Fifty Four

I am 54 today- and all of a sudden the mid- fifties have arrived. I have tied to put together  a number 54 based Sunday mix. It turns out 54 isn’t a particularly popular musical number. As so often happens Mr Weatherall came to my rescue along with The Clash and a very famous and debauched New York nightclub and a blinding reggae song. This mix is as a result somewhat varied stylistically and gets even more random towards the end- maybe that’s a metaphor for one’s 50s.

Forty Five Minutes Of Fifty Four

• Grace Jones: Nightclubbing
• Tom Tom Club: Genius Of Love
• The Clash: Ivan Meets G.I. Joe
• Two Lone Swordsmen: Shack 54 (Joe Mckechnie Remix)
• Patrick Cowley and Sylvester: Menergy (Rich Lane ‘Too Hard’ Cotton Dub)
• Big Audio Dynamite II: The Globe (Studio 54 Remix)
• The Velvet Underground: I Can’t Stand It (2014 version)
• The Rolling Stones: All Down The Line
• Toots And The Maytals: 54- 46 That’s My Number

Studio 54 was a New York nightclub located at 254 West 54th Street, midtown Manhattan. It was converted from a theatre to a club in 1977 and for a while was the world’s premier disco nightclub, a place with a famously loose approach to sex, drugs and extravagance. It had apparently the world’s most difficult entry policy but once in ‘the dancefloor was a democracy’. A list of Studio 54’s celebrity clientele includes Grace Jones, Woody Allen, Bianca Jagger, Salvador Dali, Andy Warhol, Bowie, Cher, John Lennon, Diana Ross, Lou Reed, John Travolta, Margaret Trudeau, Divine, Farrah Fawcett, Faye Dunaway, Jack Nicolson, Liza Minelli, Rick James and many more. Some of those people were thusly shoehorned into my mix above. Chic famously were turned away at the door and went home and wrote Freak Out, a disco track which started with the phrase ‘Fuck You!’ chanted as the chorus instead of the eventual title. 

Grace Jones, a Studio 54 devotee, released her album Nightclubbing in 1981, an early 80sunk/ reggae/ post- punk/ new wave/ disco masterpiece, recorded at Compass Point in the Bahamas. The title track is a cover of Iggy Pop’s 1977 song, an ode to numbed out nighttime adventures on the floor. It’s Grace’s birthday today as well- happy 76th birthday Grace.

Tom Tom Club’s Genius Of Love is also from 1981, a brilliant slice of New York post- disco/ synth- pop/ art rap that nods its head to a cast of black musicians- James Brown, Sly and Robbie, Hamilton Bohannon, George Clinton, Bootsy Collins and Bob Marley- and was a big tune at Studio 54. Its creators, Tina Weymouth and Chris Frantz only went a couple of times, they claim, preferring the Mudd Club or Danceteria. 

The Clash went to Studio 54 once and Joe Strummer said they were observed by the Warhol crowd like animals in a cage. Joe wrote The Beautiful People Are Ugly Too about the experience. Ivan Meets G.I. Joe is from Sandinista!, and includes the line ‘so you’re on the floor at 54’, imagining the Cold War as a competition on the nightclub’s dancefloor, a Soviet- America disco face off, sung by Topper Headon. It’s not my favourite Clash song but it fits this mix. 

Shack 54 was on Two Lone Swordsmen’s Wrong Meeting Part 2, a 2007 album with Weatherall and Tenniswood by this pint deep into live rock ‘n’ roll/ garage rockabilly territory. It was great fun, Andrew once again turning on a sixpence and wrong footing people who expected him to keep doing the same thing. This remix of Shack 54 by Joe Mckechnie is I think unreleased. 

Patrick Cowley and Sylvester were both Studio 54 attendees. For his Cotton Dub edit Rich Lane ramps up the campness and Hi NRG to the max on a song that wasn’t exactly lacking in either. 

