On Saturday evening, as Manchester basked in the June sunshine and Stephenson Square was crammed with afternoon drinkers, The Flightpath Estate DJs (me and Martin on this occasion) arrived to play support to Contours and Marconi Union in the basement of Soup, a bar and gig/ club space in the corner of the square. Soup’s live space is a small room, capacity 150, with some of the most graffitied toilets in the city.
We started early, 6.20pm, with some ambient sounds, Martin and me playing back to back- Sedibus, Synkro’s brand new remix of Khartomb, Coyote, M- Paths, Andy Bell’s cover of Smokebelch, the Sabres of Paradise Endorphin remix of Bjork, Underworld’s Dark And Long (Most ‘Ospitable), Richard Fearless, Sabres Of Paradise’s Chapel Street 7am and a little bit of dub courtesy of African Head Charge and KlangKollektor. At 7.20pm promoter Paul Watt, the man who sorted it for us to play and sporting an Acid House Chancer t- shirt, introduced Contours.
Contours is Tom Burford, from Cumbria but now Manchester based. With his equipment set up at the front of the stage- Moog synth, oscillator, laptop and a large wooden xylophone- Tom starts out slowly, chilled washes of synth filling the space. A minute or two in Tom brings a beat in and from that point on he’s in constant motion, head bobbing, sudden flicks of the wrist that change the sound, drop out the drums and bring them back in, flitting between bits of kit and several times moving to the xylophone, little bursts of wooden melodies on top of the ambient/ electronic/ synth action. Tom doesn’t stop, the set building and flowing for forty minutes, shifting about as he works his way through his tracks. It’s vibrant and engaging, some hints of Four Tet in the sounds emanating from the stage, and very enjoyable.
This is Arp Phase from Contours’ recent album Elevation, minimal, futuristic and organic sounding, the synths and oscillators sounding like they’ve come alive.
We get fifteen minutes of DJ time while Contours’ equipment is moved and Marconi Union get set to play. There are three members of Marconi Union, from left to right, one playing keys and synth, one with a bank of synths and pedals and playing guitar, and the third on laptop. All three have headphones on and are seemingly lost in their own world, concentrating intently, fully focussed on their part in making the music.
The songs build slowly, synth chords, waves of sound, drums thudding in, arpeggios from the Telecaster, piano lines and disembodied and distorted voices. Things happen slowly- glaciers move slightly and tectonic plates shift a little in while we wait for chord changes- and then suddenly, walls of noise swell and break. The films projected behind them echo what’s coming through the PA, variously liquids flowing, cityscapes, lines of people walking past from old films- tension and release, ebb and flow, light and shade. This is A Citizen’s Dream from Signals, from the end of 2021.
This Saturday Marconi Union play a gig at Soup in Manchester supported by Contours with further support by The Flightpath Estate DJs. On this occasion the Flightpath Estate DJs are me and Martin. We are starting things off at 6.30 and then on again between Contours and Marconi Union at about 8pm- we’re playing ambient/ electronic sounds and it would be lovely to see anyone who fancies a night of electronic music. There are some tickets left and they’re priced at under £14.
I saw Marconi Union last march, an audio/ visual experience, three people playing laptop, synth and keys with a guitarist centre stage playing the least guitary guitar. Layers of ambient sounds but with real intent and propulsion. This is from an EP that came out in 2022, The Ilex, a moody and compelling piece of electronic music, non- stop drums and ripples of dark synth textures. It’s from Versions which you can get here.
In 2021 Marconi Union released a seven track album they recorded with Jan Wobble, a Record Shop Day exclusive. The album opened with Wealth, seven minutes of abstract experimentation, a long slow fade in of ambience and then the deep, dub bass of Mr. Wobble. Jah’s repetitive bass riff provides the bedrock for the sci fi synths and keening guitar lines.
Contours provides support on Saturday, the project of Cumbrian born/ Manchester based DJ and producer Tom Burford. Contours released an EP in April- Elevations- which I’m going to be reviewing for Dr. Rob’s Ban Ban Ton Ton so I won’t steal my own thunder or Rob’s by posting anything about that. Instead here’s The Programme from a 7″/ digital from October 2021 (available at Bandcamp), a three and a half minute focussed excursion on drum machine and synth with some lovely percussion and the hint of some acid.
If last Sunday’s mix, seven and a half hours of the Flightpath Estate DJs playing at The Golden Lion’s AW61 celebrations in April wasn’t enough for you, our outing at Blossom Street Social two weeks previously has just gone up on Mixcloud too- me, Martin, Dan and guest Rob Fletcher playing a seven hour fifteen minute vinyl only set on the afternoon and evening of 17th March. The full set can be found at Blossom Street Social’s Mixcloud. It was the first time a test pressing of our album got played out in the wild, exciting for us even if it didn’t exactly stop the traffic in Ancoats. In the end we played three tracks from it- Justin Robertson’s Deadstock 33s, Andy Bell’s cover of Smokebelch and The Light Brigade’s Human : Remains.
