Sounds From The Flightpath Estate Volume 2- more news! Our second album, complied by myself and my friends at The Flightpath Estate comes out on double vinyl at the end of the month. Pre- orders at Golden Lion Sounds have already seen over 700 copies sold and there are 500 set aside for sale over the counter at several UK record shops from late August including Piccadilly Records in Manchester and Stranger Than Paradise in Hackney. There are copies for sale at those shop's websites as well as at Bleep and Golden Lion Sounds.
The Flightpath Estate began as a Facebook group back in 2013, me and Martin opening it up as a place to share Andrew Weatherall news and music. It became a group of several thousand people and the front page for an online resource of Andrew's mixes and shows, thousands of hours of them archived and available to listen to. That this fan group has grown to become a pair of actual records, both featuring entirely previously unreleased Weatherall tracks and otherwise new and exclusive music from such an array of talented people is proper 'pinch me' stuff.
There are two launch parties imminent- the first is at Stranger Than Paradise a week today, Thursday 21st August, with some of The Flightpath Estate (most likely Mark/ Rude Audio and Baz) plus from 9pm until 11, Richard Fearless of Death In Vegas at the decks. It's free to attend and the album will be available to buy on the night. The first 50 copies will get a limited art print with their album, designed by Rusty and based on his sensational sleeve art for the record. For what it's worth, I'm very unlikely to be able to get down to London for this and already have serious FOMO about missing our album launch and Richard Fearless DJing. Please pop down if you're in the Hackney area, say hello to Baz and Mark, enjoy the night, buy an album.
Just over a week later there's a northern launch at The Golden Lion in Todmorden, home of the best pub in the world and the record label that is putting Sounds From The Flightpath Estate Volume 2 out. I will be at this one along with Martin, Dan and Baz, playing tracks from the album and whatever else we fancy in the backroom from 2pm until 8. Also taking place the same night is a collaboration between the Lion and The Gun, the now closed but legendary Hackney pub, with the Decius Soundsystem at the top of the bill. If you're in the Tod/ north west, come down and say hello.
The album will be out by then- the official release date is 28th August but people that have pre- ordered may see their copies arriving a few days earlier that week. I got home from holiday recently to find my promo copy waiting for me and the sheer rush of excitement I got from looking at the sleeve, opening the gatefold and sliding the discs out was off the scale. Here I am with a ridiculously large looking left hand displaying Rusty's sleeve art...
And here we have my copies of Volumes 1 and 2 next to each other... and it's all well beyond what any of us thought this thing could be when we first started talking about the possibility of contacting a few of Andrew Weatherall's friends and seeing if they wanted to contribute a track to an album we were thinking of putting together.
The ten tracks on Volume 2 are all superb- it more than stands up beside Volume 1. It kicks off with an unreleased Sabres Of Paradise track, Lick Wid Nit Wit, sitting in the vaults at Warp for thirty years, Andrew, Jagz Kooner and Gary Burns at the desk sliding faders, adding FX, playing instruments and writing music. Deep Jah Wobble inspired bass, the horns that would become Wilmot, rattling Sabres percussion, eleven minutes of mid- 90s Sabres groove ending with a cello. It's magnificent. Dicky Continental follows, Rich Thair's solo outfit marrying low fi, dusty jazzy funk with a snatch of Andrew's voice from Kiss FM radio, old and new spliced happily.
Side two goes hard with Unit 14 (an anonymous duo, our lips are sealed) hitting the techno sounds and spaces, a thumper that Andrew would surely have loved and then ten minutes of dub/ techno majesty from Richard Fearless, the sound of his recent album Death Mask diverted to the Flightpath Estate.
On disc two LA resident and long time Weatherall cohort David Harrow blows the speakers with AanDee (fans of his and Andrew's Deanne Day alias will probably work out where that track title came from), a monster of a track, David switching his acid/ dub techno machines on and getting down to the core of things, a twisting, sinewy track with bleeps and bloops. Red Snapper's Qraqeb follows, frenetic and percussive, Rich's North African percussion hammering away while the synths and bass slide up and down, a track that jumps out of the speakers and keeps jumping. Side 3 finishes with A Certain Ratio. I've been listening to ACR and buying their records since 1987. They're one of the cornerstones of my musical DNA. Now they're on our record, with a track from their album last year (It All Comes Down To This) reworked Number, Rich Thair and Ali Friend's post-punk/ disco band. Estate Kings is sublime Manc noir, low slung and urban, the sound of driving round south Manchester late at night.
Side 4 starts with Bedford Falls Players, the chuggy cosmic disco of In The Trees (It's Coming), synth stabs and space, voices from films and rumbling bass. Raising the tempo, Richard Norris' Brave Raver squelches in, drums and arpeggios, Norris happily in the space rave/ house/ Grid groove, the vocal from the breakdown all wide- eyed and open minded. Finally, it ends with Sleaford Mods and their cover of Two Lone Swordsmen's Sick When We Kiss, the UK grim duo breaking TLS down into urgent, post- punk and spluttering beats.
Mark did a taster mix of the ten tracks, a twenty five minute sampler, which you can find here. Tangetially, Sabres Of Paradise re- issued their pair of 90s albums earlier this months, Sabresonic and Haunted Dancehall. Back in November 2023 The Flightpath Estate did a Sabresonic 30th anniversary night at The Golden Lion, a Q&A with Jagz and Gary, an airing of the recording of the Sabres Of Paradise live band playing at Herbal Tea Party in 1993 and a Jagz Kooner DJ set. Jagz and Gary held a similar event at Stranger Than Paradise last week. Friends of Sabres Sherman and Alex Knight both DJed and then Jagz played. That evening's sets were recorded and can be listened to here , nearly five hours of electronic music, an hour of red hot dub, acid house, some techno and more besides.
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