Big Audio Dynamite II’s The Globe was the best single the second incarnation of the band released, a  1991 single that samples Mick’s most well known Clash riff. It was a Mick Jones and Gary Stonnage co- write and produced by Mick and Andre Shapps (making both of them related to current Tory Minister Grant Shapps, a man I sincerely hope loses his seat and his deposit come election day).  The Studio 54 remix adds some disco strings and keys and has never been officially released but is on the bootleg series The B.A.D. Files. 

The Velvet Underground have Studio 54 connections via Lou Reed and Andy Warhol but there’s a big disconnect between the sound of the Velvets and Studio 54 so really this was just an excuse to shoehorn in this 2014 version of a Lou reed song that should be played daily by everyone, Lou and Sterling taking the Bo Diddey beat and rhythm guitar to its logical limit. The part where Lou counts down from 8 is among my favourite moments on any song. 

Bianca Jagger once rode into Studio 54 on the back of a white horse, an eye- opening way to celebrate one’s birthday (a party for Bianca thrown by fashion designer Halston). Bianca later said she didn’t ride the horse to or in the club, she just sat on its back once it was already inside. I was going to say, with a knowing smirk, hey, we’ve all been there- but then I remembered that at the Golden Lion last November at the end of a night David Holmes played at the pub there was a horse at the bar having a pint with its owner, so actually, maybe we have all been there. Bianca was married to Mick from 1970 to 1978, a period The Stones made their final absolute classic album, 1973’s Exile On Main Street from which All Down The Line is one of four superb songs that make up the album’s fourth side. 

Toots And The Maytals released reggae classic 54- 46 Was My Number in 1968. 54- 46 was Toots’ prison number when he was jailed for possession of marijuana and for the next 365 day trip around the sun, 54 is my number. 

Stay Down

In all the excitement about the 30th anniversary of Sabresonic the 25th birthday of Stay Down got a bit overlooked. Released in October 1998 Stay Down was Two Lone Swordsmen’s follow up to the four sides of vinyl explorations of 1996’s The Fifth Mission (Return To The Flightpath Estate) but doesn’t sound anything like it. Like all the TLS releases, Stay Down sounds like it exists in a world of its own, it’s not a staging post on the journey to another album, it’s not part of a progression, it’s an album that is in and of itself. It’s also the Two Lone Swordsmen album which I think has grown the most since its release, revealing new depths and nuances. 

Stay Down is twelve short tracks, each one a self contained piece of ambient techno. The sound is deep, submerged, subaquatic ambience with drum loops and sub bass, and twinkles, bloops, blurps, stutters, synth stabs, bleeps, strings and samples, Andrew Weatherall and Keith Tenniswood operating like the pair of deep sea divers on the cover, drifting in a world far below/ aprt from the one everyone else was living in in 1998. It’s analogue, ambient and noodly but focussed too, one track flowing to the next. The section where We Change The Frequency kicks in is a moment of excitement, a change of pace and tempo, but mainly it flows by, like the slow motion bursts of squid ink and spine bubbles that two of the tracks are named after.

The track titles are themselves a series of cryptic, tantalising Weatherallian clues to be pondered and pursued. Two of them have taken on a poignancy not intended on release, both beautiful, low key ambient moments – Light The Last Flare and album closer As Worldly Pleasures Wave Goodbye… The opening track Hope We Never Surface sets the tone as far as song titles go, a suggestion to stay below, to stay within the grooves of this record, to be present inside it. The Big Clapper, Alpha School and Ivy And Lead all conjure up vivid imagery. Mr Paris’s Monsters is a mystery. We Discordians (Must Stick Apart) is named after Discordianism and everything that that entails, the number 23 included (I was told recently that when producing numbered vinyl editions and art prints Andrew always kept number 23 for himself). No Red Stopping was named after Andrew arrived for a DJ gig in a newly liberated nation in the former Yugoslavia and was picked up by a driver to take him to the club, who then sped through every red light at every junction between airport and nightclub. Eventually, knuckles white and tension rising, Andrew asked the driver why he didn’t stop for red lights. Snipers, was the reply. 

