Oblique Saturdays

A series for Saturdays in 2026 inspired by Brian Eno and Peter Schmidt's set of cards, Oblique Strategies (Over One Hundred Worthwhile Dilemmas). Eno and Schmidt created them to be used to unblock creative impasses and approach problems from unexpected angles. Each week I'll turn over an Oblique Strategy card and post a song or songs inspired by the suggestion. 

Last week's Oblique Strategy suggestion was Is there something missing?

I went for Todd Terry's 1996 remix of Everything but The Girl's Missing, Dub Syndicate, Joy Division's transition into New Order, Durutti Column, R.E.M. and The Clash. The Bagging Area Oblique Saturdays squad went into overdrive and came up with late period New Order without Hooky, The Verve without Nick McCabe, Elvis Costello, Janis Joplin (whose vocals were missing from a song she was supposed to record the day she died), Julian Cope and Peggy Suicide, The Justified Ancients Of Mu Mu, Wire, The Stranglers, Tindersticks, The Bad Seeds, Andrew Weatherall's Music's Not For Everyone radio shows, Athletico Spizz and R. Missing. Thank you Chris, Beerfueledlad, Rol, Khayem, C, The Swede, JC and Walter. 

Peggy Suicide Is Misisng closes Julian Cope's 1992 opus Jehovakill, a forty two second burst of notes and noise and Cope, the Archdrude, singing, 'mother, mother, mother...' 

Peggy Suicide Is Missing

This weeks Oblique Strategy card says this- Don't break the silence.

At first I thought I'd turned a repeat Oblique Strategy card but on checking it just seemed familiar- I've had both Tape your mouth and Do nothing for as long as possible before, both of which at first felt like they come from a similar place. I wondered if I should choose again but then the word silence prompted me and this came to mind...

A Life Of Silence (Timothy J. Fairplay's Fall Of Shame Remix)

Released on Andrew Weatherall's Bird Scarer Records back in 2012, a vinyl only 12" series that ran to just seven releases, Tim (Andrew's engineer in the studio in the early 2010s and his partner in The Asphodells) remixed Scott Fraser's A Life Of Silence. Scott was one of the Scrutton Street Axis, one of several artists who took a room in Andrew Weatherall's Scrutton Street bunker complex near Brick Lane in London. They all had to vacate eventually as the forces of free market capitalism decided that an underground bunker complex containing several DJs, musicians and producers making relatively small scale music aimed at a few hundred souls was an inefficient use of property. 'Artists', Andrew said at the time, 'are the vanguard of gentrification'.

Tim's remix is a beauty, a nine minute electronic excursion into early New Order/ music for the Cold War territory, the chuggy drums, Hooky- esque bass, choppy guitars and cosmische synths all conjuring 21st century acid house and images of Warsaw Pact maneuvers, West Berlin and early 80s Manchester. Maybe that's just me. 

I could have left it there. Don't break the silence by adding to A Life Of Silence. There's loads more songs in my collection with silence in the title: The Asphodells only album had One Minute Silence on it,a  John Betjemen inspired lyric (also released for RSD as a vinyl only 12" with a Wooden Shjips remix); I've recently been reviewing and enjoying the new album by Lines Of Silence; Depeche Mode enjoy their silence; Television Personalities had an angry silence; Daniel Avery is Out Of Silence, Justin Robertson has a Cup Of Silence; and Duncan Gray has an imperfect silence. 

More conceptually I then thought of Bill Drummond, never a man to shy away from something grand and important. In 2005 he declared 21st November as No Music Day, a day of silence to draw attention to the cheapening of music as an art form.

'I decided I needed a day I could set aside to listen to no music whatsoever. Instead, I would be thinking about what I wanted and what I didn't want from music. Not to blindly – or should that be deafly – consume what was on offer. A day where I could develop ideas'. 

A day of silence in other words. He chose 21st November as it is the feast day of Saint Cecilia, the patron saint of music. 

Cecilia

Simon And Garfunkel's Cecilia, a hit from 1970 with home made, improvised percussion, banging a bench and looping it at a party then recreated in the studio with a piano stool and guitar cases. 

Bill promoted No Music Day for a few years with some take up in the UK press, BBC Scotland and further afield (Sao Paulo in Brazil and Linz in Austria both joined in). 

