An Oasis Of Slowness

In May 2010 Andrew Weatherall and Sean Johnston started a club night at The Drop in Stoke Newington,  a Thursday night in a small, 140 capacity room. Sean and Andrew met back in the early days of acid house and the fun that went with it all. As one of Flash Faction Sean had a 12" released on Andrew's Sabres Of Paradise label, the mighty techno rush of Repoman, and Sean had joined Sabres on tour. In the 2000s they re- connected. Andrew invited Sean to DJ at the launch for his Watch The Ride compilation and when Andrew was short of a driver for a jaunt to Brighton to play a DJ gig, Sean stepped in and took the wheel. In the car Andrew asked if Sean had anything they could listen to. Sean had recently been enjoying the slowed down sounds of Daniele Baldelli and the early/ mid 80s Italo cosmic disco scene (as detailed in Bill Brewster's book Last Night A DJ Saved My Life). After re- emerging with some remixes and a bit of a reset around 2007/ 8, Andrew was looking for a new thing and they hatched a plan to play together, slowed down, cosmic sounds, 'never knowingly exceeding 122 BPM' as the tagline later stated. 

Weatherall had frequently turned away from whatever he had going on, moving onto a new sound or night or band, and with A Love From Outer Space (as the night was called, named after an AR Kane song that Andrew had played at Shoom in the late 80s) he did so again. Sean gave an interview to The Quietus last month which outlines the history of ALFOS and also thirteen tracks that span and summarise ALFOS. Read it here. Make sure go all the way through to the end, there are some great stories attached to some of the records not least the one on page 8, Superpitcher's Voodoo and 'the genius of Andrew Weatherall'.

ALFOS became a travelling club night finding residencies outside London (Phonox in Brixton has become its London home). There have been regular ALFOS trips to Glasgow, Belfast, Dublin, Leeds, Manchester, Chieti in Italy and The Golden Lion in Todmorden. When Andrew died (17th February 2020, the anniversary coming up soon) Sean played Phonox the same week, a pre- booked gig for the pair. He made the emotional decision to go solo. During lockdown Sean began broadcasting the ALFOS Emergency Broadcast Sessions out of his kitchen in Hackney, a crowd of ALFOS devotees tuning in via the internet for some communal musical action to lighten the lockdown load. ALFOS, in real life and online, has become a community, the crowd as much a part of the ALFOS ethos as the music.. As an attendee both at The Golden Lion and in Manchester, I can confirm this. People make new friends at ALFOS. ALFOS is undoubtedly about fun. It's hedonistic. It's about dancing and being locked into the groove. It's about new music played alongside old, about the joy of digging out new tunes/ old tunes, slowing down records to that 122 sweet spot, the pitching down revealing something new. A lot of the ALFOS records have an emotional heft too, something that pulls at the heartstrings and the soul. It's connected to the tempo, the 118- 122 BPM pulses like the human heartbeat and forges some kind of connection to the blood pumping from the heart while dancing. 

To celebrate ALFOS's fifteenth birthday Sean has put together a compilation album of selected ALFOS tracks, some never available before. The artists are as wide a variety of nationalities as you'll find in one place with musicians and producers from  Portugal and Mexico, from Italy and Poland, south east Asia and from Denmark, from Belfast and from Slough. Spaced out chug, cosmic krautrock, spun out Scandi- disco, records that nod to the Balearic and acid house roots but with their eyes locked on the present. The vinyl has twelve tracks across two discs, kicking off with Neville Watson's previously unreleased dub of The Blow Monkeys' Save Me, a slow motion sundown moment. Further in there is Popular Tyre's Feel Like A Laser Beam, eight minutes of drum machine powered, interstellar robo- disco, a track rescued from an abandoned hard drive that Weatherall and Johnston turned into an ALFOS classic. 

The digital/ CD release is expanded, nineteen tracks and a twentieth track, all the previous ones sequenced into a continuous mix. It's already shaping up to be one of 2025's best compilations. When taken together, on either vinyl or digital, what's clear about all of the music- from Laars to Secret Circuit via Das Komplex, Briosky, Kimo, Duncan Gray and more- isn't just the slowed down tempos, the famed cosmic sheen or the peaky, trippy edges, it's the warmth of the music, the inclusive nature of it. Come on in, it says, it's lovely in here. 

