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ROTTERS GOLF CLUB
If ‘Convenanza’, released in February, was a distillation of all Andrew Weatherall’s influences in one place then ‘Consolamentum’ takes that instinct a step further. Here he invites friends old and new to rework the tracks from Convenanza in their own style.
On board are redoubtable musical architects such as David Holmes (under his new ‘Unloved’ guise), Justin Robertson (wearing his ‘Deadstock 33s’ hat) and the legendary Bernard Fevre of Black Devil Disco Club notoriety.
Leading the charge by the new guard are Heretic, Red Axes, Solar Bears and Vox Low whose tracks have twisted into existence a quiet storm on ALFOS nights.
On board are redoubtable musical architects such as David Holmes (under his new ‘Unloved’ guise), Justin Robertson (wearing his ‘Deadstock 33s’ hat) and the legendary Bernard Fevre of Black Devil Disco Club notoriety.
Leading the charge by the new guard are Heretic, Red Axes, Solar Bears and Vox Low whose tracks have twisted into existence a quiet storm on ALFOS nights.
TRACK LISTING
01) We Count The Stars (Unloved Remix) ***
02) The Confidence Man (Justin Robertson?s Deadstock 33s Remix) ***
03) Frankfurt Advice (Red Axes Remix) ***
04) The Last Walk (Vox Low Riding The White Horse Version)
05) Disappear (Duncan Gray Remix) ***
06) Thirteenth Night (Timothy J Fairplay Remix) ***
07) The Confidence Man (Sons Of Slough Remix)
08) Frankfurt Advice (Heretic Remix) ***
09) Kicking The River (Solar Bears Remix)
10) The Last Walk (Black Devil Disco Club Rework)
11) Ghosts Again (Scott Fraser Vocal Dub)
Please Note The LP Version Is 8 Tracks And Includes *** Plus
The Confidence Man (The Emperor Machine Dub)
Ghosts Again (Scott Fraser Ghosts In The Piano Mix)
"Convenanza" is the sound of Andrew Weatherall looking back at the clutter of a life thoroughly lived and realising it’s too late to tidy it up in any meaningful way. It would be marvellous to throw out lines about the artist exploring the periphery of his musical vision or redrawing the boundary between confrontational electronica and a fondness for a decent melody. That would however indicate some kind of preconceived plan or, failing that, a musical objective which shaped the record. Even serendipity would suggest a more organised approach to the album than was actually the case. Many years of listening to music with a unique ear has resulted in the disordered cabinet of highlights, touchstones, revelations and half recalled good times that make up being Lord Sabre.
Andrew and his long time fellow recusant Nina Walsh met up in her studio following their enjoyable collaboration as The Woodleigh Research Facility with a view to "doing something" and started tinkering around with the bare bones of some rhythm, top lines and loose vocal meanderings Nina had had sitting on the shelf for a while. Andrew yanked and pulled at the threads and added lyrical ideas until the ghosts of songs started to emerge. Refusing to concern themselves with any kind of structure, they scarpered when tedium threatened and let the music do what it wanted. Sometimes it took a sharp left turn; sometimes it dropped any pretensions of a tune and made do with a wonky groove and at other times simply disintegrated. The post funk punk rhythm of "Frankfurt Advice" takes a deep breath but soldiers on when the disquieting sound of the trumpet playing in the next room intrudes and remains firmly in control despite momentarily stumbling over an unruly guitar. The self-assured top line of "The Confidence Man" collapses in on itself and the loosened beats enjoy a gentle unrestrained boogie atop the solid bassline before the vocal’s final hymnic retreat. Is this sounding incoherent, an uncomfortable disjointed mess? It’s no more so than you’d get dipping arbitrarily into a life or trying to describe any long relationship. Being untidy is allowed; in fact it is to be celebrated as it reflects more truly the jumble of moments any of us experience at the best of times and we all recognise can never be caught on the page. The upside of this promiscuous attitude to music is the sheer joy when it all comes into focus on "We Count Our Sins"… The trumpet returns but this time it’s the soaring spirit of the song which strains against a deeply anchored bassline. The message of abandonment in the verse is thwarted by the obstinate optimism of the key refrain and there’s a sense of resolution as the song ends and melds into the blissful "Thirteenth Night".
