Friday, 2 June 2023

WRF Two

WRF, a series for Fridays celebrating remixes by Andrew Weatherall focusing on the lesser known or overlooked remixes, began last week with the 2011 remix of Allice Gold's Runaway Love. Today's remix jumps forwards two years by which point Andrew was so firmly back in the remix game and so on it in terms of quality that a list of remixes released in 2013 is almost an alternative best of album-

  • Trentemoller: Silver Surfer, Ghost Rider Go! (Andrew Weatherall Prinz Remix and Sky 81 Mix)
  • Toy: Dead And Gone (Andrew Weatherall Remix)
  • Baris K: 200 (Asphodells Remix)
  • Madness: Death Of A Rude Boy (Andrew Weatherall Remix)
  • Emiliana Torrini: Speed Of Dark (Andrew Weatherall Remix)
  • Moby and Wayne Coyne: Another Perfect Life (Andrew Weatherall Remix)
  • Primal Scream: 2013 (Andrew Weatherall Remix and Dub)
  • Jagwar Ma: Come Save Me (Andrew Weatherall Remix)

In the midst of this purple patch came Andrew's remix of The Emperor Machine. The remixes above, done with Timothy J. Fairplay as trusted assistant and engineer (and in The Asphodells, whose album was released in 2013 also, musical partner), there can be found sky scraping cosmic dub, thumping glam rock/ Brix- era Fall, dubbed out ska, twisted Turkish acid, widescreen joyous Balearica and hypnotic krautrock heaven and uptempo indie- dance- I'll let you decide which of these labels applies to which remix. The remix of Like A Machine stands out from all those, darker and deeper, more electronic and more acid, fat bass and synth arpeggios, relentless Belgian New Beat, more the sound of sweaty basements than the open air. For vocals just two voices repeating two words, 'electric desire'. 


The Emperor Machine is Andy Meecham from Staffordshire whose first taste of musical fame and glory came with Bizarre Inc. Their rave singles were massive in the late 80s and early 90s, in the clubs and the charts- singles such as Bizarre Theme, Such A Feeling, Playing With Knives and I'm Gonna Get You. He was in dub disco purveyors Chicken Lips. His back catalogue as the Emperor Machine is wide and extensive. Recently he's remixed and collaborated with A Certain Ratio, including in 2021 to bring things to a neat conclusion on a track dedicated to Andrew.  




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