Weak Sun

Fans of instrumental, dark ambient, psyche rock should step this way. Weak Sun is the debut album from Sonar//Radar, a Leicester four piece, all veterans of other bands from the city of Claudio Ranieri and Richard III, bringing guitars, drums and bass together with synths and piano. The album is currently only digital but sequenced like a vinyl record, a short burst of drone and radio waves/ voices forming the intro to side 1, a track called Intro To Side 1, which then fades away for Baksheesh For Imi, a much longer piece of music, six minutes of synth, piano and a ghostly guitar lines all layered over the rumble of bass and drums. Wolf Eel follows, bursts of feedback from a guitar amp and then a ringing guitar line, a post- rock, Tortoise feel, the guitar taking the lead. Fifty three seconds of gorgeous ambient wobble, Too Many Novels, takes us towards Bad News From Outer Space, what would be side 1's end point- more ominous sounds from the Midlands- radio waves, static/ Velcro being unripped, the tick of the cymbal, guitar notes from the ghost of Michael Karoli's guitar, the sound of something bad coming through the line. 

Side 2 opens up slowly, one and a half minutes of drone and atmospherics and leads into the slightly softer, calmer notes of Barbel Hook, a track which spins around a minute in, the drums suddenly kicking the tempo up and the post- rock guitars and drums are back with echoes of Mogwai. The album's title track Weak Sun is the longest piece of music here, eight and a half minutes, the soundtrack to a sci fi/ folk horror short film, a totally absorbing trip with the synth taking the topline and the guitars, piano, bass and drums creating a dark dreamworld backdrop. The final track is a live track, The Lucky Ones Died First, the post- rock/ psyche rock live and direct from a stage somewhere in the East Midlands/ the outer reaches of space. Get Weak Sun at Bandcamp

Monday's Long Song

I got back from AW62 at The Golden Lion last night having had a wonderful weekend in great company, an incredible line up of artists, some brilliant moments in a truly magical and a concurrent lack of sleep. I'll write a longer, more detailed piece and post it later in the week. In the meantime, here's a long song from Friday night. Rusty and Rotter were playing records in the downstairs bar, the place was filling up nicely with lots of familiar faces and some new ones too and from the Lion's sound system the intense, ecstatic noise of Fuck Buttons began pumping out- waves of sheer joy, oceans of sound, bleeps and ripples, eventually the thud of a kick drum, building and building, repetition and momentum.

Surf Solar was released as a single. It came out on 7", an edited version, but the album one is over ten minutes long- from Tarot Sport, produced by Andrew Weatherall, a job so demanding- the intensity of the music- that he compared it to hard physical labour. What a sound the three of them cooked up though...

Surf Solar

Forty Five Minutes Of Two Lone Swordsmen

At the airport in Belfast they have robots to serve your breakfast. You have to go to the till and speak to a human to order but then the human loads your mugs and plates of food onto these robots and they bring them to your table. The eight year old me reading 2000AD in 1978 would have been beside himself at this aspect of the future but somehow, it just seemed a bit ridiculous. They even give the robot a smiley face to make them seem more human.

None of which has much to do with today's post and Sunday mix- except that the music Two Lone Swordsmen made is still far more of the future, more the soundtrack to 2000AD, than the robots at Belfast airport ever will be. When Andrew Weatherall formed Two Lone Swordsmen with Keith Tenniswood they made it a mission to go further and deeper, to take a more thorough and more purist approach to electronic music. After the sprawling magnificence of 1996's The Fifth Mission (Return To The Flightpath Estate) which went from stoned, paranoid ambience to big beat to two step and back again, they drilled deeper- minimal, brutalist electronic machine funk, ambient techno and glitchy dark electronic dub (with a detour into hip hop on A Virus With Shoes and then an exciting mutation into garage rock and rockabilly). Sometimes the music seemed a bit unfriendly and it lost a few people along the way but this being Mr Weatherall, there's no shortage of gold in among the darkness. 

This forty five minute mix is a celebration of Andrew's birthday today- he would have been 62 today. Many of his friends and family are at The Golden Lion today, day three of AW62 which will end tonight with a live performance by The Jonny Halifax Invocation (who have promised some live band TLS action) and a dub set from Adrian Sherwood. Happy birthday Andrew.