Rob Fletcher was the man behind Herbal Tea Party, a 90s clubbing institution in Manchester. It started out at the New Ardri in Hulme and moved to Rockworld, midweek techno and electronic music nights that hosted gigs by Andrew Weatherall, Sabres Of Paradise playing live, Orbital, Fabio Paras, The Drum Club, Sven Vath, Psychick Warriors Of Gaia, Justin Robertson and David Holmes among the guests. Rob’s got an exhibition at Electric in Chorlton to celebrate the 30th anniversary of Herbal Tea Party- fliers, posters, tickets plus some recordings of sets and gigs- which has its opening night this Thursday. If you’re in the area, pop down and say hello.
The set from Blossom Street is a live recording, the Tascam plugged directly into the decks and mixer so there are a few glitches and errors- the sound levels were a bit variable, deck two seeming to drop down in volume at times and the odd technical error here and there (one of us accidentally turning a turntable off at one point and another thinking a record was playing when they were hearing it through the headphones only). Some of the mixing may be a bit hit and miss too; mine especially. If it’s perfection you’re after, we may not be the people you’re looking for. Our tune selection however…
Martin
Lionrock – Rock Steady Romance
Innervisions – Mermaids
Rob
Craven Faults – Deipkier
Detroit Escalator Co. – Psalm
Chapterhouse – Alpha Phase (Retranslated by Global Communication)
Adam
Sedibus – Seti (Pt. 2)
Coyote – Cirrus
Brian Eno – An Ending (Ascent)
Martin
Air – Modulor Mix
Purple Penguin – Memphis
Biome – Skafter
Rob
Two Lone Swordsmen – Big Man Original
The Irresistable Force – The Lie-In King
Pye Corner Audio – Exhumed
Adam
Tranquility Bass – They Came In Peace
Four Tet – Loved
Coyote – Western Revolution
Martin
Mad Professor & Chuck D – At Least The American Indians Know Exactly How They’ve Been Fucked Around
Craig Bratley ft Amy Douglas – No In Between (Ashigaru Dub)
Don Letts – Outta Sync (David Holmes Remix Edit)
Rob
Drum Club – Alchemy (D-Fex Dub)
The Clash – Justice Tonight / Kick It Over
Leftfield – Release The Pressure (The Desert Edit)
Dan
Mode – Lo-Fi Odyssey (Stallions Remix)
Vanishing Twin – Cryonic Suspension May Save You Life
The Circling Sun – Spirits, Pt.2
Adam
Panda Bear & Sonic Boom – Whirlpool Dub (Adrian Sherwood Reset In Dub Version)
The Clash – Bankrobber / Robber Dub
JIM – Phoenix (Crooked Goth)
Martin
Hedford Vachal – Toys
Hiem ft Roots Manuva – DJ Culture (Hiem 2013 Remix)
The Asphodells – We Are The Axis (Daniel Avery Remix)
Rob
Glok – That Time Of Night (Hardway Bros Meet Monkton Uptown)
The Shamen – Lightspan (Renegade Soundwave Mix)
Orbital – Midnight (Live)
Dan
Trevor Jackson – Lumiline
Hardway Bros – Theme For Flightpath Estate
The Asphodells – Never There (Hardway Bros Remix)
Adam
Rheinzand – Porque
The Durutti Column – The Together Mix
David Holmes – It’s Over If We Run Out Of Love
Martin
It’s Immaterial – Driving Away From Home (Jim’s Tune)
Talking Heads – Born Under Punches (The Heat Goes On)
Anthony Teasdale – Deep In The Forest Something Stared
Rob
The Liminanas – The Mirror
The Primitive Painter – Hope
Golden Bug & The Liminanas – Variation Sur 3 Bancs
Dan
Patrick Cowley – Jungle Orchids
Justin Robertson’s Deadstock 33s – Curtains Twitch On Peaks
Richard Norris – Pagan Dub
Adam
Pete Wylie & The Mighty WAH! – Sinful (Tribal)
Jo Sims – Bass – The Final Frontier (David Holmes Remix)
Primal Scream – Uptown (Long After The Disco Is Over)
Martin
DAF – Brothers (Mix Gabi)
Massimiliano Pagliara – It’s A Lately Thing
Black Strobe – Innerstrings
Rob
Two Lone Swordsmen – Glide By Shooting
The Disco Evangelists – A New Dawn (Back To The World)
Headfunk – Dawn Til Dusk
Dan
Rude Audio – Running Wild
Llewellyn – These Days (Don’t Make Me Wait)
The Light Brigade – Human : Remains
Adam
Coyote – Lonely
Andy Bell – Smokebelch II
Martin
Andrew Weatherall – Ghosts Again
The Asphodells – Another Lonely City
Bjork – One Day (Springs Eternal Mix)
Rae & Christian – Swansong (2 Lone Swordsmen Dub)
Two Lone Swordsmen – Rico’s Helly (Re-Tailored By Nourizadeh And Teasdale)
This is my hour’s set from last Saturday afternoon at AW61 at The Golden Lion, Todmorden, re- created at home. The photo above shows my view from the DJ booth as my set ended and the auction and raffle began- you may recognise some of the faces getting ready to bid on items from Andrew Weatherall’s studio.