That Andrew has grasped random thoughts, memories and life markers then assembled them so they become such a satisfying musical voyage is a testament to a mind that can draw pictures in the air but still has trouble finding the on-off button on his laptop.
Andrew and his long time fellow recusant Nina Walsh met up in her studio following their enjoyable collaboration as The Woodleigh Research Facility with a view to "doing something" and started tinkering around with the bare bones of some rhythm, top lines and loose vocal meanderings Nina had had sitting on the shelf for a while. Andrew yanked and pulled at the threads and added lyrical ideas until the ghosts of songs started to emerge. Refusing to concern themselves with any kind of structure, they scarpered when tedium threatened and let the music do what it wanted. Sometimes it took a sharp left turn; sometimes it dropped any pretensions of a tune and made do with a wonky groove and at other times simply disintegrated. The post funk punk rhythm of "Frankfurt Advice" takes a deep breath but soldiers on when the disquieting sound of the trumpet playing in the next room intrudes and remains firmly in control despite momentarily stumbling over an unruly guitar. The self-assured top line of "The Confidence Man" collapses in on itself and the loosened beats enjoy a gentle unrestrained boogie atop the solid bassline before the vocal’s final hymnic retreat. Is this sounding incoherent, an uncomfortable disjointed mess? It’s no more so than you’d get dipping arbitrarily into a life or trying to describe any long relationship. Being untidy is allowed; in fact it is to be celebrated as it reflects more truly the jumble of moments any of us experience at the best of times and we all recognise can never be caught on the page. The upside of this promiscuous attitude to music is the sheer joy when it all comes into focus on "We Count Our Sins"… The trumpet returns but this time it’s the soaring spirit of the song which strains against a deeply anchored bassline. The message of abandonment in the verse is thwarted by the obstinate optimism of the key refrain and there’s a sense of resolution as the song ends and melds into the blissful "Thirteenth Night".
That Andrew has grasped random thoughts, memories and life markers then assembled them so they become such a satisfying musical voyage is a testament to a mind that can draw pictures in the air but still has trouble finding the on-off button on his laptop.
TRACK LISTING
01. Intro
02. Frankfurt Advice
03. The Confidence Man
04. The Last Walk
05. Kicking The River
06. Disappear
07. We Count The Stars
08. Thirteenth Night
09. Ghosts Again
Andrew Weatherall never wakes up in the morning and decides to start a new album that day. Instead, recording music is a continuous process usually working with different collaborators and seeing where the muse takes him. Somewhere down the line the rewards of a collaboration will coalesce into a body of work between thirty minutes and an hour long and he will put a call into the Rotters’ team to say he has a new release ready to go.
We were visiting the studio catching up on new tracks in various states of readiness when he offered up some remixes of tracks from his recent “Ruled By Passion…” he’d been sent by fellow musicians. Tim Fairplay, Andrew’s partner in The Asphodells, Sean Johnston from A Love From Outer Space and Scott Fraser live and work in the area and all popped in at various points.
Andrew’s black book reads like the who’s who of contemporary music but rather than plunder it for remixers he’d let drop the idea of a remix with friends and neighbours. These plus a couple a swaps with musical friends who were new to the concept of remixing, gave Andrew an hour of music he thoroughly enjoyed listening to.
It goes without saying none of the tracks are duds but our ears always prick up when Justin Robertson’s take on “Beglammered” ups the heart rate or Daniel Avery’s own unscrewing of “… the Axis” ruffles the neck hairs. We’ve stopped arguing in the office about which is the best track. They all are.