You can buy A Love From Outer Space// A Compilation at Bandcamp and your local record shop. 

The album comes with a fanzine, which has an essay/ interview written by Tim Murray and masses of photos. On the back of the fanzine there is a page of thank yous from Sean and down towards the bottom, there is a very nice mention to The Flightpath Estate, something I don't think any of the five of us would have dreamed of a few years ago. 'The eternal brotherhood of The Flightpath Estate for keeping the record straight'. That's my next t- shirt/ badge/ tattoo sorted. 

V.A. Saturday

As mentioned yesterday, Andrew Weatherall's Masterpiece is a king in the various artists world. The Masterpiece series comes out via Ministry Of Sound and has also featured compilations put together by Carl Craig, Giles Peterson , Goldie, Jazzie B, David Rodigan, Francoise K, Annie Nightingale and Fabio And Grooverider. Andrew's is an absolute joy, a masterclass in record selection, mixing and the art of pacing a set. There are two editions, one on vinyl and one on CD. 

The vinyl is much sought after now- the current asking price in Discogs starts at £150.00-, a twelve track, unmixed, triple disc version that starts with his remix of Grinderman's Heathen Child, has five further contemporary Weatherall remixes (Timothy J Fairplay, The Horrors, Woooden Shjips, Toddla T and Primal Scream's Uptown- at least two of these are all timers in the Weatherall remix pantheon). Alongside this he selects cuts from Andrew and Tim's Asphodells, Kaspar Bjork, Walls, Ajello, The Subs, Mario Vesta and an 80s indie/ dreampop classic from AR Kane, the song that gave his travelling cosmic disco its name- A Love From Outer Space. 

Masterpiece came out in 2012. ALFOS, the club night, started in 2010 (at The Drop, a basement in Stoke Newington). By 2012 Andrew and Sean had built a following, an ALFOS crew who travelled to Glasgow and Belfast for the nights out and the sound they were after had had time to develop, to brew. Masterpiece is a reflection of that, the 2012 ALFOS sound- a warm, embracing, inclusive, trippy,  cosmic disco, electro and dubby house records often pitched down to hit that 122 bpm sweet spot, 'an oasis of slowness in a world of increasing velocity', as Andrew put it. They played underground dance music alongside lost 80s gems, 70s krautrock, mid 80s Belgian New Beat, whatever tickled their musical fancy. Masterpiece is a six sides of vinyl/ three CD version of that. 

The three CD version goes further and deeper, three discs- Eleven O'Clock Drop, Twelve O'Clock Drop and One O'clock Drop (a nod to the lysergic adventures of his youth in Slough and Windsor and to his early 00s post- punk Nine O'Clock Drop compilation). The CD is perfection. Mixed live in his bunker. Andrew said at the time that if he made a mistake he had go back and start the entire mix over again. Thirty five tracks that in the truest sense of a DJ mix, take the listener on a journey. He was a one off. 

The vinyl was essential. The CD was too. I know some people* who decided against purchasing at the time because they didn't like the sleeve. I know people who bought both formats**. Here for your Saturday listening pleasure is one track from each of the three CDs, an eleven, twelve and one o' clock drop.

First, from disc one comes Walls, a London krautpop duo and a track from 2012 on German label Kompackt. On a perfectly judged and pitched disc, peppered with his own remixes and Apiento's The Orange Place (see yesterday's post) Walls slo- mo sci fi throb and distant vocal still stands out, Andrew's track selection never letting him down. 

Into Our Midst

From disc two this is Emperor Machine's remix of Sons And Daughters' Orion, Glasgow indie/ country punks Sons And Daughters fed through the cosmic blender by Emperor Machine for eleven minutes, a pulsating and intense with slowed down, slurred vocals.  

Orion (Emperor Machine Remix)

Finally, one from disc three and Toddla T's Watch Me Dance, guest vocals from Roots Manuva and remixed by Andrew himself. A truly deranged dance record. Pens with the thump of True Faith style drums, a robotic voice and then a huge, canal dredging bassline. Brain frying synth arpeggios flicker around, there are key changes, drops, echo- laden guitar chords, a female voice wailing 'oh, we have lost contoooool', and the sense of total dance floor mayhem. Released in the summer of 2011, Masterpiece became the only way to own this remix on vinyl after the warehouse the standalone 12s from that summer were stored in awaiting delivery went up in flames. It's not surprising- this record is too hot for a warehouse to contain it. Never let anyone tell you that remixes are not a valid artform.  

