The Flightpath Estate At The Social

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This was last Saturday night at The Social where Acid House Chancers hosted a tribute to Andrew Weatherall on what would have been his 63rd birthday with a line up spread across the venue's two floors. 

The Flightpath Estate had been asked to play a few months ago and the prospect of playing The Social was pretty exciting. The Social is on Little Portland Street, just north of Oxford Street and a stone's throw from Soho. Dan and Martin couldn't make it and Mark was also playing as Rude Audio, so me and Baz travelled south to represent on the decks. We were on downstairs, a club space with a dancefloor, DJ booth and bar area. When I arrived there were already a good number of people downstairs, Stuart D. Alexander at the decks and Jenny Leamon taking over from 5.15 pm. Jenny had a crowd up and dancing before 6 pm, something that caused me some pre- gig nerves with visions of clearing the floor, playing the wrong tunes and various technical mistakes all running through my mind. 

I shouldn't have worried. I got the obligatory minor technical fuck up out of the way early on and then we were off and in a groove. As the room filled up the energy levels kept rising, more people arrived to dance with some familiar faces from gigs at The Golden Lion, and it was a total blast- one of those times when you're completely caught in the moment and wish you could revisit, soak up and enjoy. It just flew by. 

                                             

This was the scene looking out from the booth- red lights, dry ice, a blur of dancers... the most mayhem we've ever caused on a dancefloor. Alex Knight, formerly of Sabresonic and Fat Cat records and the Sabres Of Paradise tour DJ, took over from us, playing a seamless set with some Weatherall and Sabres inspired mid- 90s techno. 

Our set wasn't recorded but I've recreated it since and it's available to download below or you can find it at The Flightpath Estate's Mixcloud is you prefer to stream. What a night we had. 

The Flightpath Estate At The Social

• The Light Brigade: Shuffle The Deck
• SOP: Ysaebud (From The Vaults)
• Bim Sherman: World Dub
• The Clash: Ghetto Defendant
• Coyote ft Daniel Gidlund: Butterflies
• Paul Weller: Kosmos (Lynch Mob Bonus Beats)
• New Order: Your Silent Face
• Doves: Kingdom Of Rust (Prins Thomas Diskomiks)
• Mark Lanegan: Ode To Sad Disco
• Le Carousel: We're All Gonna Hurt
• Unloved: Turn Of The Screw
• Fontaines DC: A Hero's Death (Soulwax Remix)
• Bedford Falls Players: Fool's Gold- en
• The Pogues: A Rainy Night In Soho

The Light Brigade is David Holmes and guests/ collaborators. On Shuffle The Deck it's former Swordsman Keith Tenniswood and a floor shaking, civil rights leader sampling tune, opening with a rousing speech- 'It's time for a new course, a new coalition, a new leadership... somebody gotta rise above race, rise about sex... Don't cry 'bout what you don't have, use what ya got... Our time has come!', and after several minutes of bass- led oompty boompty finishing with Andrew's musings on acid house as gnostic ceremony, music, coloured lights and smoke.

SOP was Sabres Of Paradise, a one off, one sided 7" single from 1996 with a righteous vocal sample from Count Ossie and Mystic Revelation Of Rastafari- 'Ever since I was a youth/ I've always been searching for the truth'. 

Bim Sherman and Adrian Sherwood's Ghetto Dub album came out in 1988 and due to all kinds of legal complications over the late Bim Sherman's back catalogue has remained out of print. A German label have unlocked some of the problems and re- pressing of Ghetto Dub is out shortly on Week- End Records. 

Ghetto Defendant is from Combat Rock, The Clash and Allen Ginsburg rocking out in dub reggae style, Strummer lamenting the drug addiction and heroin pity that prevents civil resistance'. Paul Simonon's bassline and Topper's drum keep the song grounded in reggae/ dub groove. A late Clash classic. 

Coyote's Butterflies is a moment of Balearic calm, from a forthcoming 12" with vocals by Daniel Gidlund. Last Saturday night it slowed things down a little and gave the dancers a breather.  

Playing at The Social was a big deal. In the 90s I'd read about the first Heavenly Social nights at The Albany pub, accounts in the music press of exhilarating music and wanton debauchery, Weatherall, The Chemical Brothers, Tim Burgess, the Heavenly and Creation crews, a cast of thousands. One of those accounts was of people flipping out to Andrew playing Brendan Lynch's version of Paul Weller's Kosmos, a dub/ trip hop/ jazz noise fest that scrambled minds as it squawked and ricocheted on a Sunday evening. I'd been to The Social on Little Portland Street before but only as a punter so to actually take to the decks was a big moment. Playing Kosmos was a nod to all of that. 

New Order's Your Silent Face is one of the great New Order songs and therefore one of the great songs. It provoked a few moments of emotion on Saturday night, Hooky's bass, those one finger keyboard notes and everyone waiting for Bernard's kiss off last line 'So why don't you piss off'. It was released in 1983 on Power, Corruption And Lies and is one of those New Order songs that really should have been a single, had New Order in the 80s operated along the lines other less obtuse bands at more conventional record companies did. 

Doves' Kingdom Of Rust remixed by Scandi- disco legend Prins Thomas is one of those tunes that always gets people asking what it is (or Shazaming it on their phones). A hypnotic, locked in groove, bass and drums circling, guitars picking out little melody lines and then sweeping strings joining in with Jimi's vocals- glorious Mancunian melancholy. 

Mark Lanegan's Ode To Sad Disco is a New Order- esque song from man usually more associated with grunge and gnarly blues rock. The synths and guitars are heavenly and Mark's imagery is memorable- subterranean eyes, the factory line, a mountain of nails, a white horse that drowned on parade, an Arcadian twist and a hollow headed morning all stand out. The 'mountain of nails' mentioned in the second verse links rather nicely to the 'kingdom of rust' and 'ocean of trust' in the Doves song too I've just noticed. 

Le Carousel's The Humans Will Destroy Us is already one of 2026's best and most prescient albums and We're All Gonna Hurt is its emotional centre and heartbeat, a Giorgio Morodor via Belfast acid house banger, dance music that is up and happy but sad and broken. 'Sooner or later/ We're all gonna hurt'.

Unloved's Turn Of The Screw came out on 2022's The Pink Album, David Holmes' beat group joined by Raven Violet for a 1960s in the 2020s song with a philosophy and attitude to admire. 