Once we’ve got all the other sets and the evening’s rotations recreated we can upload the entire thing but I thought I’d share mine in the meantime. It comes in at over an hour and I only played for an hour on the day- from memory, I mixed Biosphere’s En- Trance out because the file seemed very quiet (even for an ambient track) and it is in the mix below too. I think I mixed out of Underworld’s 8 Ball halfway through as well but just left it playing in full here because, really, what sort of person mixes out the second half of 8 Ball? I’d just faded the GLOK Starlight Dub of A Mountain Of One’s Star in when Gig, the Golden Lion’s legendary landlady, took the mic to start the auction (along with Lizzie and Sofia) so that track was left mostly unplayed- you’ll have to imagine the auction and raffle taking place when you reach that point in my set (unless you were there in which case replay it in your mind). I played Emotionally Clear as the raffle ended and to provide my handover to Dan who was waiting in the wings.
Wixel: Expressway To Yr Skull (Long Champs Bonus Beats)
This Mortal Coil: Edit To The Siren
Bjork: One Day
James Holden: Common Land
A Mountain Of One: Star (GLOK Starlight Dub)
David Holmes and Raven Violet: Emotionally Clear
Western Revolution is Coyote’s sublime edit of Gil Scott Heron’s The Revolution Will Not Be Televised. I had half a mind to start with Lonely, which is from the same vinyl only EP out last year, Magic Wand Special Edition Vol. 2, but Mr Holmes played it the night before.
Bordeaux Sequence was on The Durutti Column’s 1987 album The Guitar And Other Machines, a moment of genuine beauty from Vini Reilly. It is a re- recorded version of Bordeaux from 1983’s Another Setting. A couple of people in the room gave me a ‘thank you for playing Durutti Column’ look.
Psychederek is from Stretford, just up the road from me. Test Card Girl was a digital only single from 2023 and I’m not over it yet
Loved was a single from Four Tet, also from last year and is now the opening track on his Three album. Another 2023 song that has stuck around well into ’24.
The Birds is by Rick Cuevas, from a self – released, private pressing album called Symbolism that came out in 1984, an album described on Discogs as ‘soft rock/ AOR’. I wouldn’t necessarily call The Birds either- a friend once described it as ‘Durutti Column on steroids’ which I’m happier with. I’m fairly certain I only know of this song because of Andrew Weatherall referencing it in an interview or playing it on a radio show.
Biosphere’s En- Trance is ambient/ techno from Belgium in 1994, an album called Patashnik. It’s just some synth drones and an acoustic guitar- I say ‘just’, it’s much more than that obviously. Shame this WAV file I have is so quiet.
Underworld’s 8 Ball was on the soundtrack to The Beach, the Leonardo Di Caprio film from 2000. 8 Ball is a nine minute low key epic with fluid guitar playing and some of Karl’s loveliest singing, lyrics about men with empty whiskey bottles and walkie talkies and flaming 8 ball tattoos on their arms, a man who eventually throws his arms around him. They gave this away to a soundtrack, a soundtrack where it was overshadowed a little by All Saints and Moby- most bands would kill for a tune this good and would make it a single or the track they built an album around. Someone in the Lion asked me what this was and took some convincing it was Karl on vocals.
Wixel are from Belgium (with hindsight, there’s a bit of a Belgian theme running through this mix) and put out a cover of Sonic Youth’s Expressway To Yr Skull in 2008, part of a seven track EP of Sonic Youth covers. The Long Champs edit turns it into a shimmering, semi -ambient haze that led to a couple of enquiries in the pub- and if you turn a couple of people onto something new to them, that’s what it’s all about isn’t it.
Edit To The Siren is an In The Valley edit of Song To The Siren, This Mortal Coil’s signature cover of Tim Buckley’s song. Someone once told me this was sacrilege but for me its got a dubby/ Balearic splendour and is perfect Saturday afternoon vibes.
One Day is one of the key early Bjork solo songs, from 1993’s Debut. The dubby bassline, house shimmer, Nellee Hooper’s production and Bjork’s delivery are all superb.
Common Land was one of the tracks on James Holden’s 2023 album Imagine This Is A High Dimensional Space Of All Possibilities, an album I still go back to a year later. The burbling synths, birdcall, techno- ish drums and warbling sax combine to create something very heady and transportative. It’s also a tribute to the free party movement and early 90s rave and felt quite fitting for the Lion and Todmorden.
A Mountain of One’s Stars Planets Dust Me was one of my favourite albums from 2022. Andy Bell’s GLOK remix is a spaced out, sun- baked treat.
Emotionally Clear is from David Holmes’ Blind On A Galloping Horse, 2023’s number one Bagging Area album. Seeing David Holmes bidding at the auction at AW61 from behind the decks will take some beating in 2024.
I can’t remember who took this photo, maybe the wonderful Claire Dollers or possibly Neil Overall, Todmorden’s Golden Lion illuminated by the heavens, a rainbow the least we could have expected for the AW61 weekender that happened last weekend. There’s was so much that went on it’s difficult to piece it all together, so many people gathered in one place to pay tribute to the departed Andrew Weatherall, to dance and enjoy the music of the various DJs and live acts, lots of people where we were able to put faces to names, lots of familiar faces from previous outings at The Lion, and many magic moments which could only take place in that particular pub in Todmorden.