Watch Me Dance (Andrew Weatherall Remix)

* Hi Baz!

** Hi me!

The Flightpath And The Lion

On Saturday 16th November The Golden Lion in Todmorden hosted another ALFOS, the long running travelling cosmic disco started by Andrew Weatherall and Sean Johnston in 2010, now flown single handedly by Sean. The Golden Lion is one of A Love From Outer Space's spiritual homes and a capacity crowd is guaranteed. The upstairs room hosted a pair of live performances, Psychederek and The Thief Of Time (both of whom I saw play at Yard in Manchester in the summer and asked to play at the Lion by landlord Waka following my post about the gig). Downstairs, from 2pm through until Sean taking over at 8.30, saw the return of The Flightpath Estate DJ team- myself, Martin, Dan, Mark and Baz. Due to being required in Birmingham early the day after Baz went first and played for an hour. After he'd finished his set the remaining four of us rotated playing three tracks each for the next five hours. 

You can listen to a re- creation of our set at Mixcloud, six hours of music starting with Billy Fury's Wondrous Place and finishing with a very unofficial and unreleased edit of The Fall, Blind Panic, by Skip Wimbish that Mark actually played twice. We had planned to record the set live but the gear let us down. Instead the version of the set you can hear is a fairly faithful recreation of what we played but with a couple of unreleased things swapped out for legal/ release date reasons. As ever we had a blast and are eternally grateful every time we play for the opportunity. This time around, the Lion began to fill up fairly early so we actually had an audience too. And to everyone who told how much they enjoyed our sets, thank you. After us, Sean came on and lifted the Lion's roof. 

Barry

• [0:00] Billy Fury: Wondrous Place
• [3:00] Coyote: Living In Heaven
• [10:00] The Bats: We Do Not Kick The Ones We Kiss
• [13:00] Kid Congo: La Llarona
• [16:00] David Sylvian & Riuichi Sakamoto: Bamboo Houses (7" Mix)
• [20:00] Martin Hannett & Steve Hopkins: Scandinavian Waters
• [25:00] Escape-ism: Almost No One (Can Have My Love)
• [28:00] Vito Ricci: I'm At That Party Right Now
• [31:00] Happy Mondays: Bob's Yer Uncle
• [36:00] Maximum Joy: Simmer Till Done
• [39:00] Chain And The Gang: Deathbed Confession
• [45:00] Richard Sen: Eleven Eleven
• [51:00] Dean & Britta: Not A Young Man Anymore
• [55:00] Coyote: Dover
• [59:00] The Stranglers: Strange Little Girl

Martin

• [1:02:00] Pmxper: Stitch
• [1:05:00] Elucid: In The Shadow Of If
• [1:08:00] Holy Tongue Meets Shackleton: The Other Side Of The Bridge

Adam

• [1:14:00] The Fall: The Steak Place
• [1:17:00] Iraina Mancini: Undo The Blue (Beyond The Wizards Sleeve Re-Animation)
• [1:25:00] The Cure: Pictures Of You (Extended Dub)

Dan

• [1:31:00] J-Walk: Spring Well, Wellspring
• [1:35:00] Cocteau Twins: Cherry-Coloured Funk
• [1:38:00] The Sirons: Cruise Missile Blues

Mark

• [1:42:00] Skip Wimbish: Blind Panic
• [1:49:00] James Hardway vs Rude Audio: Unreleased Vocal Remix
• [1:54:00] James Hardway vs Rude Audio: Unreleased Dub

Martin

• [1:59:00] Autumns: Interpretive Dance Is A Scam
• [2:02:00] REDACTED
• [2:08:00] Om Unit: Pursuit

Adam

• [2:11:00] My Bloody Valentine: Don't Ask Why
• [2:15:00] GLOK/ Timothy Clerkin: Scattered
• [2:21:00] David Holmes: Hey Lisa