Forty Five Minutes Of Two Lone Swordsmen

• Heart Failed (In The Back Of A Taxi) (Two Lone Swordsmen Dub)
• We Change The Frequency
• Cotton Stains
• Lino Square
• Black Commandments
• Untitled Two Lone Swordsmen Remix
• Glide By Shooting
• Hope We Never Surface

Saint Etienne's 2000 album Sound Of Water was a bit of a departure for them. The Two Lone Swordsmen Dub of it's single Heart Failed (In The Back Of A Taxi) was a deconstruction, reducing the tune to its minimal dub basics, the wobbly bass a particular treat.

We Change The Frequency is from 1998's Stay Down, sometimes the TLS album I think is my favourite and one which has really grown over the years, lots of short, repetitive mechanical pieces and some gorgeous ambient techno, everything submerged in oceanic depths of bass and echo (like the deep sea divers on the cover). Hope We Never Surface is the opening track and always seems to be like a door opening... or a hatch...

Cotton Stains is on 2000's Tiny Reminders, the furthest and most purist they went, tunnel vision electro Six sides of vinyl, each disc starting with a track made up of static, a tiny reminder, before drilling into the netherworld of basement glitchy electronic bass and techno. Cotton Stains is the real sound of robots serving up breakfasts at airports- just before they declare independence and overthrow the security. 

Lino Square is from The Fifth Mission (Return To The Flightpath Estate), a fractured, mechanised but funky little number with a wiggy synth pattern kicking in after a few minutes. 

Black Commandments is from a 7" single that came with an EP, A Bag Of Blue Sparks, released on Warp in 1998, that included the track Gay Spunk (a title borrowed from Peter Hook's bass amp spray paint message).  

Untiled Two Lone Swordsmen is a remix of Ganger's Trilogy, a 12" from 1998, a nine minutes long and dusty with a flicker of guitar running through it. Ganger were from Glasgow, post- rock and krauty.

Glide By Shooting is one of the finest TLS tracks, a track on the double vinyl remix EP Swimming Not Skimming. Depth over surface. Eight minutes of sleek, mesmerising brilliance. 

Soundtrack Saturday At AW62

Today is day two of AW62 at The Golden Lion, a weekend celebration of the life of Andrew Weatherall at one of his favourite places, the day before what would have been his sixty- second birthday. The photo above is from our trip to Belfast in February. We were on a bus going round the city centre, turned a corner and there it was, this mural of the man. Serendipity. 

Saturdays in 2025 have all been soundtrack posts, a year long series of songs and tracks from film and TV. In 1994 the film Shopping came out, a Paul Anderson film about a group of British teenagers into joyriding and ramraiding with some future stars among the cast (Jude Law, Sean Pertwee and Sophie Frost) and some people who were already stars (Sean Bean, Marianne Faithful and Jonathan Pryce). I don't think I've seen it since 1994 and don't remember much about it except that it opens with the jaw dropping, spine tingling, twisted hip hop magnificence of Sabres Of Paradise's Theme.

Theme 

The soundtrack pulls together lots of mid 90s hip hop and rap- The Disposable Heroes Of Hiphoprisy, Credit To The Nation, Kaliphz, Stereo MCs- along with Senser, Smith and Mighty, Utah Saints, Orbital, Salt 'N' Pepa, Shakespears Sister, EMF and more. Andrew appears again twice, once with Sabres v James (Jam J Spaghetti Steamhammer) and once as producer on One Dove's Why Don't You Take Me.

Jam J 

Jam J is somewhat overlooked in the Sabres back catalogue, a four track/ remix 12" that becomes a thirty three minute suite of hypnotic dubtronica/ dub techno, James and Brian Eno completely reworked into the Sabres netherworld, the guitars eventually coming through as Andrew, Jagz and Gary take us on a dub excursion. It's best heard as one unbroken piece of music, from Phase 1 to Phase 4. 

• Phase 1 (Arena Dub)
• Phase 2 (Amphetamine Pulsate)
• Phase 3 (Sabresonic Tremelo Dub)
• Phase 4 (Spaghetti Steamhammer)

In 1996 Andrew made a brief foray into the world of film as an actor, appearing as a shaven headed club owner called Buddha in a long forgotten London gangster film Hard Men, in a case of mistaken identity.