Friday
Rotter and Rusty were in the DJ booth. Rusty designed the artwork for our Sounds From The Flightpath Estate album, a copy of which sat centre stage on the booth (as pictured here with me behind the decks on Saturday afternoon).
Rotter and Rusty played all sorts- country, funk and soul, cosmic stuff- perfect Friday afternoon sounds. As afternoon turned into evening and the pub filled, Matt Hum took over downstairs, some heavy sounding electronics, superbly mixed and sequenced. Upstairs a capacity crowd filled the live room as Keith Tenniswood aka Radioactive Man and former Swordsman played behind a bank of kit, mixer, synths, drum machines, FX devices and kicked up a storm of electro/ techno, basslines thumping and filling the room. The room was heaving, dark and sweaty, the floor bouncing, the kind of space and music that are perfectly suited for each other. I’ve no idea what tracks Keith played. This one is from his self titled 2001 Radioactive Man album.
Downstairs Matt Hum handed over to David Holmes, a man who has played the Golden Lion several times recently. He hit the ground running, a set that started out with music for dancing to and kept it going for four hours, plenty of deviations into disco in the first half, the second half having some crossover with sets played last year (a Galloping Horse remix, Rich Lane’s edit of Jackie by Sinead O’Connor) but filled with new tunes, 80s electro- pop and acid house, Can’s I Want More and the giddy synth ecstasy of Figures by Absolute Body Control from 1983 standing out, reaching a crescendo after 1am, the pub’s mirror ball spinning, red lights dancing around the stone walls, the place filled with dancers and revellers.
Saturday
We arrived at 2pm for our marathon Saturday afternoon and evening sessions, five Flightpath Estate DJs taking an hour each and then playing back to back, two or three tunes each in rotation. The sets weren’t recorded but we aim to recreate them at some point. Baz went on first, chilled afternoon sounds building to an end with White Williams’ Route To Palm (first heard on an Andrew Weatherall BBC 6 radio show in 2008) and Andy Bell’s cover of Smokebelch from our album. Martin followed, his usual eclectic and inspired selection of tracks. I played from 4pm to 5pm. You spend so long preparing for these sessions, selecting tracks, planning what to play and what to put next to what, and it’s over in a flash. My afternoon set was woozy electronic music, ambient sounds and spaced out stuff- Coyote, Durutti Column, Psychederek, Four Tet, Rick Cuevas, Biosphere, Underworld, The Long Champs/ Weval/ Sonic Youth threeway edit/ cover, an edit of Song To The Siren, Bjork and James Holden. I had just cued up GLOK’s spaced out remix of Stars by A Mountain Of One when the auction and raffle began, Gig (the Golden Lion’s legendary landlady) and Lizzie (partner of Andrew at the time of his death) auctioning a select set of Andrew Weatherall connected items, accompanied by Sofia Hedblom (dressed as a cupcake).
Playing support act to this auction and raffle was a brilliant way to spend part of the weekend, bizarre and utterly Golden Lion. A mug from Andrew’s studio was bid for and won by Moggieboy (Alan McGregor who used to write the superb Ripped In Glasgow blog, one of the inspirations for this blog back in 2009/ 2010). Among the lots there were a pair of Andrew’s cufflinks, a Boy’s Own bag with incense in it, a photograph taken by Lizzie and used for the sleeve of Andrew’s The Bullet Catcher’s Apprentice EP and a metal tin from Andrew’s studio that used to contain his stash. The auction and raffle raised over £800 all of which went to Todmorden’s Incredible Edible charity, a local urban gardening project growing, celebrating and sharing locally grown food. As the raffle ended I put David Holmes’ Emotionally Clear on and handed over to Dan.
I missed most of Dan’s set having moved to the restaurant area to get some food, a stomach lining being important ahead of the evening. Mark took over from Dan and played a customarily superb set of tracks, dubby and chuggy, pushing things up a gear. By a bit after 7pm we were ready to go back to back, four of us taking it in turns to entertain a by now busy and keen pub. Sons Of Slough played upstairs, an hour long live set with lots of new material. Downstairs we were pushing the tempos up a little- after Martin played a three, I went back and played Anzu by C.A.R., David Holmes’ remix of Lisa Moorish’s Sylvia (I think Mark played this earlier too, always a risk with so many people involved at the decks) and Orbital and Mike Garry’s Tonight In Belfast, before handing over to Dan and then Mark and round again, but there were so many tracks that didn’t get played sitting in my bag. Hearing The Light Brigade’s Human : Remains pounding out of the sound system was a bit of a moment. In the run up to Sean Johnston and Duncan Gray taking over Dan, Martin and Mark nailed it, a blend of well known and obscure, Rich Lane’s edit of New Order’s Vanishing Point and Bedford Falls Players’ Beautiful Chaos both pumping loud and clear through the speakers.
After 9pm Sean and Duncan took over and took the roof off. Often when they play together they play a lot of dub but this set went to chunky, pumping and spaced out, ALFOS style sounds quickly, thumping drums, synths, lots of vocals and many tracks that people couldn’t place. Radio Slave’s recent remix of Fun Boy 3’s The Lunatics (HaveTaking Over The Asylum) caused some mayhem.