A Hero's Death was from Fontaines DC's second album and was remixed by Soulwax in 2021, the clanging guitars replaced by stripped back Balearic dance- cowbell and bass- with Grian Chatten's Dublin street poetry riding on top. 

Fools Gold- en is by Berkshire's Bedford Falls Players, a crowd pleasing mashing together of The Stone Roses and Rockers Revenge that hits all the spots and really gathers pace in its last few minutes, the bass and drums tumbling and thumping, a looped Reni and Mani doubling and powering on. 

Finishing our set with A Rainy Night In Soho, just a few hundred yards north of Soho, felt right. A Rainy Night In Soho is from the 1986 Poguetry In Motion EP, one of Shane MacGowan's most loved songs that ends with one of his best verses- 'Now the song is nearly over/ We may never find out what it means/ Still there's a light I hold before me/ You're the measure of my dreams/ The measure of my dreams'. 

Where's North From Here?

We had a really good weekend in London. The Flightpath Estate were part of the line up at the Acid House Chancers event at The Social on Saturday night, on this occasion me and Baz third on the bill in the downstairs room with Mark representing upstairs in his Rude Audio guise. It was a fantastic night, the reaction of the crowd to the music was off the scale and I will at some point recreate the set and share it here. We got loads of good feedback and my pre- set nerves at taking over from Jenny Leamon, who already had a room of people dancing, were settled fairly quickly but the fear of clearing the floor and playing to an empty room is real. 

While we were in London on Saturday we popped into Tate Modern. I wanted to see Mark Rothko's Seagram Murals (again). On turning into one of the galleries we were met straight away by Andy Warhol's Marilyn diptych, a piece of art so famous it's almost meaningless, just pop culture wallpaper. Seeing it close up and in full wall sized glory was an experience, fifty slightly different Marilyns fading from day glo colour to black and white. 

Mark Rothko's Seagram Murals take up an entire room, a series of very large, wall sized rectangles in deep reds, maroons and black. They become the room, swallowing you inside them. I can see why some people find them quite oppressive and they certainly suggest something about Rothko's state of mind when he painted them (for a restaurant originally). When I first saw them in Liverpool in 1988, an eighteen year old just arriving at university, they had an impact on me and going back to see them in London periodically over the years since, they still do. I like big art, art you can get lost in.

On Sunday morning we went out for breakfast in Soho, looking for a morning after cure and still on a high after DJing at The Social. Just round the corner from our hotel was It's Bagels, a New York style bagel shop offering breakfast bagels, the walls decorated with pictures of Bob Dylan and De La Soul. The people sitting in the window looked like they were enjoying their bagels so we went inside. The in- shop stereo was loud, playing a weirdly hallucinatory late 70s/ early 80s soundtrack, trippy yacht rock and stoned singer songwriters. Without warning Mark E. Smith suddenly boomed out, 'where's north from here?', beamed in from his guest appearance with Gorillaz in 2010. I actually laughed out loud in the queue. The expected Gorillaz electronic glam stomp never came- the syrupy yacht rock came back in, Mark E Smith's line isolated from its source and re- appropriated in a new soundtrack. 

Glitter Freeze

The bagels were very good. Not cheap but very good. 

Acid House Chancers

Tomorrow at The Social, Little Portland Street, London, an Acid House Chancers night and a Salute to Andrew Weatherall on the weekend of what would have been his 63rd birthday (6th April). It's a venue that Andrew actually played the opening night of, his association with Heavenly going back to the late 80s. 

There's a stellar line up of DJs including at the top of the bill Alex Knight (Sabresonic and Fat Cat Records) and Johnny Aux of Paranoid London plus Rude Audio (often found at this parish) and lower down proceedings, in the downstairs bar/ space from 6.30pm your friendly neighbourhood Flightpath Estate DJs. Me, Baz and Mark on this occasion, a London debut for me. It's a tickets only affair, all proceeds to charity, a handful of tickets can found here priced just £15.

Back in 2010 LCDMF (Le Corps De Mince Francoise), a Finnish duo released a single on Heavenly, Gandhi. It came with two Andrew Weatherall remixes. This is the first...

Gandhi (Andrew Weatherall Remix I)

At this point Andrew had been feeling his way back into music, releasing a 12" under his own name for the first time and beginning to develop and refine a new remix sound. In 2008 he'd remixed Doves (also on Heavenly, the long standing Andrew Weatherall- Jeff Barratt friendship a part of much of what he was doing), throwing dub space, a cosmische feel and extended running time into the pot. Remixes of Grinderman, The Horrors, Toddla T, Wooden Shjips, Cut Copy and Primal Scream all fell into place, all benefiting from his new partnership with Timothy J. Fairplay. Andrew's slow and spacey sound aligned with the early days of his travelling discotheque A Love From Outer Space. The pair of LCMDF remixes are part of this, squiggles and arpeggios, synths and bass over chuggy beats. 

Armed And Eleven

Last weekend was The Golden Lion's 11th birthday, a weekend of musical events to celebrate the 11 years since Gig and Waka took the Todmorden pub and turned it into something much more than a pub- 'ceci n'est pas une pub' is painted onto the side of the building. On Friday night Joe Goddard from Hot Chip played and on Saturday there was a Belfast themed takeover with David Holmes headlining downstairs and the band Deeply Armed playing upstairs. Around these two we got to play again, the Flightpath Estate DJs from 2pm downstairs and then either side of the band upstairs.

We played a bagful of tunes and maybe at some point we'll recreate at least part of the several hours long set and share it here. There was a section in the middle where I played Richard Norris' remix of Warpaint (Disco// Very), the Two Lone Swordsmen remix of X- Press 2's Witchi Tai To and then this...

Kingdom Of Rust (Prins Thomas Diskomiks)

... which had a few people reaching for the Shazam app on their phone. It's a wonderful Prins Thomas version, the drums and bass winding their way round and round and a guitar picking out single notes, building over several minutes, the guitars and strings gradually joining, the sound becoming richer and fuller but all the while following the groove. Those trademark, world weary Doves vocals arrive halfway through. A glorious eight minutes of music. 

Deeply Armed flew over from Belfast, a band with a one single behind them, some serious remix action (Keith Tenniswood, Richard Fearless) and an album recorded and ready to go. They took to the stage at 9.30 playing to a full room, singer Michael brandishing a tambourine and giving the Ian Brown stare into the middle distance of the room. Around him the band kick up a motorik groove, synths and guitar/ bass conjuring a blissed, psychedelic sound- repetition, garage band chord changes, Spacemen 3 tempo, and the street menace of early Happy Mondays evident too on some of the first half of the nine song set. On last year's single The Healing it all comes together into one krauty/ Velvets drone...