We Discordians (Must Stick Apart)

There’s precious little information on the sleeve other than the track titles and recording details- recorded at Rotter Golf Club, copyright Warp Records, made in England, mastered by ‘amidst very unprofessional behaviour’ Frank Arkwright- and Andrew’s very recognisable handwriting. The only extra is a quote via Primal Scream’s Andrew Innes and the source of the record’s title, Andrew’s advice in what to do in conflict situations- ‘sometimes in a fight it’s best just to stay down’. 

Forty Six Minutes Of Twenty Three

Two months ago this weekend, the day before we were taking Eliza back to Liverpool for her final year in university, the three of us were sitting in a cafe in Didsbury village, one of our afternoon walk and a brew haunts. Eliza said, out of nowhere, ‘I think we should all go and get a number 23 tattoo for Isaac’. Lou and I looked at each other and both said, ‘yeah. ok’. It was very spontaneous, none of us ever really thought abut getting a tattoo before. Me and Eliza had joked about but very much in a ‘we won’t ever do this’ kind of way. But at that moment it suddenly seemed like a good thing to do. Unfortunately the tattoo parlour in Sale couldn’t fit us in on the day so we booked in for a month later- it felt like something the three of us should do together and Eliza didn’t want to come back from Liverpool for a while. It also gave us some time to think about fonts and parts of the body.

The number 23 has become associated with Isaac. I’ve written about it before this year. He was 23 when he died and his birthday is the 23rd November (just a couple of weeks away now with the 2nd anniversary of his death a week later). In the last year the number 23 has kept appearing in front of me- on street signs, graffiti, electricity boxes, random tv countdown shows suddenly channel surfed onto, the only available table in a pub. I don’t think it necessarily means anything- it’s just something I’ve started noticing and when I see a 23 now it makes me think of him and smile. Getting a 23 tattoo might trigger the same reaction (and a month later, I’m happy to say it does). We got the tattoos done a month ago. Mine is pictured above, a type writer font on my forearm. Lou got a smaller 23 on her side and Eliza got an even smaller, fine line 23 on her upper arm. 

The number 23 has a rich history. I’ve written before as well about it’s part in KLF mythology, with their interest in Discordianism and numerology. When Isaac died I was reading John Higgs’ book about The KLF. A few weeks after he died I picked the book back up and the first chapter I read was about the significance of 23. I finished the chapter and put the book down, totally freaked about. I read it again the next day and it had a similar effect. When I was looking at fonts for my tattoo I thought about a KLF block 23 but it would very inky and take some time to do. I fancied a type writer font. On the morning we were due to go I suddenly wondered what 23 would look like in a factory/ Peter Saville font and started going through my various Factory art books. What, I asked myself, was Fac 23? A quick search later and I realised Fac 23 was the 7″ release of Love Will Tear Us Apart by Joy Division. Which caused me to stop in my tracks for a moment. In the end I didn’t quite go full Peter Saville Fac font but it played a part in my thinking. We’re all really glad we got them done. At the moment, all autumn chilliness and long sleeves, its often covered up, but when I see it, it makes me smile. The upcoming anniversaries are weighing quite heavily and I’ll be glad to get November over with- but the tattoos feel like a positive and I’m not sure a year ago I’d thought that would be possible. 

This mix is 46 minutes of songs connected to the number 23. I was going to bring it in at 23 minutes but that felt too short so went for double 23. Two of the songs below were also released in full 23 minute versions which felt too long for a Sunday mix but they’re here in shorter versions to represent their 23 minute long brothers. 