I don't know how much No Music Day achieved but like many of Bill Drummond's schemes, the concept is the thing. He does something and then he moves on. If music was being cheapened as an art form in 2005 it's even cheaper now- Spotify, Tik Tok et al and advertising use music as content, little more than the backing track to the product they are selling. Spotify's rates of pay for musicians are appalling. Mark Peters, a guitarist from Wigan whose music I've featured here a good few times, recently found out that a piece of his music was used by Facebook in India and had been streamed over 26 million times. For this he received a payment of £40. 

Mark's most recent release is Shadow Quarter, available at Bandcamp, four songs each one done in two versions. 

Feel free to make your own Don't break the silence suggestions in the comment box. 

Heathen Child

In 2010 Nick Cave's Bad Seeds offshoot Grinderman released their second album, Grinderman 2. Grinderman was very much a chance to do something away from the sometimes heavy expectations and history of the Bad Seeds, to play and have a little fun, 'less narrative' and 'more impressionistic' according to Nick. The first single from the album was Heathen Child and the video was not a standard Nick Cave piece of filmmaking... 

'Hey little Momo/ Light as a rainbow/ Heavy as an asteroid/ Sitting in the bath tub'. A girl in a very milky looking bathtub. A wolf. Nick, Warren, Jim and Martyn dressed as Greek warriors. Laser beams blasting from eyes. Asteroids. Dancing. Horror. Sci fi. A smoke monster. Machine guns. Dancing. The wolfman. 

Heathen Child (Radio Edit)

Musically the blasts of distorted electric guitar and primitive drums are a garage punk thrill, as are the explosive, noisy choruses. It sounds like everyone had a good time making it. 

There was a limited edition 12" single with an alternate take of the song with Robert Fripp on additional guitar- slightly longer, a bit gnarlier and more heathen. 

Super Heathen Child

More? There was also an Andrew Weatherall remix, Andrew and Timothy J. Fairplay stripping Grinderman down to the basics and extending them out; some drums, isolated bits of Nick's vocal, percussion and laser beams and a large wobbly synth bassline. 

Heathen Child (Andrew Weatherall Bass Mix)

An Hour At Tak Tent

Tak Tent Radio is a Scottish based internet radio station that broadcasts all manner of interesting, experimental, leftfield and niche shows by a variety of guests. I've contributed guests mixes for a few years now and last weekend the latest Bagging Area Tak Tent emission went out, my eleventh. You can listen to it at the Tak Tent website here or at Mixcloud here. It's a chilled out dubby/ ambient/ Balearic affair, mostly music released this year but with a vintage Andrew Weatherall and David Harrow track thrown in, their sole recording as Planet 4 Folk Quartet (for Warchild in 1995). 

• M- Paths: Emerge
• Planet 4 Folk Quartet: Message To Crommie
• Richard Norris: Pagan Dub
• Sewell & The Gong: Passing Oort Clouds (Justin Robertson’s Deadstock 33s Remix)
• Justin Robertson’s Deadstock 33s: Minus Shadows
• Psychederek: Hapi
• Spatial Awareness: Dream Food (SA Dub)
• Timothy J. Fairplay: Centurion Version
• Coyote: Every Forest Has A Shadow (Vanity Project Remix)
• KlangKollektor: Midnight Express
• Florecer: Hidden Thoughts

Imagine It Create It

One of the treats of this week that keeps repeating has been the arrival of our album, Sounds From The Flightpath Estate Volume 1, arriving in physical form through people's front doors. The first copies started to fall onto door mats a week ago and there's been a stream ever since. My copy arrived on Saturday morning an to say it's a been a thrill is an understatement. 

When I was younger records had a mystical power, they cast a spell and there was a ritual connected to playing them- the black vinyl and the way it crackled slightly when pulled out of the sleeve, the spiralling groove with the stylus sitting within it, the magical sounds that emanated from this piece of plastic via the arm of the record player and out of the speakers, the sleeve with art or photo on the front and the world of credits, track titles, sleeve notes, and thank yous on the back or inside. And even though DIY culture has been part of the musical world I've been inhabiting since I first started buying records (the philosophy that anyone can make a record was part of both punk and its aftermath and acid house), the idea that a twelve track album in a gatefold sleeve with an array of top quality tracks, all connected to Andrew Weatherall, with my name, picture and sleeve notes written by me would some exist as an actual physical artefact, is a little mind blowing still. That mystical power of black plastic and a cardboard sleeve still exists. It was there last Saturday when I opened the package and slid the album out, Personality Crisis's brilliant artwork in my hands, the gatefold opening up with my sleeve notes on the left and the credits and thanks you's on the right (and a dedication to Isaac too, another proper moment), the pair of discs inside paper inner sleeves... the magic is right there. 

