A Heavenly Guest Post

Heavenly Recordings have released a compilation celebrating the long standing and extremely productive relationship that existed between the label and its boss Jeff Barratt and Andrew Weatherall. It's available as either two double vinyl albums (yes, that's eight sides of vinyl) or one double CD and is a treasure trove of remixes of Heavenly acts by Andrew starting with the very first record Heavenly released, The World According To... by Sly And Lovechild, an electrifying moody progressive house remix sampling the Reverend Jasper Williams. The sixteen remixes across the package then zig- zag across decades and genres: Weatherall remixing Doves into a mutant punk- funk; Flowered Up are taken on a seventeen minute, time- shifting hedonistic joyride; Saint Etienne sent into dub heaven in 1990 and then sent on a urban late night cab ride in 2000; Confidence Man get blasted into the ecstatic joys of coming home at dawn with a late period anthem; Toy pitched into a slowed down, woozy groove as if they were in West Germany in 1972; Espiritu are given the Sabres Of Paradise treatment; Gwenno, LCMDF, Mark Lanegan, audiobooks, The Orielles, Unloved.... The discs are not chronological and they work better for it, the remixes bouncing from the early 90s to the 2010s and all points in between. They show the breadth of talent signed by Jeff Barratt and range of skills of Weatherall as a remixer who brings something new to every artist- a looped vocal here, a stretched out section there, a new rhythm track, a twisting keyboard melody unearthed from within the original mix and put at the fore, a wheezing drum machine or rattling snare. Given that Andrew wasn't a musician as such, his remixes are so musical too, never just a case of sticking a 4/4 rhythm underneath and lettig the song play on top. The remix of Mark Lanegan's Beehive is a case in point. Weatherall isolates a line from Lanegan's vocal- 'lightning coming out of the speakers/ wanna hear that sound some more'- and constructs a new track around it, whirring sounds and echoes, a thumping kick drum, a spooked melody line, rattling drums, acres of reverb and a stop- start propulsion. There's nothing new on the compilations, all of it has been released before (although two tracks have never come out on vinyl before), but it's a stunning set of tracks and a tribute to the man and his work. The 60s Op- Art inspired sleeves are very nice too. 

This being Heavenly, there had to be a party. The launch event was last Saturday at The Social in London with Erol Alkan and David Holmes DJing. You might remember that for several years now I've bene the co- admin of a Facebook group called The Flightpath Estate that came together as a place for Andrew Weatherall fans to share news, music and compare lists. The group grew into a small but committed and friendly community and suddenly expanded when Andrew died in February 2020. Some of the Flightpath Estate's central members, including Martin Brannagan (who first approached me about being co- admin way back in 2014), were making the trip to London to attend the night. Due to my personal circumstances this wasn't going to be a trip I could make- we were taking Eliza back to university last weekend and at the moment, following Isaac's death, family definitely comes first. This poster greets people who arrive at the The Social, an advert for the forthcoming new single from David Holmes, a superb new song called It's Over If We Run Out Of Love. 

Martin along with fellow Flightpath Estaters Dan, Mark and Baz all went to the Social. On Sunday they were agog with tales from the night before. Two things then happened. First someone got hold of the CDs that David Holmes had been DJing from, his own source recordings of songs for the night. The evening finished with a packed room and David playing a thirty minute mix combining three different versions of Sabres Of Paradise's Smokeblech and Primal Scream's Come Together. Second, I convinced Martin to write an account of the evening for this blog, so here we have an exclusive guest blog by Martin...

