English dj
Andy Weatherall became famous in 1990 when he took a
Primal Scream song and turned it into
Loaded, one of the big dance hits of the era.
He remained a protagonist of the rave scene as it exploded all over the world
through a variety of projects and collaborations:
Bloodsugar and Planet 4 Folk Quartet with David Harrow,
Bocca Juniors with Terry Farley, Pete Heller and Hugo Nicholson,
Lino Squares and Two Lone Swordsmen with Keith Tenniswood,
Lords Of Afford with David Hedger, etc.
The most relevant project was the
Sabres Of Paradise, for which in 1990 he teamed up with Jagz Kooner and Gary Burns.
Kooner and Burns were members of the collettive Aloof that recorded
Cover The Crime (Warp, 1994).
Sabres Of Paradise debuted with the 12-minute single Smokebelch II (1993),
a smooth parade of cosmic drones, chirping electronic effects,
exotic percussion, accordion-like melodic fragments, and many other painstakingly accumulated sonic tricks.
Similarly, the album Sabresonic (Warp, 1993) offers an elegant mixture of
Brian Eno,
Tangerine Dream,
Philip Glass
and techno.
The exuberant and somewhat sinister Still Fighting roams the African jungle as well as extragalactic civilizations and it's a sound that exudes dancefloor sweat.
The jungle theme returns (double in intensity) in the hyper-active
Inter-Lergen-Ten-ko.
Smokebelch I emits anthemic synth pulsations from a thick lattice of syncopated beats.
The 15-minute suite Clock Factory opens with industrial noise over
a repetitive keyboard pattern reminiscent of Mike Oldfield's Tubular Bells and the atmosphere turns
increasingly neurotic and even ghostly with a touch of theremin.
If the flute-driven R.S.D. is the light moment of the album,
the two movements
(andante and allegro) of Anno Electro represent its cerebral ambitions,
which transcend the genre.
Haunted Dancehall (Warp, 1994) is a sort of concept set in the nightmarish
alleys of London's underworld.
The uncanny metallic trance of Bubble And Slide II and the feverish
psychedelic reverbs of Chapel Street Market 9AM are examples of masterful
sundsculpting. The compositions are
generally more eventful, culminating with the
nine-minute Duke of Earlsfield that mutates genre multiple times.
Return to Planet D transports drum'n'bass contortions in a cosmic setting.
Ballad of Nicky McGuire finds a way to reconcile languid and somnolent electronic drones and harsh electronic beats.
On the light side,
Tow Truck seems to mock spaghetti-western and James Bond soundtracks,
Haunted Dancehall sounds like Bach on heroin,
and the single Wilmot injects vintage musichall skit into techno.
However,
compared with the debut album, this sophomore album feels less organic, less cohesive, and with
some fluff, while still being at times an impressive artistic statement.
Septic Cuts (Warp, 1994) is an anthology of Weatherall's remixes.
Versus (Warp, 1995) instead collects remixes made by others of Sabres material.
Sabresonic II (1995) is an album of remixes, notably
David Holmes's 15-minute remix of Smokebelch II.
Andrew Weatherall (helped out by Keith Tenniswood) then launched a new project,
Two Lone Swordsmen.
The idea was to compose evocative soundscapes out of dub, techno and noise,
while abandoning some of the dancefloor energy.
The monumental debut album, The Fifth Mission (Emissions Audio Output, 1995), basically made the Sabres experiment more sophisticated and more cerebral.
The compositions of the first half are generally shorter and slower. Some work much better than others: the anemic and dreamy Little Did We Know, the
Afro-hypnotic Glenn Street Assault Squad, the
psychedelic languor A Slow Drive West, and
the organ-driven 1970s-style soul-rock of Big Man Original.
There are too many meandering and underwhelming jams like Enemy Haze.
The march-style Beacon Block sounds cute for a few minutes but goes on for nine.
The seven-minute Lino Square comes up empty handed.