The twelve tracks are all absurdly good, everyone involved has sent us music from their top drawer. The opening track is a Two Lone Swordsmen ambient track (not a genre they explored that in that much depth) from a CD promo issued solely in japan twenty years ago called Still My World. We managed to get Rotters Golf Club to license it for our album, something that still has me shaking my heard. Sons Of Slough, Ian Weatherall and Duncan Grey, follow with a chunky, chuggy monster called Red Machine, recorded live at their soundcheck at The Golden Lion last August. Timothy J. Fairplay's Centurion Version, closes side 1, Tim's own tribute to the planned follow up to his and Andrew's Ruled By Passion, Destroyed By Lust album (as The Aphodells), a rocking synth dub track. Flip the disc over and  you find Justin Robertson and his Deadstock 33s and a wired, tripped out dub ode to Todmorden and The Golden Lion, a very FXed vocal talking about happy valleys and UFOs (the Todmorden UFO society meets monthly upstairs at the pub. A friend who moved into the area and who attended a meeting was treated with deep suspicion by the regulars who thought he might be from the government). Curtains Twitch On Peaks is followed by the huge sounding Tough On Chug, Tough On The Causes Of Chug by Richard Sen, thumping, driving electronic music. Disc 2 kicks off with Rude Audio's sleek dub techno track Running Wild, driving bass, guitar, keys and rocking dubbed out drums. Jesse Fahnestock's 10:40 comes next, a circus organ riff transplanted from a fairground to acid house with Emilia Harmony's  blissed out, otherworldly vocal a siren call. Side 4 has Sean Johnston's Hardway Bros and the self- explanatory Theme For Flightpath Estate (how ace is that? We have our own theme??). Cosmic disco of the kind he plays at ALFOS with a nod to Andrew Weatherall's Walk of Shame within it. The Light Brigade come next (it's a pseudonym due to the artist being contracted Heavenly but the notes on the gatefold  credit the writing and production to David Holmes so you can probably make you onw mind up about who it is). Human : Remains sat unfinished and homeless on the shelf for twenty years before being dusted down, sharpened up and released on our album, a track that surges with krautrock drums and layers of synths, keys and bass. We finish with Andy Bell's cover of Smokebelch, a gorgeous, lilting cover version, Andy's fingers moving up and down the strings of his guitar audible, piano and guitars and FX, the perfect way to close the album. Andy began it on the day Andrew died in 2020 and finished it for our album back in October. As I've said and keep saying, a record full of moments that have had me/ us pinching ourselves at almost every stage, from the first week we had a 'yes' to our proposal to this week when the record arrived at our homes. 

The album's sold out online. There are some copies available from today at The Golden Lion, at AW61, a weekender to celebrate what would have been Andrew's 61st birthday. Tonight Radioactive Man and David Holmes will rock the Lion with Matt Hum and Rusty and Rotter. There are some copies due to land at Piccadilly Records soon and some more at London's Stranger Than Paradise Records. All these things make me shake my head and pinch myself again. Yes, I will be going to Piccadilly Records to photograph our album in the racks. 

In an interview many years ago Andrew Weatherall spoke of what he did being in the spirit of 'the grand amateur'. I think that's us too. Waka, the man who runs The Golden Lion, said on Facebook this week, 'Imagine it: create it'. And that's what we've done. 

I can't post any of the songs- we only got the license to put them out on vinyl, so there's no digital release. Some of you may have copies of the album. If you do, I hope you're enjoying it as much as we have been. We've already started contemplating the part of our album's title that says 'Volume 1'. 

Tim Fairplay posted his copy on Tuesday with the comment that the first band he ever saw live back in 1992 aged thirteen was Ride, on their Going Blank Again tour, adding it was kinda cool to ned up on the same album as Andy Bell. Both Tim and Andy have new material out elsewhere too. In February Tim released a six track EP/ cassette on Belgian label Pinkman called Convictions That Stick, six slices of Timwave electro, thunderous jacking grooves, squelchy synth sounds and strobe lit keys. It's here. 

