Andrew Weatherall? (RIP February 2020)

Justin Robertson has just posted this on the ALFOS FB group:

Weatherall and co artwork from over the years.

Download and do as you please within reason.

Link will be valid for 7 days and is free.

Hopefully it's a good gesture that AW would appreciate xx

https://wetransfer.com/downloads/c3c196a91e9f32b0a0760ba08bd7d16120200217170915/9dca65/grid

Was he about the only producer to birth a genre via a remix?

Not to take anything away from Weatherall, but I'm sure even he himself would credit King Tubby as being the first producer/remixer to do this.

Also, techstep was born out of DJ Trace's remix of T-Power's "Mutant Jazz", tho obviously that happened a couple of years after "baggy".

I didn't follow his career but this was unexpected all the same — his name popped up in so many places. I no longer remember how I discovered it (maybe here?), but several tracks from his Nine O'Clock Drop compilation never left my workout playlist, and in particular I have it to thank for exposing me to Gina X Performance. I should listen to some of those NTS shows! RIP.

tuomas : think the post was about the fact that Andrew possibly invented the baggy remix i.e. a specific genre - the remixing of indie guitar bands for the dance floor.

can anyone tell me the version of 'haunted dancehall' that's on the cafe del mar vol2 compilation

https://www.discogs.com/Various-Caf%C3%A9-Del-Mar-Ibiza-Volumen-Dos/release/23725

it's very very different to the version on the sabres album ?
it's truly gorgeous with massive orchestration and deep chill atmospherics.
no detail on the cover/credits/discogs or anything.

and in particular I have it to thank for exposing me to Gina X Performance

Same - 'Warm Leatherette' too for that matter (although I hated it at first) - iirc that comp came out at least a year or so before the revival of that aeshetic was in full swing. Loved that totally different Social mix just as much.

I'm sure he hated the word 'eclectic' but he did seem to occupy a central zone in which all directions of dance met, turning his attention like a clock arm to a particular direction just ahead of everyone else.

xpost to myself : youtube trawling revealed the answer.
it's the In The Nursery version.
guess i need to track that mini-lp of remixes down now.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qU26wxr520o

Really good interview:

https://www.theguardian.com/music/2016/feb/25/andrew-weatherall-interview-dj-disco-maverick

tuomas : think the post was about the fact that Andrew possibly invented the baggy remix i.e. a specific genre - the remixing of indie guitar bands for the dance floor.

“When that superstar DJ thing began to take off, I thought, ‘DJs? Heroes? Are people really that desperate? I know people want heroes, but seriously, this is ridiculous.’ It was very tempting, because the money to be made and the larks to be had were manifold. It wasn’t a grand, anti-commercial gesture, because I love pop music and I don’t decry people. But call me unambitious, I was fine as I was. I’m quite happy at this level. When it becomes a career, a career in any business looks quite tiresome and vexing and like it might involve me having meetings with people I don’t want to have meetings with.”

🤩🤩🤩 xp

Yeah, I've got that 7" release

Convinced there were another cover on the B side but discogs seems to think it was single sided xps

A friend of mine went to his house once and said he certainly didn't give the impression of having a lot of money.

it's quite sad is this, he was definitely one of the very few good ones:(

ripped from my twitter feed :

"OK my favourite weatherall story told to me by sean johnston... someone was giving him grief across the decks all night and eventually weatherall asks the griefer "how much did u pay to get in tonite?" and the griefer says "a fiver" and weatherall says "here's a tenner. fuck off"

<3

lol!

tuomas : think the post was about the fact that Andrew possibly invented the baggy remix i.e. a specific genre - the remixing of indie guitar bands for the dance floor.

I guess what I was getting at was that a genre could possibly be traced to a specific remix ("Loaded" in this case), that there was this shared "aha!" moment, which I'm sure was there with dub and house of course, but maybe not so traceable to an exact moment like w/ Weatherall. And DJ Trace, who I had forgotten about, though for me techstep was maybe the first genre that I couldn't actually describe to somebody else.

A lot of genres seem to evolve over time, but that indie/dance crossover moment was like a lightning bolt.

i agree.

Nah that was happening anyway and it was almost inevitable that it would - the Wrote For Luck remix was several months before that for one thing.

That is true but I just don't remember people going all doo-lolly for the WFL remix like they did w/ Loaded.