My memories are admittedly sketchy but at one point Sean dropped this monster from 1991 by LaTour, People Are Still Having Sex (possibly an edit of it)…
Vox Low’s Something Is Wrong was played at some point and Awrite by Manakinz but there was so much going on its difficult to keep track. I spent some time down the front in the mass of dancers, a happy blur of faces and limbs. When the lights came on and people hugged and blinked and wiped the seat from their brows and grinned in the early hours of Sunday morning there was a pause and then Sean finished with one of his signature tunes from last years’ ALFOS sets, Yame’s As I Ran, a euphoric and giddy dancefloor gem from 2022, a squiggly topline, wayward synthlines and a section that breaks down into chanted vocals and then rattling snares driving back in and the synth melodies kicking back in. The sequenced bassline runs on and on, running round in your head long after the track has finished.
Remarkably there were still people back at the Golden Lion on Sunday for more, Curley on the decks all afternoon spinning ambient and some floor shaking dub and then Rico and Waka playing a Double Gone Chapel set of rockabilly, garage and punk. I was present for some of it, waiting around until I felt well enough to summon the strength to drive home.
Quite the weekend.
We had a blast, it was a great thing to be involved in and we, The Flightpath Estate team, all feel so honoured to be a part of it. Massive thanks to Waka, Gig and Matt at The Lion, Ian and Lizzie, all the DJs and acts. And a big thank you to the beautiful and brilliant Golden Lion crowd, all the dancers and fellow travellers. In no particular order and I know I’ll miss someone out so apologies to anyone whose name should be here and isn’t – Claire and Si, Annabel and Tessa, Rotter, Rusty, Emily, Sofia, Curley, Rico, Alan/ Moggie, Cat and Robert, Raphael, Dave Croft et al, James, John, Marc and Harriet and the Glasgow revellers, Ian, Hugh, Michael and the Liverpool contingent, Gill and Damo, Tommo and friends, Jono, Gary J, Dickie, Joanne and friends, Neil, Simon, Chris, Andy and Ruth, and all the people I bumped into on the floor, in the garden or around the decks whose names I can’t recall right now. Thank you each and every one of you.
It’s a big weekend of music related activity coming up, starting tonight and running though until Sunday evening by which point I will be in need of a lie down. We’ll go in reverse order. As the flyer above shows on Sunday The Flightpath Estate DJs (on this occasion Martin, Dan and me) are returning to Blossom Street Social in Ancoats for our third mission there, playing records from 3pm until 8pm. We are joined by guest Rob Fletcher, the man responsible for legendary 90s Manchester techno and electronic music club night Herbal Tea Party. The four of us will be playing back to back, three tracks each and then switching and it will be a seamless showcase of our track selection and turntable skills. Obviously.
If you’re in Manchester on Sunday afternoon, please come down and say hello. Dan has a test pressing of our forthcoming double vinyl album Songs From The Flightpath Estate Volume 1, the album we’re putting out with The Golden Lion featuring Two Lone Swordsmen, Justin Robertson, Andy Bell, The Light Brigade, Justin Robertson, Sons Of Slough, 10: 40, Richard Sen, Rude Audio and Hardway Bros, so some of those tracks, if not all, will get their first airing in public.
On Saturday night I’m at Manchester’s Albert Hall to see Echo And The Bunnymen who are touring to celebrate 1985’s Songs To Learn And Sing, Mac, Will and the rest of the current line up playing two sets with a short gap in between. I’ve seen them a few times in the last ten years and when they’re good, they’re very good. ‘Lay down thy raincoat and groove’, was the advice of the Bunnymen back in 1983 on the release of Never Stop- decent advice still.
The night before the Bunnymen (tonight in other words) we’re at Manchester’s Deaf Institute to see a second member of The Crucial Three, Pete Wylie, on tour with a full band promoting Teach Yourself Wah!, a Pete Wylie and The Mighty Wah! best of. A small venue, Wylie’s between song storytelling and patter, some of the best songs of the 1980s, good reviews coming in from other gigs on the tour.. . I’m really looking forward to it.
Seven Minutes To Midnight came out in 1980, the second/ final single of Wah! Heat, a clanging, clamorous post- punk single written in the aftermath of the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan and the subsequent moving of the hands of the doomsday clock to 11.53. In the intervening forty three years the clock’s hands have moved back and forth a little and were altered most recently in January 2023, now set at ninety seconds to midnight. That apocalypse just creeps closer.
This is a big news announcement! In fact, that probably needs to be in capital letters to reflect the hugeness of this- THIS IS A BIG NEWS ANNOUNCEMENT!
We, The Flightpath Estate, are releasing an album, double vinyl limited to 500 copies, Sounds Of The Flightpath Estate Volume 1, a ten track compilation of artists associated with Andrew Weatherall and the online group The Flightpath Estate (run by five of us and celebrating its tenth birthday this year). There are nine previously unreleased, newly recorded, exclusive to this album tracks and a Two Lone Swordsmen track that has only ever seen the light of day on a very limited promo CD in Japan. It’s taken since last summer to pull all this together and there have been times when we have been pinching ourselves about the line up of artists, the quality of the music and the fact that this is going to be an actual record.
The tracklist is hopefully enough to have some of you reaching for the pre- order links (which will go live tomorrow, Thursday 15th February) and getting your credit card out.