Downstairs fellow Belfast native David Holmes is kicking up a storm. We miss the first part of his set due to playing before and after the band but after the Deeply Armed have finished and everyone has moved downstairs- Holmes v The Flightpath Estate, it's no contest- I make my way down and into the maelstrom of a packed Golden Lion, dancers everywhere, the red lights bouncing off the mirrorball and a Holmes set that takes in Crooked Man, the Leftside Wobble edit of Tomorrow Never Knows, All Seeing I and much more. 

Lucky 7s

Over at Ban Ban Ton Ton Dr. Rob gave over most of January's posts to celebrations of music from 2025. Rob is based in Japan where 7 is considered to be a lucky number. He asked Ban Ban Ton Ton contributors, friends and musicians to submit their Lucky 7s of 2025, starting at the tail end of December with Mark Barrott, and then saw in the new year with the Chinese Year of the Horse. 

When I Was On Horseback

Lunar Dunes in 2007, sitar driven space rock for the Year of the Horse.

Throughout January Rob published Lucky 7s from a slew of Bagging Area adjacent people including Richard Norris, Sean Johnston, Deeply Armed, Davie Miller of Fini Tribe and Jason Boardman as well as Rob's own selections themed into Balearic, techno, reggae and dub, and rock (guitars really rather than rock). Rob asked the five of us in The Flightpath Estate if we wanted to contribute our own Lucky 7s. 

My Lucky 7 got their own post, six records from 2025 that saddled my horse and one from 1989 (in tribute to Mani). You can find that post here. 

Martin, Dan and Mark all sent in their favorites from 2025, playing fast and loose with the concept of 7 in some cases- Martin opens the post with 7 compilations from last year, Mark compiles his favourites including Crooked Man, 10:40, Psychemagick, Death In Vegas, Hugo Nicolson and the Johnny Halifax Invocation while Dan brings in his 7 including Maria Somerville, Sydney Minsky Sargeant and Daniel Avery. You can read that here. 

Rob asked me if I'd also like to contribute a Lucky 7 gigs post. I went to sixteen gigs in 2025 and narrowing them down to seven highlights was tough but you can find my Lucky 7 gigs here with reports of memorable evenings of live music in the company of Mercury Rev, Red Snapper, Shack, The Sabres Of Paradise (twice), Iggy Pop, Working Men's Club and The Charlatans, as seen at a variety of venues, large and small. Just thinking about Iggy Pop rocking the Victoria Warehouse, shirtless and wild at the age of 78, Sabres dubbing out The White Hotel and Mercury Rev's dreamy excursion into the Blade Runner soundtrack gives me a slight shiver, the memories still quite vivid and alive- and just listening to this Iggy and The Stooges blast of raw power from 1973 brings it all back. 

Raw Power

Three Hours Of The Flightpath Estate At Goo

In early December 2025 The Flightpath Estate DJs played warm up for Daniel Avery and Richard Fearless' Goo at The Golden Lion. Martin, Dan and myself played in rotation, three tracks on and then off. For a part of our set Mr Avery and Mr Fearless were sitting at a table near the DJ booth eating some fine Thai food, which added a little edge to our tune selection and mixing. 

At 9pm the Goo pair arrived in the booth, Richard with an enormous box of records, and took over, going on to to play one of the best sets I've heard for a long time, four hours of huge dub techno/ techno/ acid to an ecstatic crowd of revelers. Hopefully, their set will show up at some point. Both sets were recorded so the link below contains us doing it live, mistakes and everything. 'Play some ambient stuff', was the brief, and that's how we started out- we got a bit beatier as the three hours passed. We were on a high after finishing, the excitement of warming up for Avery and Fearless and pulling off what felt like a good set giving us a real buzz. Our three hour set can be listened to at Mixcloud. 

Tracklist

Adam Pye Corner Audio: A Winter Drone For Christmas Daniel Avery: Neon Pulse Mystic Institute: Ob-Selon Mi-Nos (Repainted By Global Communication) Dan Daniel Avery & Alessandro Cortini: At First Sight Bola: Forcasa 1 Death In Vegas: Chingola Martin Bomb The Bass: Darkheart (Sabres Mix) bdrmm: Alps (Nathan Fake Remix) Held By Trees: In The Trees (Ambient) Adam Aphex Twin: Zahl Am1 Live Track 1 Arrival feat. Kevin McCormick: Common Place (Thought Leadership Remix) The Durutti Column: Fidelity Dan Skull: Crash Pugilist: Conversion Autechre: Lowride Martin abu AMA: B!n Ladens Funeral Fiesta Saint Abdullah & Eomac: Organs Without Borders Craig Bratley: Take Me To Bedford Or Lose Me Forever Adam Kieran Hebden and William Tyler: Secret City Bert Jansch: Kittiwake Sewell & the Gong: Communion Phase Dan Jonny From Space: Level Skip Conforce: Void Boards Of Canada: Hi Scores Martin Moby: Go (Jam & Spoon In Dub Mix) International Noise Orchestra: Come Together Eskimo Twins: Elegy Adam GLOK: Dissident (Leaf Edit) James Holden: Blackpool Late Eighties

Three Hours At Yard In September

Back at the end of September Pye Corner Audio played at Yard in Cheetham Hill, a gig put on by Beautiful Burnouts. Support came from Shunt Voltage and three Flightpath Estate DJs- myself, Martin and Dan.  It's taken a while but we've finally recreated that night and it went up on The Flightpath Estate Mixcloud this week, three hours of music with our sets and two special minimixes- Shunt Voltage by Martin and Pye Corner Audio by Dan included- to give a flavour of what happened that night. It was a fantastic evening, one I won't forget- at one point, on stage sandwiched between Shunt Voltage and Pye Corner, I looked up to see the entire room looking in my direction, my fingers poised over the faders, ready to segue from James Holden to Daniel Avery and Jon Hopkins. You can listen to it here. 

