasion, a London debut for me. It's a tickets only affair, all proceeds to charity, a handful of tickets can found here priced just £15.

Back in 2010 LCDMF (Le Corps De Mince Francoise), a Finnish duo released a single on Heavenly, Gandhi. It came with two Andrew Weatherall remixes. This is the first...

Gandhi (Andrew Weatherall Remix I)

At this point Andrew had been feeling his way back into music, releasing a 12" under his own name for the first time and beginning to develop and refine a new remix sound. In 2008 he'd remixed Doves (also on Heavenly, the long standing Andrew Weatherall- Jeff Barratt friendship a part of much of what he was doing), throwing dub space, a cosmische feel and extended running time into the pot. Remixes of Grinderman, The Horrors, Toddla T, Wooden Shjips, Cut Copy and Primal Scream all fell into place, all benefiting from his new partnership with Timothy J. Fairplay. Andrew's slow and spacey sound aligned with the early days of his travelling discotheque A Love From Outer Space. The pair of LCMDF remixes are part of this, squiggles and arpeggios, synths and bass over chuggy beats. 

Year Of The Remix (And A New Weatherall Remix)

I've been reading some of the end of 2010 round-ups and lists and when I started to think about it I realised that a lot of the new music I've enjoyed the most and played to death this year have been remixes. Massive Attack's underwhelming Heligoland album was followed by a remix package which included at least two stunners- Tim Goldsworthy's remix of Pray For Rain and Gui Boratto's piano and bass drum heavy Paradise Circus. The xx benefitted from John Talbot's housed up version of Shelter and Four Tet's folktronica'd remix of VCR, repeat plays both. Paul Weller's best solo album since, uh, the last one also came with a bundle of remixes (proof the old man must be moving forward eh?), the pick of them being Richard Hawley's brilliant reworking of Andromeda, but Future Sound Of London's alter ego Amorphous Androgynous hit the jackpot too. Error Operator and Wing Commander, both introduced to me by Acid Ted, remixed each other and others to good effect and repeatedly pop up on the mp3 player. There's probably others I've missed or forgotten but there's a decent mix cd shaping up already.

This being Bagging Area we're obviously moving into Andrew Weatherall country. Weatherall's recent productivity has led to superb remixes of Trentemoller (the Silver Surfer, Ghost Rider, Go!!! Prinz remix), both the dub versions of Steve Mason's Boys Outside single (Dub 2 still available within this site), the bass heavy remix of Grinderman's Heathen Child and most recently two remixes of Le Corps De Mince Francoise (pictured at the top), the first of which was available free through RCDLBL. Released two weeks ago, Remix 1 of their single Gandhi was in a similar vein to the Grinderman and Steve Mason ones, dubby and bass-led affairs with lots of strange noises. Remix 2 is something else entirely. It arrived via the postman on Saturday morning and I've been playing it as often as possible ever since.

Le Corps De Mince Francoise (LCDMF) are a Finnish duo who make dance-pop that wouldn't sound out of place on a 1990 compilation. Weatherall's Remix 2 also wouldn't sound out of place on an early 90s compilation, maybe one mainly featuring his own remixes from that time. It's over seven minutes of ecstatic and melodic noise, synths, electronic handclaps, and burbling noises. Then it really takes off after the breakdown near the five minute mark with the last couple of minutes sounding like either sunrise or sunset, depending on your disposition. It's a good 'un people and no mistake. Get it while it's hot.

Now, I need to find a cover for my Year Of The Remix cd- maybe that photo Charles and Camilla out for a drive last week will do.

Le Corps Mince De Francoise (LCMDF).mp3#1#1