AW62 And The Return Of Death In Vegas

Today is the first day of the AW62 at Todmorden's Golden Lion, a three day weekender to celebrate what would have been Andrew Weatherall's 62nd birthday (6th April, Sunday). The line up is a bit of a dream, kicking off tonight with Richard Fearless playing downstairs in the pub, ably supported by Rusty and Rotter, while Fantastic Twins play upstairs. On Saturday David Holmes headlines with Duncan Gray and Scott Fraser both playing, Matt Hum on before David. From 2pm on Saturday through until 8ish, me and my friends in The Flightpath Estate have the privilege of DJing for the afternoon and evening crowds- it's an honour and a joy. 

Sunday keeps the fun going with a Sherman and Curley dub set, a White Rabbit literary discussion (hosted by Lee Brackstone with the Flightpath's Martin joining the panel) and then to finish the weekend off, The Jonny Halifax Invocation playing live upstairs while Adrian Sherwood DJs downstairs. The evening events are all sold out but the Saturday and Sunday afternoon events and sessions are free- if you're in the area, come down and say hello, it'll be great. 

By way of happy coincidence Friday night's headliner Richard Fearless announced the release of a new Death In Vegas album a few days ago with the appearance of a new track- Death Mask. Fearless has been mining an increasingly intense and beautiful techno seam for over a decade now, going deeper and deeper into the techno- earth's core. 2011's Trans- Love Energies and 2016's Transmission albums, 2018's Honey 12", his pair of albums under his Fearless name- Deep Rave Memory and its ambient techno counterpart Future Rave Memory- plus various one off singles on his Drone label such as 2017's mighty Sweet Venus, have all lit up the Bagging Area stereo, streamlined machine music of the highest order that straddles the line between ice cold and emotional overload. Death Mask fits right into that techno continuum, seven minutes of rattly drum machines and thudding kick drum, dub's space echo, slightly anxiety inducing synths, a squeak that nibbles away at the upper end and the sweet rush of momentum. Music to engulf and to immerse oneself in...

The tracks were all recorded inside Richard's Metal Box, a shipping container overlooking the Thames in East London. If any music sounds like it was recorded inside a shipping container, it's the music on Death Mask. Death Mask and the squally and equally intense While My Machines Gently Weep are both available over at Bandcamp ahead of the rest of the nine track album, which comes out in early June. 

Segundo Natureza

My friend in Sao Paulo Eduardo sent me an EP by Oe called Elogio da Segunda Natureza (which translates I think as In Praise Of Second Nature). Oe is one of the many aliases used by Professor Marcus and on the four tracks of the EP he heads deep into the ambient/ drone/ experimental zone. 

The first- Forst 1975- is a tremendous piece of ambient music, one that never rests or sits still but buzzes and hums constantly, a lovely drone of synths and keys, wobbling and oscillating. What sounds like a guitar through a wah wah pedal interrupts at two and a half minutes before the drums return and everything builds back in. 

Sismografia sets out from a similar place, more fractured and ambient with pulses like the sound of something coming from distant stars. 

There are voices at the start of Visagem, coming from a radio that's not properly tuned in. Bursts of static and distortion. Deep synth chords. Rips in the fabric of space and time. Found sounds from somewhere else. 

The final emission is The Wake, opening with rapid skippity drums and a piano chord clanging, then layers of sounds- who knows what, keys, guitars, synths- and a long distorted keening guitar line. The Wake breaks down into piano notes and some calm- then the drums come back, doubling the tempo and pushing on again. Really impressive stuff, rich with detail and very absorbing. Elogio de Segunda Natureza is at Bandcamp. 

When I Think Of All The Things I've Done

A few weeks ago I decided to start working my way through Lou Reed's solo albums, sparked by a Lou Reed post at The Vinyl Villain last year and then by my rediscovery of his 1973 album Berlin, an album that is possibly his 70s masterpiece but also a heavy trip into the netherworld story of Jim and Caroline- drugs, domestic abuse, children being taken into care, ending with death. An album that makes some people fell that they need to brace themselves for before dropping the stylus on the vinyl. 

I'd decided that this irregular, meandering Lou Reed extravaganza should be done as far as possible by listening to the albums on second hand vinyl, surely the most Lou Reed of all the formats. I was planning to move on to Sally Can't Dance or Coney Island Baby but while walking out from work a couple of weeks ago to pop to the post office I noticed that the fools have opened a second hand record shop just round the corner from my school. Why would they do that? Don't they know the last thing I need is the opportunity to buy records near my workplace? Luckily it was closed but when I walked past/ went back a few days later it was open and flicking through the Lou Reed/ Velvet Underground section saw a copy of Lou's self- titled 1972 solo debut. And that was how I ended up owning a copy of a rather overlooked and unfancied Lou Reed solo album- and also how I realised that I was taking this Lou Reed trip seriously.