Martin

• [0:00] Two Lone Swordsmen: The Crescents 
• [4:00] The Utopia Strong: Old Mathers
• [8:00] The Sabres Of Paradise: Edge 6 (Ambient) 

Adam

• [10:00] Durutti Column: Sketch for a Manchester summer 1989 
• [12:00] Cluster: Sowiesoso 

Dan

• [20:00] East Coast Love Affair: Xylocopa Violate 
• [25:00] Quadratschulz: Gestalt (Lowfish Remix) 

Martin

• [30:00] Black Bones: Take It Personal
• [34:00] Rude Audio: Mile On A Hill (Rich Lane Dub Remix) 

Adam

• [40:00] Peaking Lights: Midnight Dub 
• [46:00] Ambient Babestation Meltdown & Borai: Wait 

Dan

• [50:00] Coral D: Shock Front 
• [57:00] Shinichi Atobe: Whispers Into The Void 

Martin

• [1:02:00] Roe Deers: Move To The Beat (Edit) 
• [1:10:00] Richard Sen: Tough On Chug, Tough On The Causes Of Chug 

Adam

• [1:16:00] Khidja: Do You Know This Record Marius?

Shunt Voltage

• [1:21:00] Shunt Voltage: minimax by Martin

Adam

• [1:31:00] James Holden: Blackpool Late Eighties 
• [1:39:00] Daniel Avery: Glitter (Jon Hopkins Remix) 

Pye Corner Audio

• [1:46:00] Pye Corner Audio: minimix by Dan

Dan

• [2:06:00] David Harrow: AanDee 
• [2:12:00] Anatolian Weapons: Further Spiralling Down 
• [2:17:00] Phil Kieran: Artifical Analogue (Extended Dub)

Martin

• [2:24:00] Black Bones & Autumns: Cruising 
• [2:29:00] Richard Norris: Dim The Lights 

Adam

• [2:37:00] The Light Brigade: Shuffle The Deck 
• [2:42:00] Jamie XX & The Avalanches: All You Children 

Dan

• [2:46:00] Radioactive Man: The Clappers 

Martin

• [2:51:00] Caribou: Volume 

Adam

• [2:55:00] Jezebell: Turn It Yes 

Martin

• [3:02:00] Andy Bell: Smokebelch II 

The Universe Smiles Upon You

Nothing says Friday like a porcelain Victorian statue in a spa town pump house of a mermaid riding a dopey looking sea creature. Am I right?

Given the ongoing binfire of politics at home here it the UK and abroad it was cheering this week to see the result of the mayoral election in New York. The victory of Zohran Mamdani, a Ugandan born Muslim elected on a platform of rent freezes, universal childcare and free bus travel, is a lovely thing to see- and the fact he did it by sticking a pair of (metaphorical) middle fingers up to Trump even more so. It all put me in mind of this Dean Wareham song from 2021...

The Past Is Our Plaything

Meanwhile Khruangbin, ten years on from their debut album The Universe Smiles Upon You, have suddenly (yesterday) released a new version of that album, the ten tracks re- recorded and re- sequenced, new versions of old songs, the funky, mainly instrumental, gentle psychedelia of the three- piece out as The Universe Smiles Upon You ii. It's at Bandcamp. By coincidence I've recently gone back to last year's Khruangbin album A La Sala with this song especially standing out, May Ninth on November Seventh- and if that doesn't bring a little ray of summer sunshine into dark and gloomy November nothing will. 

May Ninth

That Khruangbin track may well be in my record bag tomorrow as I make my way up to Todmorden for another Flightpath Estate DJ outing at The Golden Lion. The line up is us, Steve Cobby and then A Love From Outer Space (Sean Johnston's autumnal ALFOS at The Golden Lion is legendary). Since we accepted the gig real life has intervened for some members of the Flightpath Estate DJ team so we are down to a bare bones, reduced squad tomorrow- mainly me flying solo with hopefully Dan turning up to bring some dub. If you fancy some afternoon/ early evening sounds with a pint, I'm on from 4- ish, playing the kind of stuff you hear here day in, day out. 

Last time we DJed there I threw Martin completely by leaving him to follow this Joe Strummer B-side, from the 1989 Island Hopping 12". Mango Street is a largely instrumental extended version of the song with spoons percussion, catgut guitar, whistling and Strummer at his most chilled out and playful. 

Mango Street

Coloured Lights, Smoke, Music

On Saturday night The Flightpath Estate DJ team (me, Martin and Dan this time, the Flightpath's northern branch) supported Pye Corner Audio and Shunt Voltage at The Yard in Cheetham Hill, north of Manchester city centre, a gig put on by Paul Watt and Beautiful Burnouts. The Yard is a lovely venue, an old Victorian building turned into a one room gig space and was close to sold out, 250 tickets sold. We had three slots- an hour before Shunt Voltage (an ambient/ dub hour), a twenty minute interval between the two acts and then an hour after Pye Corner Audio had finished to entertain anyone who decided to stick around. 

The ambient hour was fine, we played two tracks each in rotation and gave the room and gathering crowd some warm up music. We were set up on the stage, next to Pye Corner's kit and Shunt Voltage's equipment. A laser show was also set up for added visual entertainment. 

I was at the decks when the Shunt Voltage duo took the stage, just one track into my two. One of Shunt Voltage had to reboot his laptop so I stayed at the decks and then when they were ready to go cued up something so that when Shunt Voltage had finished I could just go back on stage and hit play. 

Shunt Voltage were really good, two men, a bank of synths and laptops, some FX pedals and a microphone which each member used at different times, gnomic repetitive phrases delivered over the crunching electronic sounds. At times it sounded like Mark E. Smith (aptly as The Fall have a song called Cheetham Hill) playing with early 80s Cabaret Voltaire/ late 80s 808 State, full on rhythms and bursts of synth noise and samples and a series of projections behind them that fitted the music perfectly. Manchester music- not the kind that's filled stadiums this summer but the more underground and leftfield electronic/ industrial/ acid techno that's as much part of the city's heritage as the guitars are. 

Resistor

As they completed their set and took their applause I slipped onto the stage behind the decks, waited a few seconds and then hit play. I'd been deliberating about whether to keep the thumpy, electronic energy in the room going, keeping the beats and bpms where Shunt Voltage had left them, or whether I should cool it down. Pye Corner Audio was likely to start with some slow, beatless, ambient stuff I thought but also I reckoned he'd have the audience eating out of the palm of his hand so I decided to keep the uptempo energy going. I hit play and James Holden's Blackpool Late Eighties boomed out. I fiddled with a few knobs, adjusted a few buttons and looked up...