Andy Bell and the other three members of Ride have just released their third album since reuniting, a twelve song monster called Interplay. It's got guitars and synths, a big sound made for playing live, nods to various 80s and 90s guitar bands and among the soaring chord sequences, towards the end, is this low key beauty, Essaouira, possibly a tribute to the Moroccan town that became a hippy haven in the 60s, with shuffling drums, samples, blissed out guitars and a dreamy, shimmering haze. 

Fifty Minutes Of Deadstock 33s

Last May I did a Sunday mix of Justin Robertson remixes from the 90s, forty minutes of trumpets and acid house/ indie- dance. It's here. I always intended to come back and do a more recent mix of Justin's music and having struggled with a completely different Sunday mix for a couple of days- it just wan't coming together and the segues were difficult to get right- I thought today would do for a return to Mr. Robertson and specifically his music and remixes as his Deadstock 33s. There are eight tracks in today's mix coming in at around fifty minutes, plenty of dub influence, lots of chuggy drum machine rhythms, a few New Order- esque moments, some cosmic motorik grooves and some lovely wired and weird synth and FX flying around. On top of all that Justin is always faultlessly turned out, has a fine array of headwear and always comes across as a thoroughly good chap. 

Fifty Minutes Of Justin Robertson's Deadstock 33s

• Mercury Project
• Magnetic
• The Confidence Man (Justin Robertson's Deadstock 33s Remix)
• Dark Endless
• Brix Goes Tubular
• Lone Raver In Dub
• The Circular Path (Asphodells Remix)
• One Lone Rider

Mercury Project came out on a  2013 compilation titled Treasure Hunting, released by Astrolab, and a rather good round up of chuggy cosmic disco/ house from a decade ago with Hardway Bros. Tim Fairplay, Toby Tobias, Scott Fraser, Daniel Avery, Mugwump, Marc Pinol and Ana Helder in the list of artists included. Something of a forerunner in that sound/ scene. 

Magnetic was from an EP with Daniel Avery and sounds like early 80s New Order wired up to the nearest electricity pylon, a very smart piece of 2012 motorik psychedelia, released on Optimo.

The Confidence Man  was a stand out song on Andrew Weatherall's solo album Convenanza. The remix album that followed it, Consolamentum, saw Andrew remixed by Justin along with Unloved, Heretic, Duncan Gray, The Emperor Machine, Red Axes, Tim Fairplay and Scott Fraser. On the sleeve there was a very Weatherall quote- 'delights are stronger the longer they remain secret' (by Joseph Roth).

Dark Endless was on a digital only compilation released by Spun Out Agency in 2022, a tribute to Mr. Weatherall, that went under the title More Of That Frightful Oompty Boompty Music. Justin gets on the cosmische tip on Dark Endless, a throbbing bassline and swirling sounds setting the controls for the outer limits. 

Brix Goes Tubular was a Bandcamp only single from 2022, three tracks recorded by Justin and Brix Smith (with a dub mix). I'd forgotten about it until pulling this mix together and really like it, Brix and Justin finding a musical sweet spot in the space somewhere between dub, Tom Tom Club and surf. 

Lone Raver In Dub is a bouncing, rocking dub- flecked tune from September last year, part of the ongoing Deadstock 33s Unreleased series at Bandcamp, a goldmine of music. 

The Asphodells (Andrew Weatherall and Timothy J Fairplay) remixed Deadstock 33s' The Circular Path in 2013. The remix is ticking, clanging, metallic space motorik with a spluttering topline and acres of echo and wobbling synth oscillations. 

One Lone Rider came out in summer 2023, a massively distorted bass drum and frequency test synth line, six minutes of hypnotic sci fi dub/ acid house.

Weatherall Remix Friday Six

When I started this series the idea was to focus on some lesser known Andrew Weatherall remixes, the less celebrated or widely known ones. That's pretty subjective and my idea of less well known may be different from yours or from the man in the streets. I'm also jumping around in a fairly haphazard fashion rather than working in any logical order. When I posted my Hardway Bros mix last Sunday Cal Gibson, the man behind The Secret Soul Society, left a comment saying 'Sean [Hardway Bros] works on advice from Mr. Weatherall when remixing: pick 3 or 4 elements from the original and go from there'. 

Andrew's remixes from c.2009 onwards are cases in point, where usually either with Timothy J. Fairplay or Nina Walsh as studio engineer/ assistant, he'd select a few of those elements from the source track and add his own, extending them out for several minutes longer than the original. In 2012 he remixed Brighton five piece Toy, a group who were already fairly psychedelic/ krauty/ shoegaze. 