Two Lone Swordsmen: The Crescents
Sons Of Slough: Red Machine (Live at The Golden Lion)
Timothy J. Fairplay: Centurion Version
Justin Robertson’s Deadstock 33s: Curtains Twitch On Peaks
Richard Sen: Tough On Chug, Tough On the Causes Of Chug
Rudio Audio: Running Wild
10: 40: Three Rings
Hardway Bros: Theme For Flightpath Estate
The Light Brigade: Human: Remains
Andy Bell: Smokeblech II
Last summer while me, Martin and Dan were DJing at The Golden Lion we had a chat about a Flightpath Estate compilation album, the sort of chat which seemed like wishful thinking at the time but which sowed seeds with each of us. At first I was thinking of a compilation of already released tracks but that seem to be fraught with complications- licensing tracks from various other labels seemed complex and potentially costly. A compilation of artists who are members of the group and who were friends/ partners/ colleagues/ fans of Andrew’s but with previously unreleased music might be easier to pull off. I should point out that our experience of putting an album out was at that point extremely limited (of the five of us, Mark makes music as Rude Audio and has some experience releasing music but the rest of us- me, Dan, Martin and Baz- have close to zero).
The following week we discussed it further and drew up a list of names to approach. Our list included David Holmes, Timothy J. Fairplay, Sean Johnston, Richard Sen, Justin Robertson and Sons Of Slough (Ian Weatherall and Duncan Gray), plus Rude Audio, Jesse from 10: 40 and a few others. We divided them up between us and started making contact, via social media messaging and email. The first name in the list, a well known Belfast based DJ and producer who may have the initials DH but who has to appear pseudonymously due to him being signed to a record label, said yes immediately. Once he was on board we felt we had a chance of getting this together. We contacted Waka and Matt at The Golden Lion, Todmorden, who not only run a pub/ live venue/ portal to another world, but also have a record label- Golden Lion Sounds. They were happy to put our at this point speculative album out. The other names on our list began to respond and say yes too. As summer turned into autumn we began to receive music: a track from the Belfast based DJ/ producer that he’d begun years earlier and now wanted to finish to give to us, a track that is seriously good; dubby music from Justin Robertson and Tim Fairplay, recorded specifically for the album; music from Richard Sen and from Hardway Bros (Sean sent us a track, then another version of it, then scrapped it and went back to the drawing board and sent us a Flightpath Estate theme tune); Sons Of Slough promised us a live track recorded at their gig at The Golden Lion last August; new music from 10: 40 and Rude Audio. All of it genuinely brilliant.
We discussed getting an Andrew Weatherall or Two Lone Swordsmen track. Martin is one of the few people who owns a copy of Still My World, a promo CD released in Japan in 2003 tied into a clothing range and we all loved the ambient track The Crescents. He contacted Andrew’s manager Pete Lawton and former Swordsman Keith Tenniswood, and we got their approval and blessing to use it, pending discovery of the master. Ian Weatherall gave us his approval, as did Lizzie, Andrew’s partner. I contacted Andy Bell (of Ride and GLOK) and asked if he was interested. He replied to say he had a cover of Smokebelch that he started the day Andrew died but hadn’t finished but to keep in touch. Then he went on tour to the USA with Ride. Our deadline for music was approaching (we were keen to have the tracks in our hands, compiled, and ready for mastering for vinyl by November ’23 in an attempt to get the album out spring 2024). I emailed Andy on the off chance and the following day he replied to say I’d given him the nudge he needed and he sent me his now completed, stunning cover of Smokebelch. Now we had ten tracks, and a clear idea of which ones should open and close the album (Two Lone Swordsmen and Andy Bell respectively). Dan contacted Rusty, an artist and designer who goes by the name of Personality Crisis, about sleeve art (and getting that back plus the gatefold inner was another genuinely amazing moment). I wrote some sleeve notes. We did the legal stuff. GLS got it mastered. Last week test pressings arrived at The Golden Lion. Now the sleeves are going to print and the records are going to press and with any luck we’ll have them out in April (which happily will coincide with the AW61 celebrations at The Golden Lion).
At times while doing this we’ve felt like a bunch of amateurs chancing our collective arm and making it up as we go along- but it turns out that things like this can actually happen. It’s one of the most exciting things I’ve ever been involved in. It still makes me shake my head in disbelief that in a couple of months it will be an actual physical record with this line up of artists, available to buy. The artists who have donated their music, the people who’ve helped us out along the way with advice and contacts, the team at The Golden Lion, the enthusiasm from a very select group of people who’ve known about this until last night- massive thanks to each and every one of you.
Matt from The Golden Lion has done a twenty two minute promo mix of the ten tracks sequenced together, if you need any further inducement to part with your money. You can listen to it at Mixcloud- find it here.
Our compilation album, Sounds From The Flightpath Estate Volume 1, is available to pre- order tomorrow from Golden Lion Sounds and/ or the GLS Bandcamp. There will be 500 copies, no repress, no digital, vinyl only. Any proceeds from sales will go to The Lion and to Andrew’s preferred charities (Crisis, Shelter and Thrombosis UK). Not only is it therefore a good thing for a good cause, it’s actually a really good album.