It seemed like at that exact moment every single person in the packed out room was looking at me- instantly DJ imposter syndrome shot through me, 'What am I doing up here? What the fuck do I do next? How did I end up in this situation?' A bit nerve wracking. 

Heads were nodding I noticed and I quickly looked down, deciding to ignore them all and concentrate on cueing up the next track, getting it in exactly the right place to mix from deck A to deck B and pray I didn't mess up the transition. I slid the fader across and Jon Hopkins' remix of Daniel Avery's Glitter boomed into The Yard, tough, slo mo four four techno drums and a growing synth noise intensity. I was a minute or two into when Pye Corner Audio appeared next to me and I wondered if he was a bit pissed off that I'd gone a bit too hard- not that there was much I could do about it at that point, I was committed. He got his kit up and running, I mixed into a third track and then he gave me a smile and nod that he was ready to start. I hit the pause button, the track juddered for a few seconds and then I cut the noise. 

This picture shows what seemed to be two hundred and fifty pairs of eyes scrutinising my every move. It makes me feel a little anxious just looking at it. 

Pye Corner Audio started off with some very ambient synth sounds, quietening the room completely. Some brief interludes of sounds, bubbles and whirrs and then an FXed but recognisable voice came over the PA, Andrew Weatherall talking about smoke and music and coloured lights, acid house as gnostic ceremony. For the next hour Pye Corner was superb, gradually building the set, bringing in rhythms and bass, a larger and entrancing sound. Behind a lot of his tracks and sounds there's a sense of unease, the discomfort and folk horror of 70s public information films mixed with Cold War dread filtered through acid house and rave. The set built- no real gaps between tracks just a seamless segue from to another or the briefest of pauses, the crowd bobbed along, heads nodding, hands waved around, some dancing near the front. It was a superb hour of electronic ambient/ acid house synth music with this track at the heart of it...

Quarry Rave

Pye Corner finished by bringing the FXed and filtered Andrew Weatherall sample back. I'm not sure if he knows about The Flightpath Estate and our connections to Andrew's music but if not it was a lovely connection and coincidence. 

There's something about Pye Corner Audio's music I associate with lockdown. During the 2020- 21 period Martyn Jenkins dropped new tracks onto Bandcamp monthly and the subterranean, dystopic element in his music fitted with those times- but the warmth and communal spirit that is filtered through much of them was equally appropriate, a small community of people isolated from each other physically but listening to the same music via the internet. These things passed through my mind as the projections flashed away and the music filled the Victorian school room. 

After Pye Corner Audio ended his set we played some more tunes, from 10.30 through until 11.15, a hardy crew of dancers hanging around for more fun. It was pissing down outside so staying indoors and listening to our acid/ techno disco was the lesser of two evils. Dan got up and played David Harrow's AanDee, a track from Sounds From The Flightpath Estate Volume 2 named after Mr Weatherall and Martyn (Pye Corner) asked about a couple of tunes we'd played, later sending a message to Flightpath Martin saying it was really good night and 'felt like a proper rave'. We kept playing, enjoying the freedom and the sound system. We got some good pictures out of it too. Amazing what coloured lights, smoke and music can do. 

Four Hours And Twenty Minutes Of Rude Audio And Richard Fearless AT STP

Apologies if it feels a bit like every third post at Bagging Area at the moment is related to Sounds From The Flightpath Estate Volume 2 but there's been quite a lot going on. On Tuesday this week BBC 6 played the previously unreleased Sabres Of Paradise track Lick Wid Nit Wit, a track that has been sitting undisturbed in the vaults at Warp for three decades and which is out now on our album, Jagz Kooner, Gary Burns and Andrew Weatherall at the mixing desk with twelve minutes of sinuous dub/ downtempo, a serious Jah Wobble- esque bassline and the prototype Wilmot horns running through it. 

Jamz Supernova was sitting in for Lauren Laverne and played it in full- leading to a flurry of sales from the Golden Lion Sounds website and Bandcamp. The numbers available online are dwindling fast and soon the only copies available will be those in record shops- Stranger Than Paradise, Piccadilly Records, Phonica, Shake The Foundations and Lovebeat. The power of national radio! The photo above was sent to me by a friend who happened to be driving and tuning in at the time- he pulled over the took the picture and sent it to me. The radio show can be caught at the BBC 6 website for the next twenty four days here. Jamz plays Sabres about two hours and five minutes in but there are several references given to it, The Golden Lion and our album throughout. 

Two weeks earlier there was a lunch party at Stranger Than Paradise in Hackney with The Flightpath's own Baz and Rude Audio/ Mark Ratcliff at the decks and then a three hour set by Richard Fearless. STP have uploaded the recording of Mark and Richard's sets at their Soundcloud page, four hours and eighteen minutes of top quality music kicking off with some very dubwise selections from Mark, then gathering pace with some electronic chuggery and spaced out weirdness. Fearless arrives with a masterclass in DJing- the selections, the flow, the mixing, its superb stuff. He does dub techno, slow and low, and crunchy distorted acid/ dub/ techno tomfoolery, robot funk, thumpy techno and more besides. You can listen here. 

Enjoy This Trip

A week ago we had our Sounds From The Flightpath Estate Volume 2 launch party at Stranger Than Paradise in Hackney. It was by all accounts a very good evening and well attended. I couldn't make it due to work commitments- nor could Martin or Dan- but the album got played in full, Baz (below, right) and Mark (below, left) both DJed and Richard Fearless played a superb three hour set which got people moving. It was recorded and as soon as that surfaces I'll share it here. 

The first fifty copies came with a beautiful free art print, designed by sleeve artist Rusty. The first copy sold on the night was to S- Express main man Mark Moore who was passing through, heard the unreleased Sabres Of Paradise track on our album, the eleven minute dub- house splendour of Lick Wid Nit Wit, and bought a copy on the spot. Mark is a huge Sabres fan. Back in 1991 when Mark Moore's path crossed with Andrew Weatherall's, this barnstorming, outside the box remix was the result....

Find 'Em, Fool 'Em, Forget 'Em (The Eighth Hour Mix) 

Back in spring 1988 I was seventeen years old. I can clearly remember watching S- Express gatecrashing Top Of The Pops miming to their smash hit Theme, my head turned by its brashness and day glo brilliance, Mark and his friends cavorting round the studio, the cut and paste sampling a million miles from The Smiths, The Wedding Present and The Primitives...