The Heavenly Remixes Party 

The last two years have been such a headfuck that February 2020 seems so recent and distant at the same time. When Andrew Weatherall passed away the instant outpouring of love was hugely evident on this site and so many blogs, forums, social media outlets across the internet. Then Covid struck plunging the country into in-and-out lockdowns and restrictions followed so quickly that other than a few informal events and Sean Johnston bravely following up with the pre-booked A Love From Outer Space at Phonox just days after Andrew's death there has never felt like a time where we've been able to truly gather and celebrate, commemorate and remember Andrew's life and works. Andrew's curated festival in France, Convenanza, has been scheduled and rescheduled repeatedly, rumours of official memorial concerts have never materialised and with so many people being more at home and internet facing, the internet has naturally been the place to come together. As has been said on this blog before our Facebook group, The Flightpath Estate, originally set up in February 2014 for the few hundred hardcore geeks to discuss, dissect, share Andrew's musical output, quickly became a focal point. Now on its way to 2000 members Andrew's closest friends, family and collaborators came onto the group over the past two years to lovingly share photos, stories and memories, to engage, interact and support everyone including 'the fans' in a way I would never have envisaged possible. We maintain a sense of balance, decorum, respect and support that is so often lacking in the online world that everyone seems to find it a safe space, something I am truly grateful for and proud of. And so it is with restrictions lifting (again) and to celebrate the release on Heavenly Records of two compilations of Andrew's finest remixes for the label a night was put on in the 250 capacity Social in Little Portland Street, London. Upstairs DJs from Heavenly and Stranger Than Paradise playing to the bar, downstairs Heavenly head Jeff Barrett along with Erol Alkan and David Holmes playing from 7-1. The buzz leading up to the event suggested this was going to be special and so it proved to be, a true gathering of the clans. The night seemed to be awash with people rekindling old friendships, establishing new ones, or, specific to what we've found ourselves going through, making physical contact with previous strongly built virtual friendships. The Flightpath Estate was in strong presence, from the admins, with one huge missed noticeable absence in the form of Adam 'Bagging Area', to the hardcore long time members, through to the people who discovered it in the last couple of years. Also strongly present were some of the capital's great and good and also many musical and business collaborators and conspirators of Andrew, quite a few in assorted states of elevation - Bobby Gillespie, Noel Gallagher, Andy Bell, Iraina Mancini, Heidi Lawdon, Jagz Kooner, Andrew Curley, Chris Mackin, Lee Brackstone, Richard Fearless and IWDG (Ian Weatherall and Duncan Gray) were all spotted, amongst many others no doubt, the majority of whom were more than happy to greet the people they've been exchanging Facebook, WhatsApp or Twitter messages with over the last couple of years. The packed out Social was the focal point of everything we've all been through. Andrew's music played an obvious through line, obviously some Heavenly remixes got an airing, but also Erol Alkan picked out Andrew's remix of Cloud Cover by Glok (Andy Bell) and finished his set with the epic remix of Soon by My Bloody Valentine. David Holmes came with nearly 9 hours of source material for his 3 hour set obviously planning to judge the mood and ambience of the night and ended up taking us on a propulsive journey in only the way him and possibly one other sorely missed DJ could, with Andrew's remix of Bubblegum by Confidence Man culminating in a pre-edit megamix of Smokebelch by The Sabres Of Paradise. This last track took us on a 20+ minute journey from the Beatless mix through into the album version into David's own legendary remix and just as it peaked the opening tones of Andrew's version of Come Together by Primal Scream, the ultimate shout for the best track ever, promised to close the night in a crescendo of celebration the licensing laws kicked in, plunging us into silence and artificial light and confusion. As for the rest of the night itself, I've not gone into many details as it was a uniquely personal experience - for some they were enveloped by the compact throbbing throng of the dancefloor for the evening, for some they were enveloped by intoxicants of legal and illegal persuasions, for some they were enveloped by conversation and meeting with friends and family, new, old, physical, virtual. But for everyone in that room we were enveloped by a single focussed love, loss, celebration and appreciation of Andrew. A unique and long awaited experience that will stay in memory for a long long time. David Holmes has lovingly and kindly agreed to share his 27 minute Holmer Megamix of Smokebelch/Come Together which you can download and listen to here....

Smokebelch/ Come Together Mix

Thanks to Martin for this account and for allowing me to live the evening vicariously through his and the rest's updates and his writing above. Thanks to David for the CDs. It seems we missed quite the party.