Dan

• [2:25:00] The Cure: Lullaby (Extended Mix)
• [2:33:00] J-Walk: Botox Fomo
• [2:37:00] Five Green Moons: Spider Dub

Mark

• [2:42:00] The Sabres Of Paradise: Lick Wid Nit Wit
• [2:53:00] Lockdown 187 Kung Fu (unknown white label)
• [2:59:00] The Sabres Of Paradise: Smokebelch II Edit

Martin

• [3:02:00] Radiohead: Everything In Its Right Place (Reinier Zonneveld's Filth on Acid Remix)
• [3:08:00] El Deux: Gletscher (Mehmet Aslan Edit)
• [3:14:00] Sweet Exorcist: Testone

Adam

• [3:21:00] The Clean Trip: Lobster Boys (Hifi Sean Remix)
• [3:28:00] Four Tet: Three Drums
• [3:36:00] Marshall Watson & Cole Odin: Voyager (Extended Guitar Mix)

Dan

• [3:42:00] Conforce: Aphelion
• [3:48:00] Mudd: Spielplatz (Quiet Village Deep Space Dub)

Mark

• [3:59:00] The Pink Diamond Revue: Elvis Presley
• [4:03:00] Ron Rogers: Yaya (Nelue Rework Mutant Disco Edit)
• [4:08:00] Jua: Akio Nagase

Martin

• [4:14:00] Georges Chatelain & Getaroom: Mandrake
• [4:19:00] Flash Atkins, Sirius Rush: Who Am I
• [4:25:00] Andrew Weatherall: Walk Of Shame (Hardway Bros Inglorious March Of Shame)

Adam

• [4:33:00] Galliano: Cabin Fever Dub
• [4:38:00] The Clash: This Is Radio Clash
• [4:42:00] The Fat White Family: Bullet Of Dignity (Beyond The Wizards Sleeve Re-animation)

Dan

• [4:49:00] Escapismo: Nada Importa
• [4:54:00] Tolouse Low Trax: Rushing Into Water
• [5:02:00] Stylic: Egregor

Martin

• [5:08:00] Pinky Perzelle: No Games (Velvet Season & The Hearts Of Gold Remix)
• [5:15:00] Edwin Starr: Get Up/Whirlpool
• [5:19:00] Satellites: World At Your Feet (Johnny Vic Remix)

Adam

• [5:25:00] Public Image Ltd: This Is Not A Love Song
• [5:30:00] Essaie Pas: Futur Parlé
• [5:36:00] A Certain Ratio: We All Need (Jezebell's Ghost Train Mix)

Dan

• [5:42:00] Broken English Club: Godless
• [5:47:00] Pete Blaker: Andrew

Mark

• [5:57:00] Skip Wimbish :Blind Panic (Revisited)

Saturday Sessions

Keeping up with all the music that is being released is a full time job, one I don't always have the time to devote to it. There are albums and releases from last year I still need to explore. All the while, more and more music comes forth via the magic of the internet with radio shows, sessions and mixes. This is a round up of some recent shows and mixes, some I've enjoyed in full and some I've only got partway through and will go back to. If you listen to all of these today, you'll finish sometime this evening, exhausted maybe but replenished. 

First up is Justin Robertson and his bi- monthly Temple Of Wonders. This episode is fresh off the press, broadcast three days ago on 10th January, a two hour jaunt through Justin's record box taking in a typically eclectic range of music- psychedelia, dub, ambient, global, setting out with Pilot Voyager and concluding two hours and thirty eight tracks later with Tim Hardin. Listen at Mixcloud. 

On New Year's Eve Sean Johnston stayed home and broadcast to those staying in and to those who'd bene out and came back to find Sean still at the decks, seven hours and forty five minutes of chuggy cosmic ALFOS tunes, starting out quite slow and trippy and getting increasingly propulsive and dancey. Excellence as standard. Listen here. 

Jesse Fahnestock and Emilia Harmony's music was a repeat attraction at this blog last year, their Electric Blue Vision EP, Jesse's 10:40 album, a slew of Jezebell tracks and various other releases, lighting up 2023. Jesse and Emilia sat in with Brighton's Balearic Ultras and Music For Dreams playing music and chatting, an hour of laid back discussion, and perfectly pitched and seamlessly sequenced music, telling the stories of what lies behind the Electric Blue Vision EP. Both Jesse and Emilia have great voices for radio- it's a lovely way to spend an hour. Listen to it here. 