The idea that thirty seven years later the front man of that group would be buying an album that I'd put together with four friends, that I wrote the sleeve notes for, would have caused my seventeen year old head to spin round and detach itself. 

Theme From S- Express is of course one of the greatest dance records ever made. 

Theme From S- Express

Here's Mark clutching his copy of our album at Stranger Than Paradise last Thursday with the great Chris Rotter...

This weekend we have a northern launch party for Sounds From The Flightpath Estate Volume 2 at The Golden Lion in Todmorden. The Golden Lion is the epicentre of the whole thing- we first talked about making an album while DJing there and Golden Lion Sounds is the record label it came out on. Volume 2 went in the post last week and copies have been arriving at people's homes ever since as well as copies at various record shops. If you haven't got one you can buy one at GLS, ten tracks exclusive to the album- along side Sabres Of Paradise there are Red Snapper, Dicky Continental, A Certain Ratio and Number, Unit 14, Richard Fearless, David Harrow, Richard Norris, Bedford Falls Players and Sleaford Mods. Mark's twenty five minute sampler mix of the ten tracks is here. 

Our launch party takes place in the back room with me, Martin and Dan DJing from 2pm though until 8. Free entry, fun for all the family, no requests etc. If you're in the area, feel free to drop by and say hello. 

At the same time and into the early hours there's a Lion collaboration with The Gun, Hackney with a huge cast of DJs on in the main room including Decius Soundsystem, Vladimir Ivkovic, Lena Killikens, Nathan Gregory Wilkins, Psych Williams and Luke Insect. 

Resist

Back in February Pye Corner Audio released an expensive box set compiling his Where Things Are Hollow series along with some new tracks and remixes. It's a comprehensive album and a deep dive into PCA world, where analogue synths and drum machines conjure up murky ambient, blurred electronic soundscapes, 70s sci fi/ TV and subterranean drones. The new Where Things Are Hollow included a remix John Talabot did back in 2020 which shifts Pye Corner Audio into slightly different territory, a powering, thumping breakbeat providing eight minutes of direct propulsion.

Resist (Jon Talabot Remix)

Pye Corner Audio regularly releases new music onto his Bandcamp page. At the start of August a two track EP came out, Matrix, which veered into shadowy cosmische house. Get it here. And closer to home Pye Corner Audio is playing live at Yard in Manchester, a venue in Cheetham Hill in the shadow of HMP Strangeways, at the end of September. There are still some tickets available- and I'll be able to enthuse to Martyn Jenkins directly about his music as some of The Flightpath Estate DJ team are playing support to both Pye Corner Audio and Shunt Voltage. 

Return To The Flightpath Estate

Sounds From The Flightpath Estate Volume 2- more news! Our second album, complied by myself and my friends at The Flightpath Estate comes out on double vinyl at the end of the month. Pre- orders at Golden Lion Sounds have already seen over 700 copies sold and there are 500 set aside for sale over the counter at several UK record shops from late August including Piccadilly Records in Manchester and Stranger Than Paradise in Hackney. There are copies for sale at those shop's websites as well as at Bleep and Golden Lion Sounds. 

The Flightpath Estate began as a Facebook group back in 2013, me and Martin opening it up as a place to share Andrew Weatherall news and music. It became a group of several thousand people and the front page for an online resource of Andrew's mixes and shows, thousands of hours of them archived and available to listen to. That this fan group has grown to become a pair of actual records, both featuring entirely previously unreleased Weatherall tracks and otherwise new and exclusive music from such an array of talented people is proper 'pinch me' stuff. 

There are two launch parties imminent- the first is at Stranger Than Paradise a week today, Thursday 21st August, with some of The Flightpath Estate (most likely Mark/ Rude Audio and Baz) plus from 9pm until 11, Richard Fearless of Death In Vegas at the decks. It's free to attend and the album will be available to buy on the night. The first 50 copies will get a limited art print with their album, designed by Rusty and based on his sensational sleeve art for the record. For what it's worth, I'm very unlikely to be able to get down to London for this and already have serious FOMO about missing our album launch and Richard Fearless DJing. Please pop down if you're in the Hackney area, say hello to Baz and Mark, enjoy the night, buy an album. 

Just over a week later there's a northern launch at The Golden Lion in Todmorden, home of the best pub in the world and the record label that is putting Sounds From The Flightpath Estate Volume 2 out. I will be at this one along with Martin, Dan and Baz, playing tracks from the album and whatever else we fancy in the backroom from 2pm until 8. Also taking place the same night is a collaboration between the Lion and The Gun, the now closed but legendary Hackney pub, with the Decius Soundsystem at the top of the bill. If you're in the Tod/ north west, come down and say hello. 

The album will be out by then- the official release date is 28th August but people that have pre- ordered may see their copies arriving a few days earlier that week. I got home from holiday recently to find my promo copy waiting for me and the sheer rush of excitement I got from looking at the sleeve, opening the gatefold and sliding the discs out was off the scale. Here I am with a ridiculously large looking left hand displaying Rusty's sleeve art...

And here we have my copies of Volumes 1 and 2 next to each other... and it's all well beyond what any of us thought this thing could be when we first started talking about the possibility of contacting a few of Andrew Weatherall's friends and seeing if they wanted to contribute a track to an album we were thinking of putting together. 

The ten tracks on Volume 2 are all superb- it more than stands up beside Volume 1. It kicks off with an unreleased Sabres Of Paradise track, Lick Wid Nit Wit, sitting in the vaults at Warp for thirty years, Andrew, Jagz Kooner and Gary Burns at the desk sliding faders, adding FX, playing instruments and writing music. Deep Jah Wobble inspired bass, the horns that would become Wilmot, rattling Sabres percussion, eleven minutes of mid- 90s Sabres groove ending with a cello. It's magnificent. Dicky Continental follows, Rich Thair's solo outfit marrying low fi, dusty jazzy funk with a snatch of Andrew's voice from Kiss FM radio, old and new spliced happily.

Side two goes hard with Unit 14 (an anonymous duo, our lips are sealed) hitting the techno sounds and spaces, a thumper that Andrew would surely have loved and then ten minutes of dub/ techno majesty from Richard Fearless, the sound of his recent album Death Mask diverted to the Flightpath Estate. 