Plus, Vince Clarke basically turned WFL into an Erasure track w/ Shaun Ryder on vox, whereas Weatherall more or less laid out a blueprint w/ Loaded, which is probably why it was so influential.

Sorry, didn't mean to turn this into a semantics thread. Let's make way for more great stories about a guy we all agree was a giant in our world.

Weatherall's Weekender.

.. available via soundcloud as i have just found out.

I think I got Nine O'Clock Drop out of the library in 2000 and didn't really give it a fair listen as I'd expected something more techno and dubbier, but going back to it now, that's a v prescient tracklisting - a lot of stuff that I heard revived and revered via other channels over the next few years after it came out

Sad news to wake up to this morning. Listening to Haunted Dancehall today, Wilmot is such a great track and it's such a great album.

I only saw him layout a few times but they were all immense and great memories.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qMzyCoqzrZM

I think he was the DJ I most wanted to be

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eqOCi6lm3Rw

Middle of the second hour is immense.

Fuck me i’m sad now.

Me too, those were great nights.

I felt deeply saddened to the hear about Andrew Weatherall passing. He was so ubiquitous that almost everyone I knew had a story or a connection to him. He was due to speak at a conference within a festival in Leeds on the 7th of March which I was really looking forward to. I went to the same school as him. I started a few years after he'd left and Loaded had come out while I was a teenager. He was a legendary figure then. I must have seen him play out at least once a year in the last 10 years. I just can't believe he won't be there any more.

i'm not a dance music dude but i liked everything i heard that he was involved in. i mean he even made decent stuff with primal scream! that's heap big medicine.

Never got a chance to see him spin, but he's unquestionably been a huge influence on the direction of my personal musical paths. From the SoP albums ('Haunted Dancehall' still an absolute fave), through his many great remixes, and producer jobs for albums I dug. He was ubiquitous, I always seemed to run into his music somehow, most recently with his great NTS show.

I just remember that the company name for ilx’s zing! App is Haunted Dancehall.

this is a weatherall remix that i really like but i don't think have ever seen mentioned:

ttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Grt188zk9bY

gah!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Grt188zk9bY

They're playing weatherall all morning on nts and taking requests via the chat

http://sound.modelfruit.com/tracklists/weatherall_bloodsugar.html

The bloodsugar mixes are all still online, with mostly but not quite complete tracklistings

xp Soon remix on now, god level, never gets old

Youtube playlist of all the tracks played on today's show:

http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLOQLM8dqMbTuc87PabOiLCEtuLPrA8Q2Q

I just listened to Haunted Dancehall in the car for the first time in ages and wow it holds up better than ever. Always loved it but in today's context it still works. The drumming on it is fantastic - I assume those are live drum loops he played in? There's even a snatch of the rockabilly influence on tracks like Tow Truck

Beautiful words by Twitch on resident advisor. I'll pay my own tribute on the dancefloor at Optimo this Saturday.

Another Twitch-related memory - Pure was his pre-Optimo techno night in Edinburgh:

My dear fried Jill who also looked after the press for myself & Pure in the 90s dug this out from her archive. Andrew "Wet Pants" Weatherall. pic.twitter.com/rMJKROn6qC

— Optimo (Espacio) (@JDTwitch) February 18, 2020

Plus, Vince Clarke basically turned WFL into an Erasure track w/ Shaun Ryder on vox, whereas Weatherall more or less laid out a blueprint w/ Loaded, which is probably why it was so influential.

btw not trying to dunk on Henry again, just wanted to additionally acknowledge that Weatherall's first remix ever was also for the Happy Mondays, and he'd done other indie-dance remixes between that and Soon

I honestly wouldn't be where I am today without Weatherall's involvement in my music. His constant support and honesty, the time we spent together making 'Tarot Sport', everything. I don't want this to be real

— Blanck Mass (@BlanckMass) February 17, 2020

only found out today re the Weatherall remix of 'Death of a Rudeboy' by Madness.
after some research realised there is no physical product, seems to have been a digital only release, but still, what a fantastic 8 mins of old era Madness ska vs Weatherall dub it is.

oh, and this week sees his final release, Unknown Plunderer/End Times Sound, which includes a remix by Radioactive Man.

Enjoy a few mixes. 143 of them.

http://www.littledogdiscs.co.uk/listing/artistcollection/Andrew+Weatherall