Lastly on New Year's Day Nina Walsh appeared on the long running Sonic Treasures radio show, Brother Joseph's Glasgow based radio show that transmits via radio Magnetic, a trove of the leftfield and eclectic, ambient, electronic and psychedelic. Nina played a perfectly sequenced two hours of music, some unreleased tracks done with Andrew Weatherall, plenty of music from her Fireflies band (as heard on Killing Eve), some WRF and some unreleased Andrew Weatherall remixes of Fireflies. Find it at Soundcloud. 

While we're talking about radio, transmissions and new music, the death of legendary radio DJ Annie Nightingale was announced yesterday. Annie was BBC 1's first female DJ and a tireless and endlessly energetic advocate for new music, leftfield sounds and underground music, not least much of the music that has featured here over the last fourteen years. She died aged 83. RIP Annie. 

Saturday Sets

Sean Johnston has been keeping the A Love From Outer Space flag flying high this year with ALFOS nights running in London, Glasgow and various points in between (not least Todmorden). When not playing out Sean sometime sets up at home and DJs on a Friday night, broadcasting live to an online audience, a habit that stated in lockdown and he's kept going irregularly since. At the end of November Sean played ALFOS Emergency Broadcast System 43, five hours of chug/ acid house/ nu disco/ cosmic disco/ whatever else you want to call it as long as it's got a pulsing rhythm, opening with an edit of Police And Thieves by The Clash and finishing with Lindstrom. It's well worth five hours of your Saturday, either in one sitting or in chunks. Listen at Mixcloud. 

Sean's compiling a list of the big 2023 ALFOS tunes which will I'm sure contain this monster, a dancefloor wrecking tune, Stay On Top by Living In Ghosts featuring Woolfy, the Hardway Bros Dub, which throbs and bounces as the bass grinds and the vocal chants, 'work!'. Highly effective and impactful under red lights and a mirror ball. 

Five Hours Of The Flightpath Estate At The Golden Lion (And Six Hours Of Sean Johnston)

Last Saturday afternoon and evening three of The Flightpath Estate DJ team played some tunes at The Golden Lion in Todmorden, warming up on what was already a very hot day before Sean Johnston took over for A Love From Outer Space. ALFOS at The Golden Lion is always a special occasion, the pub being one of its spiritual home, much loved by Mr Weatherall and Mr Johnston, and always draws a beautiful crowd of enthusiastic dancers and revellers. 

Martin went on first, then me and then Dan. Martin played some dub, some leftfield stuff, some disco edits and some electronica. I went in a Balearic/ indie/ dub direction. Dan went full Balearica. After that we switched to playing three songs each in rotation and then a quick burst of one each, back to back, before handing over to Lion resident Matt Hum who played an hour ahead of Sean. Lion regular Tommo took a picture of us outside the pub. Apologies for the unexpected appearance of our knees (left to right, Martin, me, Dan). 

We've spent this week trying to recreate out sets- they weren't recorded live from the booth so these have been done afterwards. The entire thing, our individual three hours in the afternoon and then another two hours of us playing back to back, is at Mixcloud here. 

Martin

• John Grant: Day Is Done
• Kevin Morby: Bittersweet
• Horace Andy backed by The Welders: Straight To Hell
• B:Dum B: Dum Sound: There Is No Question
• King Tubby: We Rule
• Om Unit + TM404: Praha
• Marshall Watson: High Desert
• Puerto Montt City Orchestra: Our Patagonian Friends (Balearic Ultras Brooking Bass Remix)
• The Rolling Stones: Rain Fall Down (Ashley Beedle's Heavy Disco Vocal Re- edit)
• Diskjokke: Panatup
• Flamingods: Dreams (On The Strip)
• Curses: This Is The Day

Adam

• Kate Bush: Nocturn Coyote Dub Edit
• Manic Street Preachers: If You Tolerate This Your Children Will Be Next (David Holmes Remix)
• Peaking Lights: Beautiful Dub
• Verve: One Way To Go (10:40's So High It Hurts Edit)
• Julian Cope: They Were All On Hard Drugs
• The Charlatans: Opportunity 3
• Marshall Watson and Cole Odin: Just A Daydream Away (Space Flight Mix)
• Jazxing: Fala
• Matt Gunn: Lost In The Drohn (Rude Audio Remix)* 