Lou's solo debut is a curious record. It seems it was largely seen as disappointing, a damp squib, on release. Lou was two years on from leaving The Velvet Underground, still signed to RCA/ Victor and put into a studio in Willesden, London with a load of session musicians including Rick Wakeman and Steve Howe of Yes. The album's sessions took place between December '71 and January '72, usually in close to total darkness (at Lou's request). Eight of the ten songs are leftovers from The Velvets, some of them unreleased in their original until the mid 80s when VU came out. The production is odd, it sounds unbalanced. Guitars and drums leap around in the mix, sometimes too murky and sometimes too bright, the drums and cymbals ridiculously loud and present in the mix on some songs. Lou is in good voice and the songs are among some of his best. I approached the album with an open mind- once I'd got past the fairly awful front cover, a very early 70s airbrush painting of a Faberge egg and a duckling about to be engulfed by a wave swooshing down a New York street- and found that it has a lot to enjoy inside its fifty three year old grooves. 

I Can't Stand It is one of my favourite Velvets songs, the 2014 remixed version especially, Bo Diddley guitars and drums and Lou's nonsense lyrics about it being hard to be a man and living with thirteen dead cats. The version that opens Lou's solo album is blunt early 70s rock, session men electric guitars and drums, Lou's familiar sneer intact but supported by female backing vocals. It kicks along, no nonsense style. Going Down follows, piano and country guitar, Lou's voice now in gentle, three in the morning mode, seeing things clearly- 

'Time's not what it seems/ It just seems longer when you're lonely in this world/ Everything, it seems/ Would be brighter if your nights were spent with some girl'

It shifts at two minutes and he's crooning now, the backing vocals lower in the mix and the drums tumbling. Lovely stuff. Walk It And Talk It purloins the riff from Brown Sugar and surrounds it with session musician rock, the players trying to sound sloppy- the production is all over the place, partly muddy and partly trebly. Lisa Says follows, a gorgeous song, Lou and piano and the band more sympathetic now, a late night basement cabaret feel- at three minutes everything changes, the song stops and restarts as a show tune. It should be ridiculous but Lou pulls it off and then slips back into the original song at the end, Lou and the backing singers coming together, 'Lisa says...'. Side one ends with Berlin, the song that would be the fulcrum of the album of the same name a year later, Lou again crooning and sounding great over five minutes of the song, candle light and Dubonnet and 'it was very nice'.

Side two really works (despite the production flaws). I Love You is a minor gem, the simplest love song he wrote, a swirl of country guitars and acoustics and Lou's voice- then the drums thump in and we're exactly where early 70s, post- Velvets Lou Reed should be.

I Love You

It's followed by Wild Child, a electrifying rocker with arch, observational lyrics about Chuck, Bill, Betty and Ed and the wild child of the title, a song that could sit on any of his more celebrated 70s albums. 

Wild Child

Love Makes You Feel is also great even if the odd decision to mix the drums and cymbals really high in the mix nearly spoil it- Lou at his street poet best with Steve Howe's guitars fizzing around the speakers. Lou sings the chorus line, 'love makes you feel ten foot tall', the drums and guitars crash around, and everything sounds alive and vital. Ride Into The Sun, yet another unreleased Velvets song, ringing guitars and cardboard box drumming, two note vocals and the messy production actually adding rather than taking away. Lou Reed finishes with Ocean, a song the Velvets recorded in 1969 but didn't release and which wouldn't see the light of day until VU in 1985. Ocean is a key Reed/ Velvets song, arguably as good as any that he and they wrote and recorded. Lou's solo version opens with a gong and splash cymbals, then the bass and guitar sound that would inspire dozens of groups not yet even formed, the swirl of instruments sounding, yes, like the waves crashing on the shore, and Lou singing adrift on a raft, down by the sea. Drama and despair, New York cool up against London session men. 

Lou Reed is an album which feels flawed but has some good moments at its core, and which would have benefitted from better production and possibly from less accomplished musicians at times, but which catches fire more often than it doesn't. It's very much a period piece and an outlet for songs he'd been sitting on for a few years. But it's fair to say, it also does not necessarily sound like an album by a man who's going to light up the early/ mid 70s with some of its most distinctive rock songs.

Which is what happened a few months later he released Transformer.