Since the birth of acid house, Andrew Weatherall has charted his own wayward path, long ago leaving behind the desperate clamour of wannabe superstar DJs to reach a status more akin to the musical pioneers and mavericks he loves with a passion. His most enduring and endearing trait has always been the element of surprise, from production to DJing. Last year’s Soma compilation saw him explore his rockabilly fixation but to Weatherall this music’s primal energy is the same as classic techno. Here he simply lets fly with a killer selection of electronic dance music, showing his uncanny knack for presenting the right records in the most toupee-whisking fashion while thrusting forth underground gems which might have spent the rest of their life languishing in the bristling pubes of a contented mole. Setting the scene with actor Ray Montgomery’s atmospheric ‘London Is Swinging By Its Neck’ monologue, Weatherall steers through names like Simian Mobile Disco, Padded Cell, Alloy Mental, his own mixes of Black Lips, ESC and a sublimely unsettling stealth-techno rearrangement of Siouxsie’s ‘Into A Swan’. The churning, spaghetti-dub electro-punk joyride reaches a heavenly peak with Au Revoir Simone’s gorgeous ‘Sad Song’, the sparse motorik of Saturn 5’s ‘Oscillation’, closing with Silver Apples’ ‘I Have Known Love’. The latter trailblazers are the sort of company this man will be remembered with one day.
5 Out Of 5
Reviewed By: Kris Needs