Dan

• Say She She: Prism
• A Certain Ratio: Tombo In M3
• Bugatti and Musker: Fate Demo
• HF International: I Can't Go For That Disco Dub
• Donald: A Ver A Ver (Ric Piccolo Edit)
• Marcel King: Reach For Love
• Manolo: Amalfi Drive
• Alex Kassian: Strings Of Eden
• Fila Brazillia: A Zed And Two Ls
• Rude Audio and Dan Wainwright: Heroes (Merry Prankster Dub)

Martin

• Gates Of Light: Embrace The Night
• Bozart: The Dark The Light
• Black Bones: Keep Dancin'

Adam

• Cabaret Voltaire: Yashar (John Robie Remix)
• New Order: Everything's Gone Green
• Yargo: Marimba

Dan

• Sworn Virgins: RWA
• X- press 2: Muse
• Dolle Jolle: Balearic Incarnation (Todd Terje Extra Doll Mix)

Martin

• Depeche Mode: Enjoy The Silence (Rich Lane A&E Cotton Dub)
• Heavy Disco: Running Up That Hill (Heavy Disco Edit)
• Black Bones: B.E.E.F.

Adam 

• The Vendetta Suite: Purple Haze Yellow Sunrise (David Holmes Remix)
• Jo Sims: Bass- The Final Frontier (David Holmes Remix)
• Dirt Bogarde: Heavy Blotter

Dan

• Roberto Rodriguez: Mustat Varjot
• Round: Glass
• Bodika: Over Not Over

Martin

• The Twilight Sad: Videograms (Andrew Weatherall Remix)

For an idea of what ALFOS was like last Saturday night, this six hour set of Sean playing at Phonox, Brixton, came online this week, the first Stream From The Booth in a series from Phonox. Sean is in imperious form, a slowly, insistently building set that is impossible not to want to move to, utterly compelling dancefloor action. Sean says that ALFOS is about 'charting journeys that pay off gradually but powerfully... an antidote to our culture of instant gratification'. It's evident in this six hour mix and it was there too at The Lion last Saturday night- and then some. Worth giving up some time too and then enjoying time and time again. 

* The last track in my afternoon section was actually a different one, a Bedford Falls Players remix of Matt Gunn which I was sent a few weeks ago and have been playing loads, but it's currently unreleased so I've replaced it here with a different Matt Gunn track and remix which I had in my bag. My hour is here if you'd like it as a single download. 

Saturday Live

Tonight three fifths of the Flightpath estate DJ team- me, Martin and Dan- are back at Todmorden's Golden Lion (Baz and Mark are at Glastonbury). Sean Johnston is headlining tonight, the A Love From Outer Space travelling discotheque returning to one of its spiritual homes, the Golden Lion. We have been asked to play some records this afternoon/ evening between three and eight. When we DJed there to support David Holmes last October and at the Andrew Weatherall birthday celebrations at the end of April, we were somewhat nervous. AW60, two months ago, went really well and we're a bit more relaxed about this one. So, watch us mess it up today. 

Back in 2010 Andrew and Sean hatched a plan to start a club night that would be 'an oasis of slow in a world of increasing velocity', tracks never exceeding 121 BPM and to be held in small, intimate venues. The first was in a basement at The Drop in Stoke Newington. ALFOS then travelled round the country popping up in Glasgow, Belfast, Manchester, various London venues, a few other places besides and in Todmorden. Since Andrew's death in February 2020 Sean has flown the ALFOS flag solo. This is a mix by Sean that was given away as a free CD to first few punters through the door at ALFOS in Stoke Newington back in 2010, an hour and twelve minutes of cosmic chug that opens with a voice saying, 'sure you want to trip into the future...'

Brother Johnston's Outer Space Consultation

In 2020 Sean put this mix together, three hours to celebrate ten years of ALFOS. If that's not enough, here's one from 2013 at Islington Mill, Salford, five and a half hours of DJ excellence recorded live.