The second half of the album fares better.
Two Barb Quickstep blends trip-hop, dub and ambient in a surreal gag.
Switch It has all the creative traits that were missing in the first half,
a jazzy and spiraling jam full of distractions.
Rico's Helly boasts the most exhilarating beat, a trotting charleston-style beat.
The eight-minute Extended Branch Brothers is a diligent but not particularly exciting funk-jazz jam.
Despite the redeeming second half,
the album is generally a disappointment: very few good ideas and too much
pointless doodling.
The project remained unfocused also on Stay Down (Warp, 1998), although
some of its electronic/symphonic fragments best exemplifiy
the claustrophobic (Hope We Never Surface)
and the ghostly (No Red Stopping) music that Weatherhall is envisioning.
Shrouds of ambient noise (Mr Paris's Monster) and clockworks of
jazz-hop (Spine Bubbles) are meant as attractions but sometimes work
as distractions. The album and the music do not have a core, a center of mass,
a unifying theme, or, ultimately, a meaning.
Two Lone Swordsmen's EP A Virus With Shoes (Warp, 2000)
recovered some of techno's thumping energy.
The album
Tiny Reminders (Warp, 2000)
is their most impeccable production, full of background events
and still sleek like a pop song.
All the compositions are shorter than six minutes and the ambitions
are proportional. There is no attempt here to reinvent dance music.
At best,
there are only "intelligent" variations on a well-known canon.
Mechanical compositions like Machine Maid and The Bunker don't
even have the "intelligence", and
subdued dances like Death To All Culture Snitches and Akwalek
lack kinetic energy. The highlights are
the more abstract and almost beat-less Cotton Stains and the
alien vignette C.T.M.
But it's way too little to justify such a long album.
Further Reminders (Warp, 2001) is a terrible album of remixes.
Andrew Weatherhall's
selection of other producers' tracks for
Hypercity (Forcetracks, 2001) is even more dreadful.
Keith Tenniswood is also active as Radioactive Man, that released two
collections of highly entertaining and creative dance-music:
Radioactive Man (Rotters Golf Club, 2002) and
Booby Trap> (Rotters Golf Club, 2003).
Peppered with Spastic Magic (Rotters Golf Club, 2003)
is a collection of Two Lone Swordsmen's remixes.
While only partially thought out (just like its predecessors),
From the Double Gone Chapel (Warp, 2004) turned out to be Two Lone Swordsmen's best
album in four years.
The pretext is the addition of vocals, guitar and (live) drums, which, per se,
would not be a dramatic departure; but the (rock) way they are used "is" a dramatic
departure, or at least a rediscovery of atmospheres long forgotten, particularly
the claustrophobic/suicidal sound of
Public Image Ltd.
Faux, Damp and Taste Of Our Flames
sweat sorrow and angst.
This new mood is contrasted with the naive, optimistic flimsiness of
Formica Fuego and
the hysterical/neurotic tics of Stack-Up and The Lurch.
Big Silver Shining Motor of Sin E.P. (Warp, 2004) is an EP that contains (terrible) remixes.
Emissions Audio Output (2006) is a career retrospective of the Two Lone Swordsmen that focused on the early albums.
Fulfilling the trend towards rock music and vocal songs of From the Double Gone Chapel (2004),
Two Lone Swordsmen's
Wrong Meeting I and II (Rotter's Golf Club, 2007) veered decisively
towards rock music, barely nodding to the new wave of the 1970s but mostly
delivering an eclectic set of personal songs.
Two volumes of his work were released as
Andrew Weatherall vs. The Boardroom
(2008 and 2009).
Andrew Weatherall released his first solo album,
A Pox on the Pioneers (2009).
The Asphodells was a collaboration with
Timothy Fairplay that resulted in the album
Ruled by Passion Destroyed by Lust (2012).
Andrew Weatherall still released the solo albums
Convenanza (2016) and
Qualia (2017) before dying
in 2020.