46 Minutes Of 23

• Chris Rotter And The Bad Meat Club: 86’d
• 10:40: Sleepwalker
• Local Psycho And The Hurdy Gurdy Orchestra: The Hurdy Gurdy Song (Mothers Of The New Stone Age Remix)
• 23 Skidoo: Coup
• Jah Division: Jah Will Tear Us Apart
• The Vendetta Suite: Eye In The Triangle
• Two Lone Swordsmen: 23rd Street
• Mogwai: U235
• Gorillaz: Aries
• Psychic TV: Godstar
• The KLF: 3am Eternal

Chris Rotter was the guitarist in the live band incarnation of Two Lone Swordsmen and played on and co- wrote songs on Andrew Weatherall’s solo album A Pox On The Pioneers. I became friends with Chris online and then in real life. When Isaac died he wanted to record a song for Isaac. I asked him to do 86’d, a song I heard Andrew play on a radio show, a glorious chiming krauty instrumental. Chris went and re- recorded 86’d in new form, 23 minutes long. For reasons of space I’ve included the shorter one here. The full length 86’d (For Isaac) is here. 

Last December Jesse represented the entire 10:40 back catalogue as an advent calendar. This was the track for the 23rd December, the sleek psych and somewhat krauty Sleepwalker with Ben Lewis on guitar.

The KLF and the number 23 I’ve mentioned above. Read John Higgs’ Chaos, Magic And The Band Who Burned A Million Pounds for more detail. Local Psycho And Te Hurdy Gurdy Orchestra are ex- KLF Jimmy Cauty and ex- Pogue Jem Finer. Their hurdy gurdy, neolithic celebration drone came out on 12″ came out earlier this year complete with a 23 minute mix. I’ve included the shorter remix here but the 23 minute version is the one really. 

23 Skidoo are here for obvious reasons. Coup is a block rocking post- punk/ punk funk track from 1984. In a further Andrew Weatherall connection, it was one of the songs on his his 9 O’ Clock Drop compilation from 2000. 

Joy Division’s Love Will Tear Us Apart, as I said above, was Fac 23. Factory’s numbering system was central to their ethos. All Joy Division and New Order singles ended in 3. Rather than include the original I decided to put Jah Division’s dub cover in- it fitted better. Jah Division released an EP of four dub covers of Joy Division songs  in 2004. If you ever see a vinyl copy, please give me a ring. 

The Vendetta Suite are from Northern Ireland, the work of Gary Irwin. In 2017 Gary released an EP titled Solar Lodge 23 from which this piece of cosmic dubbiness is taken. 

Two Lone Swordsmen- yes, them again- released their first record in 1996, a 12″ that contained four tracks- Big Man On The Landing, Azzolini, The Branch Brothers and the one here, 23rd Street, a few minutes of abstract Swordsmen sounds. 

Mogwai’s move into soundtrack work has paid off. This is from the soundtrack to Atomic, a bit of a cheat maybe numerically but 23’s in there and the track fits.

Gorillaz have played with the number 23 frequently in their imagery and artwork. This song Aries was a single in 2020 and has the unmistakeable and melancholic/ uplifting sound of Peter Hook’s bass at its heart.  

Psychic TV, Genesis P Orridge’s experimental psychedelic/ acid house band had some interest in 23. In 1986 they began a series of gigs to be recorded and released, 23 in total, each played on the 23rd of a month for 23 consecutive months. Godstar is a single from 1985, a tribute to Rolling Stone Brian Jones.

The KLF’s 3am Eternal was the second of their stadium house trilogy, released in 1991 (after a previous version in 1989 and a subsequent one in 1992). The version here, the 1991 single and chart topper, took this mix to 46 minutes. 

Weatherall Remix Friday Fifteen

The idea of Weatherall Remix Friday when I started it a few months ago, was to feature some of the less well known, less celebrated Andrew Weatherall remixes. Andrew produced hundreds of remixes during his lifetime- under his own name (with a range of studio conspirators including Hugo Nicolson, Steve Boardman, Timothy J. Fairplay and Nina Walsh), with Sabres Of Paradise and with Two Lone Swordsmen. There are some artists he came back to time after time, remixing their songs across the decades- Primal Scream for one and David Holmes for another. David’s first solo album since 2008’s The Holy Pictures is out today on Heavenly, a record titled Blind On A Galloping Horse, one which I’ve been eagerly waiting for since Hope Is The Last Thing To Die came out in October 2021. There’s a launch party night at The Golden Lion on Saturday night with David DJing. The last time he played there, in October last year, was very memorable indeed. Hopefully Saturday will be similarly roof raising. 

