Forty Minutes Of Andrew Weatherall Remixes For Convenanza

The Convenanza festival held at Carcasonne in south west France is in its third day today, the first festival since 2019 and the first since Andrew Weatherall died in February 2020. Convenanza started as an Andrew Weatherall and friends three day festival held inside the walls of the Medieval castle, organised by Bernie Fabre with a hand picked line up reflecting Weatherall's singular and eclectic worldview- acid house, dub, space rock, gnostic sonics, leftfield literature, artists painting the castle walls in trippy yellow stripes and performances from Andrew as DJ and as Woodleigh Research Facility with sets over the years from the likes of Silver Apples, The Liminanas, Red Axes, Baris K and Curses. This year the three nights have seen headlining sets by David Holmes with support including Glok, Ian Svenonius, The Utopia Strong, Manfredas and Sean Johnston/ ALFOS. I've never been to Convenanza, it's the wrong time of year for a teacher to be flying to south west France for a weekend of debauchery, but one day I shall no longer be bound by school holidays and if Bernie still puts Convenanza on, I shall be there. In the meantime I live Convenanza vicariously through updates from friends who are there. In tribute to the festival and Andrew Weatherall todays forty minute mix is a Convenanza friendly set of Weatherall remixes from the last decade, the hissy drum machine, space echo, arpeggiator and sequencers all deployed, setting the controls for the heart of le sol.

Forty Minutes Of Andrew Weatherall Remixes

• Group Rhoda: King (The Asphodells Remix)
• Richard Sen: Songs Of Pressure (The Asphodells Remix)
• The Venetians: Son Sur Son (Andrew Weatherall Edition Uno)
• Silver Apples: Edge Of Wonder (Andrew Weatherall Remix)
• Heretic: Pollux (Andrew Weatherall Remix)
• The Twilight Sad: Videograms (Andrew Weatherall Remix)
• Andrew Weatherall: Intro

We are making our own pilgrimage today, to Childhood Wood on the edge of Sherwood Forest, Nottinghamshire. The MPS Society, the charity who look after children and adults born with the set of genetic diseases, have a piece of woodland where they invite families to plant a tree in memory of those who have died. We're going there today to plant an oak sapling for Isaac and to see him added to the memory board. Another moment of grief and remembrance in a year full of them. 

Remix Exchange

I found this again recently, a very smart piece of digital dub from 2013. Group Rhoda is/was the solo electronic project for Oakland, California artist Mara Barenbaum. King was a track on Group Rhoda's 12th House album (the original version of King is available from Bandcamp here). It was remixed by The Asphodells. Weatherall and Fairplay set the controls for the heart of the bass frequencies, echo- drenched bleeps punctuate the synths and Mara's vocals ride over the top.

King (Asphodells Remix)

Group Rhoda returned the favour, the second leg of a remix exchange, by reworking Another Lonely City from The Asphodells only album Ruled By Passion, Destroyed By Love. There were a bunch of remixes of tracks from Ruled By Passion... from the likes of Phil Kieran, Justin Robertson, Ivan Smagghe, Hardway Bros, Daniel Avery, Richard Sen and Scott Fraser, all released as a companion album. Played back to back these pair of remixes complement each other really well (unsurprisingly) and give you ten minutes of digital dubbed out pleasure for Saturday.

Another Lonely City (Group Rhoda Remix)

Audrey In Dub

A chance back-to-back playing of two Weatherall tunes on the pod in the car led me to thinking about what an Andrew Weatherall dub compilation album might look like. Much of his work is to a greater or lesser degree informed by dub and dub production but from his earliest remixes through Sabres Of Paradise and into the recent solo work and The Asphodells there are plenty of pretty much pure dubwise tunes that work really well together burnt onto a disc or compiled on a playlist. These ones work at the moment for me and in this order.

S.O.P 'Ysaebud' (a one sided 7" single from 1994, credited as S.O.P. From The Vaults)
Saint Etienne 'Only Love Can Break Your Heart' A Mix Of Two Halves
Sabres Of Paradise 'Edge 6' (B-side of Theme 12")
New Order 'Regret' Sabres Slo 'n' Lo Mix
Sabres Of Paradise 'RSD'
The Orb Perpetual Dawn Ultrabass II
Sabres Of Paradise 'Return Of Carter' (B-side of Theme 12")
Steve Mason 'Boys Outside' Dub Mix 1
Madness 'The Death Of A Rude Boy' Andrew Weatherall Remix
Group Rhoda 'King' Asphodells Remix
Two Lone Swordsmen 'As Worldly Pleasures Wave Goodbye' (from Stay Down- this isn't really dub per se, it's just a lovely way to close the album)

King Dubby

I got back from London last night, everyone safely delivered home. While I was down south the north nearly blew away and the rest of my family bunkered in and were warned by the TV not to leave the house unless absolutely 'essential'.

This appeared on the internet yesterday and while I apologise for delivering you yet more Andrew Weatherall stuff this remix for San Francisco's Group Rhoda is a splendid piece of digital dub (done under Weatherall and Timothy Fairplay's Asphodells umbrella). What a lovely way to start Saturday and a half term holiday. A commenter at Soundcloud disagrees though- 'it is tiring' he/she says, 'the drums are stiff too much and gave me headache. I do not like it at all!' Each to their own.