On disc two LA resident and long time Weatherall cohort David Harrow blows the speakers with AanDee (fans of his and Andrew's Deanne Day alias will probably work out where that track title came from), a monster of a track, David switching his acid/ dub techno machines on and getting down to the core of things, a twisting, sinewy track with bleeps and bloops. Red Snapper's Qraqeb follows, frenetic and percussive, Rich's North African percussion hammering away while the synths and bass slide up and down, a track that jumps out of the speakers and keeps jumping. Side 3 finishes with A Certain Ratio. I've been listening to ACR and buying their records since 1987. They're one of the cornerstones of my musical DNA. Now they're on our record, with a track from their album last year (It All Comes Down To This) reworked Number, Rich Thair and Ali Friend's post-punk/ disco band. Estate Kings is sublime Manc noir, low slung and urban, the sound of driving round south Manchester late at night. 

Side 4 starts with Bedford Falls Players, the chuggy cosmic disco of In The Trees (It's Coming), synth stabs and space, voices from films and rumbling bass. Raising the tempo, Richard Norris' Brave Raver squelches in, drums and arpeggios, Norris happily in the space rave/ house/ Grid groove, the vocal from the breakdown all wide- eyed and open minded. Finally, it ends with Sleaford Mods and their cover of Two Lone Swordsmen's Sick When We Kiss, the UK grim duo breaking TLS down into urgent, post- punk and spluttering beats. 

Mark did a taster mix of the ten tracks, a twenty five minute sampler, which you can find here. Tangetially, Sabres Of Paradise re- issued their pair of 90s albums earlier this months, Sabresonic and Haunted Dancehall. Back in November 2023 The Flightpath Estate did a Sabresonic 30th anniversary night at The Golden Lion, a Q&A with Jagz and Gary, an airing of the recording of the Sabres Of Paradise live band playing at Herbal Tea Party in 1993 and a Jagz Kooner DJ set. Jagz and Gary held a similar event at Stranger Than Paradise last week. Friends of Sabres Sherman and Alex Knight both DJed and then Jagz played. That evening's sets were recorded and can be listened to here , nearly five hours of electronic music, an hour of red hot dub, acid house, some techno and more besides. 

Sounds From The Flightpath Estate Volume 2

 

Last year the five of us that make up the online Andrew Weatherall fan group that is The Flightpath Estate made an album and sold 1000 vinyl copies of it. It featured nine entirely new tracks from Weatherall associated artists and a then unreleased on vinyl Two Lone Swordsmen ambient track called The Crescents. Our album, Sounds From The Flightpath Estate Volume 1, came out with our friends at The Golden Lion in Todmorden on Golden Lion Sounds and raised over £6, 000 for Andrew's chosen charities. It made the Piccadilly Records and Uncut end of year round ups, we had three tracks played on Lauren Laverne's 6 Music show as Compilation Of The Week, had a Piccadilly Records window takeover- it was all very exciting. The music was all uniformly superb with tracks by Justin Robertson's Deadstock 33s, Timothy J. Fairplay, The Light Brigade (David Holmes), Rude Audio, 10:40, Richard Sen, Sons Of Slough and Hardway Bros, all recorded specifically for the album, and Andy Bell recorded an acoustic/ electric guitar cover of Smokebelch. 

We named the album Volume 1, partly chancing our arm collective arms in the hope that we might get to do a follow up. That album, Sounds From The Flightpath Estate Vol.2, is done, dusted, polished, shone and on its way to the pressing plant. The line up of artists and the music stands head and shoulders alongside Volume 1's. In no particular order, Volume 2 features a previously unreleased Sabres Of Paradise track, and new and exclusive music from Richard Fearless (of Death In Vegas), A Certain Ratio remixed by Number, Red Snapper, Richard Norris, David Harrow, Bedford Falls Players, Dicky Continental, the mysterious Unit 14, and a Two Lone Swordsmen cover by Sleaford Mods. Exciting eh?!

Sounds From The Flightpath Estate Volume 2 will be available for pre- order tomorrow morning at 10 am from the Golden Lion Sounds Bandcamp page and from the Golden Lion Sounds online shop (via The Big Cartel). I'm giving Bagging Area readers a heads up today- I know some of you bought Vol. 1 and would imagine/ hope some of you will want to be online tomorrow, Tuesday 1st July, fingers poised over the Add To Cart button. There are 1000 copies for pre- order tomorrow with a further 500 going to selected record shops in late August when the album will get its full physical release. 

We've been sitting on this for a couple of months and we're itching to get it out to people so they can enjoy the music as much as we have been. Mark has done a twenty- five minute mix of all the tracks which I'll share asap and I'll put the links up to order too. There'll be a few other bits of Vol. 2 news coming around over the summer- in the meantime...

David Holmes used the pseudonym The Light Brigade on Volume 1 and has this year putout a 12" on Mystic Arts under the name name. Shuffle The Deck came out on 12" and digitally in May, two tracks- the first was made with Lone Swordsman Keith Tenniswood and samples Andrew at its end, a rabble rousing acid house monster called Shuffle The Deck. The flipside, Only Love Can Save Us, was made in collaboration with Michael Andrews who David worked with on his Blind On A Galloping Horse album and is shimmering, heavenly electronic goodness. Get both here. 

Five Hours Of Music From The Flightpath Estate At AW62

AW62 was a month ago, a weekend long celebration of the life and music of Andrew Weatherall at The Golden Lion in Todmorden. The line up this year was close to perfect- Richard Fearless, Fantastic Twins, David Holmes, Scott Fraser, Duncan Gray, Matt Hum, Adrian Sherwood, a literary event with Lee Brackstone and David Keenan, and DJ support sets from Rusty and Rotter on the Friday and Curley and Sherman on the Sunday. In between, on the Saturday afternoon from 2pm through 'til 8, The Flightpath Estate DJs played (that's me, Martin, Dan, Baz and Mark). The sets weren't recorded but as usual we've recreated our five hour long set, drawing on unreliable memories, notes made on phones and the CDs and USB sticks we had with us. 

Baz played first, on for an hour. Martin, Dan and me then played back- to- back, three tracks each, rotating with each other- I think we got four rotations in each- before handing over to Mark for his headline slot, an early evening hour. In the middle there was an auction and raffle- that was very much a 'you had to be there' event and has not been recreated in the set below. This picture captures me and Martin in the booth, both of us looking a bit like we've just put on the wrong track or put it on at the wrong speed. 