Back in November we (The Flightpath Estate team) and Waka at The Golden Lion put on an event to celebrate the 30th anniversary of the release of Sabresonic, the debut album by Sabres Of Paradise. We invited former- Sabres Jagz Kooner and Gary Burns to a Q&A at the Lion and Jagz promised to do a DJ set. The evening went really well and the chat was enjoyed by everyone there, as was Jagz’s set that followed.
Pete Lawton, Andrew Weatherall’s manager, arranged to have the Q&A filmed and both this has been uploaded to Youtube, split into two halves. I haven’t managed to watch to watch the whole thing yet- I’m the one hosting the Q&A and asking the questions. I needn’t have worried as much as I did in advance- both Jagz and Gary were superb guests, chatty and helpful and full of the kind of stories and details we were hoping for. But watching yourself on film is an uncomfortable experience and hearing yourself even more so (especially when you click play and think, ‘do I really sound that Manc?’). You can click the links here for Part One and Part Two.
In the week running up to the event Jagz messaged me to ask if I had an mp3 or WAV file of Andrew’s remix of S’ Express’s Find ‘Em, Fool ‘Em, Forget ‘Em, one of the remixes that sealed Andrew’s reputation in the early 90s as the remixer of the scene and period, a technicoloured, ecstatic, breathless, dancefloor deconstruction of what a song and remix could be. I sent my mp3, a fairly small file, to Jagz saying it might not stand up to being played through the Golden Lion’s soundsystem. Jagz said not to worry, he’d give it a remaster and a boost in his studio. This is that remastered, boosted file, as played at Sabresonic 30.
Last Sunday the northern contingent of The Flightpath Estate DJ team (me, Martin and Dan) played a near seven hour session at Blossom Street Social in Ancoats. The set up at the bar is lovely, the DJ kit, complete with a rotary mixer, and sound system are first rate. We played there in April to a select crowd of Sunday afternoon and evening drinkers. The crowd this time was, over the course of the day, more select i.e. smaller, with a few friends of the Flightpath coming down, a smattering of afternoon drinkers and a handful of enthusiastic bar staff and their friends in the evening.
Needless to say we had a blast, six hours and forty seven minutes of records pulled out of bags and boxes and spun. Last time we took forty five minutes each and after that rotated every few records. This time we played three records each back- to- back all day, which kept everyone more involved and meant we were living on our wits a bit more, constantly responding to what the previous two selectors had put on. This made it a bit more hair-raising with the mixing and transitions, not always being entirely sure how the record you were taking over from ended, but it was great fun and who really cares what the mixing’s like on a Sunday afternoon?
The set was uploaded onto Mixcloud by Blossom Street Social on Tuesday this week and has so far been listened to 152 times. One of the Mixcloud tags was, a bit mystifyingly, Yacht Rock (along with Balearic and Electronica. I think Dub might have been more fitting but there you go). I’m not sure we played any Yacht Rock (except possibly my selection of a song from David Crosby’s If I Only Could Remember My Name album and even then….). We did not set out on this adventure with any ambitions to top the Mixcloud Yacht Rock chart but at the time of writing this we were third in that chart so a few my listens might hoist us to the pinnacle. The full set can be listened to here. It’s pretty laid back and chilled for the first three hours, gets a little more uptempo in the final third when Mr Weatherall makes an appearance on a few occasions. It might be best consumed in chunks unless you’ve got nothing at all to do today. This is what we played and who played what…
{Adam} [0:00] Malcolm McLaren – Paris (The Emotional Curvatone At A Given Moment In Time And Space by Youth) [15:00] Art of Noise – Moments In Love (Beaten) [20:00] Coyote – Nothing Rests
{Martin} [25:00] Mike Harper – Lay It On Me Baby [28:00] Rainbow Crunch– Lookin’ Back [33:00] Rodriguez – Sugarman
{Dan} [36:00] John Barry – Midnight Cowboy [39:00] Sonlife – She Misses You [42:00] Floyd Hunchback Group – Wet Dreams
{Adam} [44:00] Rod McKuen and San Sebastian Strings – The Gypsy Camp [45:00] David Crosby – Tamalpais High (At About 3) [48:00] Gal Costa – Milho Verde [52:00] Dream Lovers – For Belgian Friends
{Martin} [58:00] Unloved – Strange Effect [1:01:00] Fireflies – Freeze Me [1:06:00] Justin Robertson & Tim Burgess – Yes It Is
{Dan} [1:10:00] Bob Lund – Cool Summer [1:16:00] William Eaton Ensemble – Kayenta Crossing [1:19:00] Penguin Cafe – Cantorum