Andrew’s remixes of David, in reverse order, take in his versions of Unloved (Devils Angels from 2019, a Weatherall remix of When A Woman Is Around from 2016 and two remixes of Guilty Of Love in 2015), the wonderful Andrew Weatherall remix of I Heard Wonders (from 2008) and then before those two remixes of Gone, a song with Sarah Cracknell on vocals from Homer’s 1995 debut solo album This Film’s Crap, Let’s Slash The Seats (an album recorded with Andrew’s Sabres Of Paradise partners Jagz Kooner and Gary Burns co- producing. Jagz, Gary and David were three members of the four members of a 1993 one off group/ record Four Boy One Girl Action which I might come back to at some point soon). Lots of links and connections between them then resulting in lots of music. It’s the remixes of Gone I thought I’d focus on here today, both dating from 1996.

This Film’s Crap… was a double album, very much made under the influence of being active for half a decade in 1990s club music, a dark, moody, downtempo album with nods to techno, trip hop and house and the signs of David’s future work in film soundtracks there to see. Gone, with Saint Etienne’s Sarah on vocals, was an obvious single, one of the few tracks on the album with a vocal, Sarah lamenting, ‘I gonna hide/ She don’t even know/ You can never go home anymore’. 

Andrew and Keith Tenniswood had just begun to release records as Two Lone Swordsmen. They released their first full length album, The Fifth Mission (Return To The Flightpath Estate), the same year and these remixes sound like they came from similar sessions and times. Gone came out as a single with various remixes in March 1996, several months before The Fifth Mission in August. TLS had released a pair of 12″ singles- The Third Mission and The Tenth Mission- ahead of the album, but the Gone remixes are some of the first fruits of the Swordsmen sound.

First Night Without Charge is a sublime, subtle, atmospheric early Swordsmen, those submerged and subaqua TLS sounds and motifs appearing, with double bass bassline and breakbeat taking the lead- not dissimilar to the sound and feel of The Fifth Mission. Sarah’s voice is nowhere to be found- as Jagz and Gary confirmed at our Sabresonic Q&A last weekend, vocals are the first casualties of the remix. In the fifth minute a horn bursts through the smoked out jazz club murk.  

Gone (First Night Without Charge)

Second Night Without Charge is a different beast, opening with kick drum and the rumble of sub- bass, more tense, with some bleeps riding on top. A minute in the percussion and snare hit and they raises it up a notch. The track then winds and unwinds, various sounds entering and exiting, for the next seven minutes, all the time the drums and bass pushing on- for want of a better description, abstract deep house. 

Gone (Second Night Without Charge)

When This Film’s Crap, Let’s Slash The Seats was released on CD in the US in 1998 it came with a second disc of extras, the remixes and B-sides from the UK releases in 1996 compiled into a second album bookended by the Two Lone Swordsmen versions of Gone, opening and closing things in a way that made it sound like they were planned to do exactly that.

Weatherall Remix Friday Fourteen

A trip back to September 1997 today for this week’s Weatherall Remix Friday and a pair of Two Lone Swordsmen remixes of The Money- Penny Project. The intention of this series was to highlight and spotlight some of the lesser known and less celebrated Weatherall remixes and this release definitely falls into that category. The Money- Penny Project was an alias for French producer Benoit Bollini and came out on London label Nuphonic, a label that lasted from 1995 to 2002. 

The first remix is brief by Weatherall standards, sub- five minutes and in semi- ambient techno territory, skittish synths and percussion with a background rumble. It’s not quite in the vein of Two Lone Swordsmen’s Stay Down album, released a year later but it could be a step on the road towards the sound they found on that album (a submerged and murky, ambient/ techno album, abstract electronic music music made by stoned submariners).