There are a couple of tracks we've left out of the recreated set (and yes, that's a bit of a tease- there may be news about our second compilation album coming soon and a couple of tracks we played in the pub are as yet unreleased but cold feature on Sounds From The Flightpath Estate Volume 2 later on this year). 

The five hours of music can be found at Mixcloud. It takes in everything from dub to Dexys and much more besides.... 

Barry

[0:00] Stranger - Figurine [Monika Enterprise, 2001]
[5:00] Secret Soul Society - Make It All True [Magic Wand Special Editions, 2025]
[10:00] The Cleaners From Venus - This Rainy Decade [Captured Tracks, 2012]
[13:00] Jane Weaver - The Lightning Back [Fire, 2017]
[16:00] The Fall - Cheetham Hill [Jet, 1996]
[20:00] The Raincoats - Fairytale In The Supermarket [Rough Trade, 1979]
[22:00] Boot & Tax - Occhi Blue [Optimo Trax, 2014]
[30:00] Kid Congo & The Pink Monkey Birds - Nine Mile Blubber Pile [In The Red, 2016]
[33:00] Liquid Liquid - Lock Groove (In) [99, 1981]
[37:00] New Order - Your Silent Face [Factory, 1983]
[43:00] Andrew Weatherall - Privately Electrified [Rotters Golf Club, 2009]
[48:00] Vox Low - Rides Alone [Born Bad, 2018]
[52:00] The Clash - Train In Vain [CBS, 1980]

{Martin}
[55:00] Dorsey Burnette - Hard Working Man [ERA, 1960]
[57:00] The Pistoleers - Bank Robber [Raucous, 2002]
[59:00] Jerry Irby - The Night I Whipped The Devil [World Witness, 1974]
[1:02:00] Two Lone Swordsmen - Get Out Of My Kingdom [Rotters Golf Club, 2007]

{Dan}
[1:09:00] Jäverling meets Ganjaman_72 - Chasing Dub [Hoga Nord, 2019]
[1:13:00] SONLIFE - At Dawn [DSPPR, 2025]
[1:16:00] Deeply Armed - The Healing (Keith Tenniswood Remix) [Echo Pet, 2025]

{Adam}
[1:23:00] Escape-ism - Last Of The Sellouts [Radical Elite, 2025]
[1:27:00] The Dubwood Allstars - Under Dubwood [Rivertones, 2012]
[1:31:00] Red Snapper Featuring David Harrow - Hold My Hand Up [Lo, 2024]

{Martin}
[1:35:00] Elijah Minnelli - Lifeboat Mona [FatCat, 2024]
[1:38:00] Holy Tongue - The Bigger Tutti [Trule, 2025]
[1:43:00] The Quasi Dub Development - Let's Communicate [Pingipung, 2014]

{Dan}
[1:46:00] Richard Norris - Mirror Cave Dub [Oracle Sound, 2025]
[1:50:00] Steve Mason - Boys Outside (Andrew Weatherall Dub 1) [Double Six, 2010]
[1:55:00] REDACTED (abridged)

{Adam}
[1:56:00] Dub Syndicate - Right Back To Your Soul [On-U Sound, 2025]
[2:00:00] A Man Called Adam - Estelle [React, 1994]
[2:06:00] Andy Bell - Pinball Wanderer [Sonic Cathedral, 2025]

{Martin}
[2:11:00] Two Lone Swordsmen - A Slow Drive West [Emissions Audio Output, 1996]
[2:16:00] Two Lone Swordsmen - It's Not The Worst (Lali Puna Remix) [Warp, 2001]
[2:19:00] Two Lone Swordsmen - Kist [Warp, 1999]

{Dan}
[2:23:00] REDACTED (abridged)
[2:25:00] Coral D - Love Is What [Tears, 2017]
[2:29:00]  Death In Vegas - Ein Fur Die Damen [Drone, 2004]

{Adam}
[2:34:00] Suicide - Dream Baby Dream [Island, 1979]
[2:37:00] The Beta Band - Assessment [Regal, 2004]
[2:42:00] Totem Projects - Total Edits 19 - Medicine [Totem Projects, 2025]

{Martin}
[2:49:00] Joshua Idehen - Once In A Lifetime [Big Wednesday, 2024]
[2:53:00] Viper Patrol - Stickem [Nein, 2025]
[2:58:00] Troels Yuri - Rhythm is a Constant Beat (Dub on 33) [Witness Protection Program, 2022]

{Dan}
[3:03:00] Escapismo - Nada Importa [Escapismo Ediciones Limitadas, 2024]
[3:07:00] The Liminanas - Space Baby [Because, 2025]
[3:10:00] V - Avventura [Multi Culti, 2024]

{Adam}
[3:14:00] Mogwai - The Sun Smells Too Loud [Wall Of Sound, 2008]
[3:21:00] Talk Talk - Life's What You Make It [EMI, 1986]
[3:25:00] Dexys Midnight Runners - One Of Those Things [Mercury, 1985]

{Martin}
[3:31:00] Durutti Column - Future Perfect [Les Disques Du Crépuscule, 1996]
[3:35:00] Jura Soundsystem - Udaberri Blues (Dub Version) [Temples Of Jura, 2018]
[3:38:00] 23 Skidoo - Coup [Illuminated, 1984]
[3:42:00] Vox Low - Galactic Pot Heater [Oráculo, 2018]

{Mark}
[3:49:00] Rude Audio - North Star Dub [unreleased]
[3:56:00] Leftside Wobble - Underground Hicks [2018]
[4:00:00] That Petrol Emotion - Abandon (Boys Own Mix) [Virgin, 1989]
[4:05:00] Vous Tous – Chant 4 Freedom [SKunk, 1993]
[4:13:00] David Holmes – Don’t Die Just Yet (Arab Strap Remix) [Go! Beat, 1997]
[4:17:00] Felix Laband - Righteous Red Berets (Luke Vibert Remix) [Compost, 2016]
[4:23:00] Death In Vegas - Witchdance Dub [Drone, 2018]
[4:29:00] Dream Baby Dream - Banana Trance (Calm's Mellow Mellow Acid Dub) [Hell Yeah, 2024]
[4:34:00] Acid Arab - Halim Guelil [Crammed Discs, 2023]
[4:38:00] Mytron & Zongamin - 08932168 [Multi Culti, 2025]
[4:42:00] Primal Scream vs Adrian Sherwood - JU-87 [Creation, 1997]