We were visiting the studio catching up on new tracks in various states of readiness when he offered up some remixes of tracks from his recent “Ruled By Passion…” he’d been sent by fellow musicians. Tim Fairplay, Andrew’s partner in The Asphodells, Sean Johnston from A Love From Outer Space and Scott Fraser live and work in the area and all popped in at various points.
Andrew’s black book reads like the who’s who of contemporary music but rather than plunder it for remixers he’d let drop the idea of a remix with friends and neighbours. These plus a couple a swaps with musical friends who were new to the concept of remixing, gave Andrew an hour of music he thoroughly enjoyed listening to.
It goes without saying none of the tracks are duds but our ears always prick up when Justin Robertson’s take on “Beglammered” ups the heart rate or Daniel Avery’s own unscrewing of “… the Axis” ruffles the neck hairs. We’ve stopped arguing in the office about which is the best track. They all are.
On this album Andrew Weatherall has partnered with Timothy J. Fairplay as The Asphodells. Their friendship goes back to Tim’s time with Battant in the latter part of the 2000s with Andrew helping out on production. Tim has been responsible for a number of independent tracks variously on Astro Lab Recordings, World Unknown, Bird Scarer, Emotional Response and Magic Feet. He has played live across Europe including at Fabric in London and Robert Johnson in Germany and DJs at regular Glasgow night Crimes of the Future with Scott Fraser.
Musically the album’s yet another game changer. Andrew has left behind the rock and roll leanings of Wrong Meeting and A Pox on the Pioneers and looks back over his shoulder to the purer electronics of the Kraftwerk-inflected Two Lone Swordsmen but without the sparse introspection that characterised those times. Now the music is saturated in repetitive beats overlaid with sinuous melodies played out over whole tracks. Songs still feature but sound haunted, guitars still ground the tracks but are more resonant. John Betjeman’s ‘Late Flowering Lust’ sits surprisingly comfortably alongside AR Kane’s ‘A Love from Outer Space’ but ultimately it’s Weatherall and Fairplay that imbue the album with it’s own sense of a journey through a time and space that only dimly reflects our own.
Musically the album’s yet another game changer. Andrew has left behind the rock and roll leanings of Wrong Meeting and A Pox on the Pioneers and looks back over his shoulder to the purer electronics of the Kraftwerk-inflected Two Lone Swordsmen but without the sparse introspection that characterised those times. Now the music is saturated in repetitive beats overlaid with sinuous melodies played out over whole tracks. Songs still feature but sound haunted, guitars still ground the tracks but are more resonant. John Betjeman’s ‘Late Flowering Lust’ sits surprisingly comfortably alongside AR Kane’s ‘A Love from Outer Space’ but ultimately it’s Weatherall and Fairplay that imbue the album with it’s own sense of a journey through a time and space that only dimly reflects our own.
TRACK LISTING
01. Beglammered
02. Never There
03. Skwatch
04. Another Lonely City
05. Late Flowering Lust
06. Late Flowering Dub
07. We Are The Axis
08. One Minute's Silence
09. Quiet Dignity Of Unwitnessed Lives
10. Love From Outer Space (Version 2)
Andrew Weatherall is no stranger to rock and roll. Generally credited with inventing indie dance through his work with Primal Scream, Flowered Up and My Bloody Valentine he pioneered the crossover between big electronic beats and equally big guitar chords. His fondness for good old fashioned rock'n'roll is celebrated with this release. With elements of garage and rockabilly mixed in with the more familiar layers of electronica this album both promises and delivers a whole new direction. Weatherall argues that rock'n'roll is a lot more futuristic in its way than most electronic music at the moment. 'Go to the past, but look to the future, don't get bogged down in the present. It's about distilling the essence, be it from the 50s or the present day'. "Wrong Meeting II" wears its influences on its sleeve while sounding utterly contemporary. Once again TLS has created an album that looks to push boundaries between musical genres and remain challenging to the listener. Best described by DJ magazine as 'raw scuzz-rock that sounds like PiL remixing the Birthday Party'.