Andrew sent Toy further into motorik, cosmische, 1970s West German heaven than they'd previously been- a buzzing synth/ organ riff, a meandering, wobbling synth part, and maybe some distorted guitars are joined by Andrew's echo- clap drum track, cavernous space and FX. A two finger keyboard part that picks out a melody at three minutes in and at five minutes a very Michael Rother- esque lead guitar line takes up the foreground. Delightfully absorbing, head nodding, transportative stuff, that glides on and on towards eight minutes before ending. 

Dead And Gone (Andrew Weatherall Remix)

WRF Two

WRF, a series for Fridays celebrating remixes by Andrew Weatherall focusing on the lesser known or overlooked remixes, began last week with the 2011 remix of Allice Gold's Runaway Love. Today's remix jumps forwards two years by which point Andrew was so firmly back in the remix game and so on it in terms of quality that a list of remixes released in 2013 is almost an alternative best of album-

• Trentemoller: Silver Surfer, Ghost Rider Go! (Andrew Weatherall Prinz Remix and Sky 81 Mix)
• Toy: Dead And Gone (Andrew Weatherall Remix)
• Baris K: 200 (Asphodells Remix)
• Madness: Death Of A Rude Boy (Andrew Weatherall Remix)
• Emiliana Torrini: Speed Of Dark (Andrew Weatherall Remix)
• Moby and Wayne Coyne: Another Perfect Life (Andrew Weatherall Remix)
• Primal Scream: 2013 (Andrew Weatherall Remix and Dub)
• Jagwar Ma: Come Save Me (Andrew Weatherall Remix)

In the midst of this purple patch came Andrew's remix of The Emperor Machine. The remixes above, done with Timothy J. Fairplay as trusted assistant and engineer (and in The Asphodells, whose album was released in 2013 also, musical partner), there can be found sky scraping cosmic dub, thumping glam rock/ Brix- era Fall, dubbed out ska, twisted Turkish acid, widescreen joyous Balearica and hypnotic krautrock heaven and uptempo indie- dance- I'll let you decide which of these labels applies to which remix. The remix of Like A Machine stands out from all those, darker and deeper, more electronic and more acid, fat bass and synth arpeggios, relentless Belgian New Beat, more the sound of sweaty basements than the open air. For vocals just two voices repeating two words, 'electric desire'. 

Like A Machine (Andrew Weatherall Remix)

The Emperor Machine is Andy Meecham from Staffordshire whose first taste of musical fame and glory came with Bizarre Inc. Their rave singles were massive in the late 80s and early 90s, in the clubs and the charts- singles such as Bizarre Theme, Such A Feeling, Playing With Knives and I'm Gonna Get You. He was in dub disco purveyors Chicken Lips. His back catalogue as the Emperor Machine is wide and extensive. Recently he's remixed and collaborated with A Certain Ratio, including in 2021 to bring things to a neat conclusion on a track dedicated to Andrew.  

WRF One

I've rediscovered a few Andrew Weatherall remixes recently so I thought I'd start a series of Weatherall Remix Fridays, a weekly post that pokes around in the Andrew Weatherall remix cupboard, shining a torch onto some of those remixes that are a little overlooked, forgotten or less appreciated. The eagle eyed among you may have noted that WRF are also the initials of one of Andrew's musical outlets, the Woodleigh Research Facility, which is a nice coincidence. Some of you may say that I don't need to do this as a series, Andrew Weatherall remixes are posted here all the time anyway- which is true but a series is good for blogging, adding structure to what can be a bit scattershot at times. 

In the late 80s Andrew stated out as a DJ but really made his name as a remixer- his early remixes of Primal Scream, Happy Mondays, James and My Bloody Valentine are well known. There are many more obscure and lesser known ones from those early years, '89- '92, where the flipping over of a 12" single sleeve in the racks and seeing the words Andy Weatherall Remix in brackets were enough to buy a record unheard. His remixes then morphed into Sabres Of Paradise remixes (with Jagz Kooner and Gary Burns) and then from 1996 onwards Two Lone Swordsmen remixes (with Keith Tenniswood). In 2007 he began to remix under his own name again and in 2008 really showed he was back his remix best with his versions of Primal Scream's Uptown and Fuck Buttons' Sweet Love For Planet Earth. From there he entered a purple patch that went on through the next decade. In 2011 Andrew remixed Runaway Love by Alice Gold. 