Clarisse- C (Two Lone Swordsmen Hor Fen Mix)

Flip the disc over though and the B-side gives up much more, the twelve minute splendour of the Double Mutator Mix. This one rattles and spins, the drums skipping as the whirring, clicking noises bounce around, the bass reverberates and distorted voices echo in and out, like someone tapping on the portholes of the submarine while a small dub/ house/ techno party goes on inside. At five and half minutes in some angelic choral sounds break in, sirens maybe, pulling our intrepid underwater crew towards the rocks. At nine thirty there’s a sensation of a shaft light suddenly breaking in, of surfacing from the depths, taking us back up above the waves and into the air. 

Clarisse- C (Two Lone Swordsmen Double Mutator Mix)

Weatherall Remix Friday Thirteen

The afterglow of last Saturday night’s Spiritualized gig has had me diving back into their back catalogue all week, in the car and at home- 1997’s Ladies And Gentlemen We Are Floating In Space mainly but also Pure Phase (from 1995), and the pairing of  Everything Was Beautiful and And Nothing Hurt (2018 and 2022). It seemed an obvious choice for today’s Weatherall Remix Friday to feature the 1998 Two Lone Swordsmen remix of Come Together (the encore at New Century Hall last week and an utterly thrilling blast of psychedelic rock, a lurching, furious hymn/ lament to serious drug addiction). The Two Lone Swordsmen remix goes somewhere very different indeed. 

Come Together (Two Lone Swordsmen Mix)

‘How big are your eyes?’ a dislocated voice enquires, as other indistinct voices and noises swim around. A taut detuned guitar line and what could be FXed horns appear. The voice goes on, to no one in particular, ‘What of the sun?’ Two minutes in there’s a crash of noise, some drums rumble and then a dirty, broken breakbeat kicks in. It goes on, a quite unsettling piece of music, a cacophony, squawks of sax and bursts of trumpet, bass and rums the only real constant, Jason’s expansive, symphonic, psychedelic rock spun into the outer edges by Weatherall and Tenniswood for fifteen minutes. Vinyl only, 1000 copies, embossed cover. 

The Oxford

To conclude this week’s run of photos of abandoned and defunct pubs this is The Oxford on Oxford Street, Liverpool. It was once part of a Victorian terrace and is now the only building that remains standing. Given its boarded up state I guess that may not be the case for much longer. It stands at the eastern end of the University of Liverpool campus. At the other end is The Cambridge, a regular haunt of mine back in the late 80s and thankfully still open. This is one race in which Cambridge have definitely beaten Oxford.

Today is Weatherall Remix Friday Twelve and his ties in to last Sunday’s Saint Etienne mix post too. Back in 2000 Two Lone Swordsmen remixed Saint Etienne’s Heart Failed (In The Back Of A Taxi), a single from their Sound Of Water album. The album is a low key, minimalist affair, pared back and with some influences from the late 90s leftfield/ avant garde/ ambient end of things. 

Two Lone Swordsmen went to town on remix duties, producing four versions- gritty, bass heavy TLS urban dub. Only one was officially released, the other three appearing on a white label promo disc. I’m not going to describe each one in turn- they’re all variations on a theme that go progressively further, murkier and dubbier. If you like the turn of the millennium TLS dub sound (and you should) you’ll enjoy these. If you’re a completist (and I know some of you are) you’ll want them for your collection. 

Heart Failed (In The Back Of A Taxi) (Two Lone Swordsmen Remix)

Heart Failed (In The Back Of A Taxi) (Two Lone Swordsmen Instrumental Remix)

Heart Failed (In The Back Of A Taxi) (Two Lone Swordsmen Dub Remix Version 1)

Heart Failed (In The Back Of A Taxi) (Two Lone Swordsmen Dub Remix Version 2)

Weatherall Remix Friday Eleven

Inevitably September arrives and brings summer to an end, dusk falling earlier and back to school. I’m feeling it particularly keenly right now, the changing seasons and forward march of the year.  And the return to work which happens today. 