{Adam} [1:26:00] Penguin Café Orchestra – Music For A Found Harmonium [1:29:00] Julian Cope – Beautiful Love [1:32:00] The Durutti Column – Otis
{Martin} [1:36:00] Tommy Guerrero – Come Together [1:39:00] Technova – Atmosphere [1:43:00] Timothy J Fairplay – Plymouth Planetarium
{Dan} [1:48:00] Four Tet – Two Thousand And Seventeen [1:52:00] Persona La Ave – Surfer Girl [1:58:00] Matty – Blood
{Adam} [2:01:00] Alex Kassian – Lifestream [2:07:00] Andy Bell – Our Last Night Together [2:12:00] Coyote – Kate’s Bush (Nocturnal Edit)
{Martin} [2:18:00] RPM – Sortie Des Ombres [2:23:00] Scha Dara Parr – N.I.C.E. Guy (Nice Guitar Dub) [2:28:00] Barcode – Love Anybody
{Dan} [2:35:00] Andy Davis – Over And Over [2:40:00] JIM – Still River Flow [2:45:00] Gaudi Meets the Rebel Dread – E=MC2
{Adam} [2:50:00] Sinead O’Connor With MC Lyte – I Want Your (Hands On Me) (Dance Mix) [2:55:00] Siouxsie And The Banshees – Peek-A-Boo (Big Spender Mix) [3:01:00] Talk Talk: Life’s What You Make It
{Martin} [3:09:00] Talking Heads – Psycho Killer [3:13:00] LCD Soundsystem – Yr City’s A Sucker [3:18:00] Fad Gadget – Back To Nature
{Dan} [3:23:00] Liquid Liquid – Cavern [3:28:00] Woolfy – Looking Glass (Extended Mix) [3:33:00] The Aloof – On a Mission (Stanley Mix)
{Adam} [3:40:00] Jah Wobble’s Invaders Of The Heart – Visions Of You (The Secret Love Child Of Hank And Johnny Mix) [3:50:00] Transglobal Underground – Temple Head (Pacific Mix) [3:55:00] Saint Etienne – Speedwell (The Aloof Mix)
{Martin} [4:01:00] Colourbox – Looks Like We’re Shy One Horse [4:06:00] Ashley Beedle vs Warbox – Da Soun A Ear (Dubplate Mix) [4:09:00] Blue – Circle Line (Rootsman Remix)
{Dan} [4:17:00] Pama International Meets Wrongtom – Tomorrow’s Dub Today [4:20:00] Dub Syndicate – 2001 Love [4:24:00] Wrongtom Meets Rockers – Dub In The Supermarket
{Adam} [4:28:00] SOP – Ysaebud [4:32:00] African Head Charge – I’m A Winner [4:35:00] The Clash – Ghetto Defendant
{Martin} [4:40:00] Fujiya & Miyagi – Ankle Injuries [4:45:00] R3mote – Freefall [4:48:00] Pink Elln – Human Perc
{Dan} [4:52:00] Cavern Of Anti-Matter – Kool Boy Narcosis [4:54:00] Rude Audio – The Grinning [4:59:00] Twice Of Love – 24 Hours From Culture
{Adam} [5:04:00] Psychederek – Screamadereka (Hardway Bros Meet Monkton Downtown Disco Dub) [5:12:00] Jeremy Deller – Voodoo Ray (JD Twitch Optimo Mix) [5:19:00] A Certain Ratio – Good Together
{Martin} [5:24:00] Waxworth Industries – Take The Book (D.M.X) [5:30:00] Venetians – Son Sur Son (A.W. Edition Uno) [5:35:00] Confidence Man – Bubblegum (Andrew Weatherall Remix)
{Dan} [5:42:00] Dolle Jolle – Balearic Incarnation (Todd Terje’s Extra Dell Mix) [5:52:00] Chris & Cosey – Exotika [5:58:00] Last Rhythm – Last Rhythm (Ambient Mix)
{Adam} [6:02:00] Fontaines D.C. – A Hero’s Death (Soulwax Remix) [6:07:00] Confidence Man – Out The Window (Andrew Weatherall Remix) [6:14:00] Sly & Lovechild – The World According To Sly & Lovechild (Soul Of Europe Mix)
{Martin} [6:23:00] Trentemoller – Silver Surfer, Ghost Rider Go!!! (Andrew Weatherall Prinz Mix) [6:29:00] La Ruta – Kibbo Kift [6:37:00] Fuck Buttons – Sweet Love For Planet Earth (Andrew Weatherall Remix) [6:45:00] Two Lone Swordsmen – Work At Night
Back in April the northern chapter of The Flightpath Estate DJ team (me, Martin and Dan) played records for six hours on a Sunday afternoon and evening at Blossom Street Social in Ancoats. We’re back there today for The Second Mission, starting at 2pm and ploughing on through until we run out of records/ Sunday night dread kicks in/ public transport issues take over. If you’re in the Manchester area and fancy dropping in to hear some music- inspired by but not limited to the sounds of Andrew Weatherall- come down, say hello, have a cold drink and enjoy some of this September sunshine. You can see how many mistakes we make as well- last time I played at least two records at the wrong speed. The six hour set in April was recorded live and is on Mixcloud, having been played 424 times to date (and I don’t think the three of us account for that many of those plays). It starts with the trippy backwards magnificence of David Holmes’ remix of Andy Bell’s The Sky Without You and winds its way through ambient, dub, Balearic, cosmische, various Weatherall tunes, some Sunday afternoon diners friendly glitchy techno, New Order, The Clash and Echo And The Bunnymen before winding up with Carly Simon. My account of it is here.
A more professional two hours of expertly selected and sequenced music is available courtesy of David Holmes and his monthly God’s Waiting Room show at NTS. The September edition went out a few days ago and can be found here.
Bagging Area 