Runaway Love (Andrew Weatherall Remix)

Some of what would become standard 2010s Weatherall remix sounds are present from the start of this- the hissing, steam powered drum machine, the dub FX and wonky siren sounds and the pushed to the fore section of bassline. This one is relatively restrained by Andrew's standards, a trim six minutes thirty seconds, with a snatch of the vocal looped and smothered in echo. The rhythms, bass and FX pile up, break down and re- enter, crunching forwards. It's that head nodding, slower- tempo, early evening sound, one that he'd revisit a year later with his remix of Heathen Child for Grinderman (a remix for another Friday perhaps). Timothy J. Fairplay was Andrew's in house engineer at this point, a partnership which would become The Asphodells.

Alice Gold was a London based singer/ songwriter who released five singles and an album on Polydor between 2010 and 2012, toured with Eels, The Twilight Singers and Athlete and played Glastonbury in 2011. Discogs describes her sound as power pop and psychedelic rock- despite having owned this remix for thirteen years (digital only, there was no physical release for the remix) this is the first time I've heard the original version of Runaway Love. There's nothing after 2012 in terms of releases so I'm guessing Alice gave up music and headed elsewhere. 

AW60 The Golden Lion

Today is the final leg of the AW60 events, the month of celebrations of what would have been Andrew Weatherall’s 60^th birthday. Following nights in London, Glasgow and Belfast the fourth event is at The Golden Lion in Todmorden. The Golden Lion is a special place, ‘a portal’, as a man standing at the bar told me last time I was there, ‘outside it’s Tod, in here it’s another world’. The Golden Lion is a pub in the hills, on the Lancashire/ West Yorkshire border that hosts gigs, events and DJ nights, hosted by Richard and Gig. Andrew played there regularly. In 2018 he hosted a weekend of events in West Yorkshire, Weatherall in the Calder Valley, playing a gig in Hebden Bridge with A Certain Ratio and DJ events at the Lion. His travelling cosmic disco, A Love From Outer Space, with Sean Johnston often appeared at the Lion.

The turn of events that has led to me and four friends actually being part of the celebrations and DJing in the Lion today, from 1pm through until Justin Robertson taking over as headliner at 10pm is as baffling to me as it is to others. We started out administering the Flightpath Estate Facebook group (a place for Andrew’s fans to share music and news). It grew slowly and then when Andrew died in February 2020 became a place for people to be, to share stories and enjoy the music. At some point Richard asked us if we’d like to DJ at the Lion and in what I can only describe as a sudden escalation of events, towards the end of last year we were asked to be part of AW60. Much of this is due to the internet and the way it has brought people together, made connections and turned online friendships into real life ones. My involvement comes ultimately because of this blog, the hundreds of posts I've written about Andrew and his music and the connections made through it, something I started back in 2010 with no real idea what I was doing and ending up here. 

Today’s celebrations have us playing in turn and back-to-back throughout the afternoon and evening, handing over to Justin Robertson around 10. At 9, in the upstairs room Timothy J. Fairplay will play live with a battery of synths and drum machines. Across the road old friends of Andrew’s Dave Beer and Bernie Connor will play records. Tomorrow, Andrew’s friends Curley and Sherman are both DJing at the Golden Lion (admission is free if you’re in the area) with a live set by Chris Rotter and Andy Bell in the evening where they will play the songs Chris played guitar on and helped create on Andrew's Pox On The Pioneers solo album. Later on, as bank holiday Monday beckons, Heidi Lawden and Lovefingers will be on.

Back in October we were invited to play with David Holmes, warming up for him. The afternoon was fairly quiet and were more or less playing songs for ourselves and each other plus a few afternoon drinkers. As the evening drew on the pub filled up a little and then in a way that still causes me to pinch myself, I was in the booth at 8.45 as David Holmes turned up, said hello and told me to keep playing. A few records later I handed over to him, the sort of thing that I never really expected to happen- why would I end up DJing with David Holmes? I can’t even mix very well. Today we have a long slot, will be taking it in turns with an hour each and then as the pub turns to a ticketed (and sold out) event, we’ll switch on and off with each other, three tracks each back to back, no doubt with someone putting on a record that is unfollowable or unmixable, with a knowing smile. I have become more nervous about this gig as the week has gone on, playing a DJ set in a pub filled with Andrew Weatherall’s friends, family and fans. I’ve woken up every morning fretting about track selection, technical details, general performance anxiety. And I’ve told myself too to relax and enjoy it- the room will be full of lovely people who just want to socialise, hear good music and have a good time.