This week’s Weatherall Remix Friday visits Two Lone Swordsmen in 1997 remixing old friends The Aloof (a group containing two former Sabres Of Paradise in Gary Burns and Jagz Kooner plus Rich Thair of Red Snapper, Dean Thatcher and Ricky Barrow). Sinking was the title track on The Aloof’s second album, following 1994’s superb dub- techno/ rave opus Cover The Crime. Sinking was a darker album, less clubby, more after hours, with some trip hop and blues as a part of the sound and more of a live band feel, something of a comedown record after the previous one’s partying. 

There’s plenty here to enjoy. TLS load up a skippy house beat, a deep house bassline, splashing cymbals and a lovely wiggly synth topline that weaves its way through the remix for seven minutes. Late 90s downtempo/ deep house that keeps your attention engaged and head nodding throughout. This vinyl rip has a lovely burst of crackle at the start for the vinyl lovers out there. 

Sinking (Two Lone Swordsmen House Mix)

Also from the 12″ remix package is a pair of Ashley Beedle remixes, this one being the pick of the pair. Clattering drums, whispers, whistles and minor chords.

Sinking (Nautical Cosmic Break Mix)

Weatherall Remix Friday Ten

Weatherall Remix Friday is back today after a month’s absence. When walking down the Bridgewater Canal from Stretford Marina to Castlefield a few weeks ago this piece of graffiti jumped out at me. I’m not sure if it’s a Two Lone Swordsmen tribute (they did sometimes style their name as 2LS) or a local artist’s tag but either way it fits with today’s Weatherall and Tenniswood remix. 

In 1998 Ganger released a trilogy of 12″ singles, all called Trilogy, with remixes by Two Lone Swordsmen, Underdog and D across the three discs. The TLS remix is the one featured here today, a lo fi, dusty and abstract piece of music, all squiggles, bleeps, static, little guitar parts, echo and whatever else Andrew and Keith scooped up from the masters,  dropped in and FXed. It gathers a little pace eventually with percussion and a low key rumbling rhythm. A snare works its way to the fore, a mechanical TLS drum sound taking the lead while the noises and loops percolate around it. On it goes, passing the eight and then nine minute mark, an exercise in lo fi TLS submerged meandering, eventually coming to a halt one second shy of ten minutes. 

a [Untitled] (Two Lone Swordsmen Remix)

Ganger were a Glaswegian post- rock/ krautrock group who released several singles and an album between 1996 and 1999, eventually signing to Domino. 

Houghton festival took place last weekend. Back in 2017 Andrew appeared at the decks following Ricardo Villalobos and Craig Richards and played a two and a half hour dub set. It’s available at Soundcloud and really is dub of the highest order, Mr Weatherall proving he could move between genres at will and with ease. 

This set, recorded at a festival in Anglesey in 2016, is another current favourite, a two hour wigged out ALFOS trip through the Andrew’s record box taking in among others Johnny Sender, Secret Squirrel, Scott Fraser, Duncan Gray, Anzano, Club Bizarre, The Rimshooters, Mustang and a seriously good edit of Captain Beefheart, always for dancing, always building, up and ever onwards. I don’t think anyone else could put together a set like this. Listen here. 

Weatherall Remix Friday Eight

A reader got in touch after last week’s Weatherall Remix Friday with a couple of suggestions for future posts both of which are a) fairly obscure and b) ones I think I’ll get to. This one fits in well with last week’s Two Lone Swordsmen remix of Alter Ego’s Mescal and with the pair Keith suggested. Le Patron Est Devenu Fou! (translation- The Boss Has Gone Mad!) was a track by French producer Super Discount (Etienne de Crecy) and appeared on his album, also titled Super Discount. A 7″ single was released in July 1997 with a remix on the B-side by Two Lone Swordsmen. 

Le Patron Est Devenu Fou! (Two Lone Swordsmen Dub  Mix)

For this remix Andrew and Keith Tenniswood head further into a murky basement/ underwater world of their own making- dingy, poorly lit and full of smoke and the aroma of substances. Six minutes of bubbles, echo, delay, rattles, the throb of sub bass, a quicker tempo than it maybe at first seemed like it would have, little synth/ keyboards runs, space, bleeps, more echo, more delay- wonderfully textured and nuanced deep house dub.