Andrew Weatherall died three years ago today and his presence continues to be felt in the culture he was part of though his absence does too. In April there are a series of events taking place to celebrate what would have been his 60th birthday including one at The Golden Lion in Todmorden which I am involved in, about which more later. It would be remiss of this blog to let today pass without a mention and it's best to do it by celebrating his life and work. Three links today to remember him by, from three different phases of his life and work. I was going to say career but I think Andrew would have spat out his tea at the suggestion that what he did was as planned as a career.
In 1991 when Andrew was becoming the remixer he did a remix for S'Express, the biggest flop single Mark Moore's hyperdelic house/ disco outfit had. Andrew and Hugo Nicolson's remix is however an absolute beauty, seven minutes forty nine of day- glo acid house, smiley face synths blaring over a crunchy breakbeat, Sonique's 'yeah yeah yeah' vocal, various grunts and oohs and ahhhs buried deep within and some jubilant house piano chords. It's a remix which is a bit overlooked among his early ones but is right up there among his best- an admittedly a crowded field.
Find 'Em Fool 'Em Forget 'Em (The Eighth Hour Mix)
If you always suspected there might be a link between Andrew Weatherall and Wham! but couldn't quite put your finger on it, the bass player on this remix was Dion Estus, a Motown trained bassist and session musician, who looked after the bottom end for Wham!'s touring band and then George Michael's too.
In 2001 when Two Lone Swordsmen were at their most electro/ techno purist, they released a double pack of vinyl titled Locked Swords. The four sides contained a series of locked grooves, tones and samples, all used on their Turntables And Machines tour, designed to be used by DJs and bedroom DJs. It's one of the few TLS pieces of vinyl I don't own and I missed out on one that came up on Ebay recently. The tracks are numbered Black 1- 15 and White 1- 13. All are in the folder below as mp3s, for you to add to your collection and/ or muck about with if you have the software and inclination. I saw Andrew and Keith Tenniswood on the tour at Manchester's Music Box, a fairly sparsely attended affair. They set up their Technics 1200s and laptops down the side of the room and began spitting out a few hours of bass heavy, breakbeat driven electro/ techno, much in the vein of the Tiny Reminders album which came out a year before.
In the mid- to-late 00s Andrew became a regular radio presence, first at BBC's 6 Mix and then at NTS. His shows were a delight, never failing to introduce listeners to new music, sending them scurrying to websites and record shops to hunt down what he'd just played. Often he'd drop his own music in, much then unreleased (some still unreleased today- hopefully this can be rectified in the coming months and years). His chat was very good too, amusing, sardonic and self- mocking. Equally there were times when he'd shut up and just play the music, with thirty minute mixes a regular feature at the 6 Mix shows and the occasional NTS show being two hours of music non- stop.
This one here is from August 2019, the last time he darkened the BBC's doorway, standing in for an absent Iggy Pop (I can imagine a young Andrew being amazed at that turn of events). The tracklist below shows all manner of delights, his beautifully dubbed out remix of Meatraffle, a still unreleased Woodleigh Research Facility track conjured up by him and Nina Walsh and some favourites from his youth in the shape of Be- Bop Deluxe and The Dream Syndicate.
- Meatraffle: Meatraffle On The Moon (Andrew Weatherall Remix)
- Krokakai: Bodhran Beat
- Dust to Dust: Cantillate
- Psycho & Plastic: Black Hole Acid Test
- La Decadanse: Bardo State
- The Woodleigh Research Facility: Vous Du
- Llewellyn: Remote Scope
- Enkidu: Shinkansen
- Sansibar: Home
- Photonz: Emerald City (Almaty Remix)
- Felix Leifur: Brot 6
- Ghost Culture: Meltwater
- Fabio Monesi: Strings Of Love
- De Sluwe Vos: Trans Magnetic Stimulation (Dexter Remix)
- Alfie: Coasting
- Be-Bop Deluxe: Electrical Language
- The Dream Syndicate: Treading Water Underneath The Stars
- Curses:Insomnia
- The Beat Escape: Seeing Is Forgetting
- Frobisher Neck: Isi
- Andrew Weatherall: Selling The Shadow
- Hamish Kilgour: Opening / Welcome To Finkelstein
7 comments:
Andrew's death was like a warmer upper for the oncoming years. If feels like last week and 10 years ago. Michael
*salutes*
thanks. RIP
Can still remember where and when I heard the news that day. Doesn't seem like three years ago. A measure of the man and his work is I think that I'll never forget it either- one of those life defining moments
Love and Sabres to you all.
Lord Sabre is never far from my thoughts or my playlist but I found it really difficult to post a specific tribute on my blog, which in the past couple of weeks seems to have been focused on little else but mourning and celebrating people we've lost.
I knew I could rely on you, Adam, to offer up a fitting celebration of the great man as always, you've gone over and above. A wonderful post, thank you.
Jah Bless.
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