‘Just what is it that you want to do?’

‘We want to be free to do what we wanna do… and we wanna get loaded and we wanna have a good time.’

What Andrew would have made of all of this, I have no idea. A chuckle, a shake of the head, a grimace at a messed up transition between one record and the next as his fans try to emulate him. 

Andrew and Justin remixed each other several times. In 2013 Andrew along with Timothy J. Fairplay as The Asphodells remixed Justin's Deadstock 33s track The Circular Path- crunchy sci fi electronic house music for the future. 

The Circular Path (Asphodells Remix)

Three years later Justin remixed The Confidence Man, a song from Andrew's solo album Convenanza (the original version I plan to play at some point today). Justin's remix goes full on with the squelchy bass and slo- mo space action.

The Confidence Man (Justin Robertson's Deadstock 33s Remix)

Anyway, wish us luck, we're going in. 

Forty Minutes Of The Asphodells

The Asphodells formed when Andrew Weatherall and Timothy J. Fairplay realised that they had recorded enough material for an album, songs that eventually became Ruled By Passion, Destroyed By Lust (named after a poster for a shlocky 50s gay gladiators film). The album came out in 2012, a fully realised collection of tracks with a typically diverse and eclectic set of Weatherall interests- dubby leftfield disco with New Order- esque basslines, John Betjeman, Tony Wilson quotes and AR Kane. Around the time of the album there were a slew of remixes by The Asphodells, alongside other ones from the same period but credited to Andrew Weatherall with Tim co- producing and engineering (the difference between a Weatherall remix and an Asphodells remix largely depending on who was paying and how big the cheque was apparently). 

Ruled By Passion, Destroyed By Lust took up semi- permanent possession of my turntable for a while, an album that still rewards a decade later. It was followed by a remix album with members of the Scrutton Street Axis and wider Weatherall network on remix manoeuvres- Scott Fraser, Phil Kieran, Black Merlin, Hardway Bros, Justin Robertson, Richard Sen, Ivan Smagghe, Daniel Avery, Daniele Baldelli and DJ Rocco and Group Rhoda plus Wooden Shjips for a Record Shop Day 12". There was way too much material to cover all of this in one Sunday mix so this is a just a selection for today. 

Forty Minutes Of The Asphodells

• 200 (Asphodells Dub)
• Glock'd (The Asphodells Remix)
• Beglammered (Justin Robertson's Deadstock 33s Remix)
• Another Lonely City
• Needed You (The Asphodells Remix)
• Songs Of Pressure (The Asphodells remix)

200 a single by Baris K, a DJ and producer from Istanbul with an interest in disco and 60s Turkish psyche. The 12" came out in 2013. The remix and dub are trippy, Middle Eastern chug of the highest order with a huge synth arpeggio and whooshes riding on top of a particularly gnarly bassline. 

Glock'd is by C.A.R., Chloe Raunet's musical outlet. Chloe was previously in Battant with Tim. Andrew and Tim's remix is one of the highlights of the entire period, a slow motion, glam rock/ sci fi stomp with Chloe's French accented vocal on top. Retro but utterly modern too. 

Beglammered was the opening track from Ruled By Passion, Destroyed By Lust, remixed by Justin and released on the remix album. Another Lonely City with its Power, Corruption And Lies bassline (played by Andy Baxter) came from the album too. 

Needed You was a remix of Berlin based band She Lies, post- punk/ dark disco. There are some lovely wobbly, throbbing sequencers and synths on this one. 

Songs Of Pressure was by Richard Sen whose links with Andrew went back to Sabres Of Paradise (he painted the sleeve art for Theme). For the dubbed out splendour of the remix Andrew added a vocal part- Andrew's vocals were a distinctive part of The Asphodells, and it seemed right that they should finish this mix off. 

Thirteen

On New Year's Day 2010 I started Bagging Area- which has made it very easy to remember when the blog's birthday is if nothing else. Today the blog enters its teenage years, thirteen years old. There are several songs titled for what is often seen as the unluckiest number.

Big Star's Thirteen from 1972 is a celebration of teenage love. 'Won't you let me walk you home from school', it begins, the ache and pain of young love perfectly captured by Alex Chilton and Chris Bell.

Thirteen

Big Audio Dynamite's V Thirteen is from 1987, co-written with Joe Strummer who also produced the album it came from (Number 10 Upping Street, according to Joe, the home of 'an alternative, funky Prime Minister'). V. Thirteen's lyrics take in all sorts of stuff, not least Little Jamie who writes 'V 13'- I've always assumed this means writes as in graffiti- my copy of the 12" came with a stencil for spraying V. 13 onto walls and other surfaces, still unused. V. Thirteen is one of B.A.D.'s finest moments.

V. Thirteen

Teenage Fanclub released an entire album titled Thirteen, released in 1992 following the flush of fame that Bandwagonesque brought. Inevitably it felt like a bit of a slump, the songs not quite up to par, many being fragments and leftovers from 1991/2. The experience of making it wasn't a happy one for the group, it dragged on and became hard work. Drummer Brendan O'Hare left after they toured the album. Time has been fairly kind to Thirteen I think, it sounds pretty good today, just not a great step on in any way. One of the key songs was 120 Minutes, a Raymond McGinley song, which the group recorded acoustically for their Teenage Fanclub Have Lost It EP, released in 1995

120 Minutes (Acoustic)

Andrew Weatherall's 2016 solo album Convenanza included a song called Thirteenth Night. The album was a wide ranging affair, spanning post- punk/ punk funk trumpets and featured Weatherall's vocals on many of the songs including references to writers Hans Fallada and Robert Walser (Fallada wrote Alone In Berlin, the true story of a German couple who leave a series of handwritten postcards around Berlin during the Nazi years attacking the regime and who then become involved in a deadly cat and mouse game with the Gestapo). Thirteenth Night was a slightly melancholic instrumental. For the remix album that followed- Consolamentum- Thirteenth Night was remixed by Andrew's Asphodell's bandmate and studio engineer Timothy J. Fairplay. The Asphodells' steam powered drum machine makes a welcome appearance.  

Thirteenth Night (Timothy J. Fairplay remix)

Becoming Strangers

This is a lovely dubby treat for Friday, the sort of thing that allows the mind to drift while it's playing, that eats up miles when driving, and feels like an imaginary soundtrack when walking with headphones on. Eight minutes of beautiful bass, looped and repeated, swirling FX and the ghost of a vocal layered somewhere in the middle. 

Becoming Strangers (Glok Remix) 

Becoming Strangers is by C.A.R., the musical outlet for Chloe Raunet, a French Canadian living in London.  Previously she was the singer in Battant, a London based synth post punk band from the 00s, with Timothy J. Fairplay on guitar. Battant broke up in 2011 after the tragically young death of multi- instrumentalist Joel Dever. Battant fell into Weatherall's world, initially from Lone Swordsman Keith Tenniswood who produced some early demos and then via Weatherall to Ivan Smagghe and the Kill The DJ label. Battant's first album is available at Bandcamp. 

Battant's single Kevin (1989) came out in 2007, a spiky, electric and lyrically hard hitting song about someone called Kevin. 

Kevin (1989)

Weatherall's remix slows it down, stretches it out, adds acres of space and kind of krautrock crossed with dub feel that he was working on back then- see also his remix of Doves from 2009. 

Kevin (Andrew Weatherall Remix)

Tim Fairplay went on to become Weatherall's in house engineer at Scrutton Street and together they made The Asphodells'  Ruled By Passion, Destroyed By Lust album, released in 2013, and a hatful of remixes including one of Glock'd by C.A.R. but given there are three songs and an album here today that's probably enough to be going on with. 

Forty Five Minutes Of Justin Robertson

Justin Robertson is a DJ, producer, artist, writer and natty dresser and hat wearer who started out behind the counter at  Manchester's Eastern Bloc records shop while studying at the university and in Spice and Most Excellent was at the centre of two of the city's late 80s/ early 90s Balearic clubs. The mix below is based around his recent musical adventures, in his Deadstock 33s guise (which he adopted circa 2009) and his Formerlover project with his wife Sofia Hedblum (a trawl through his 90s back catalogue as Lionrock and his remixes for everyone who was anyone in the 90s would be a very different mix). Some of the tracks in this Sunday mix are among my favourites of the last few years, Justin finding a sound that pulls in dub, acid house, Nigerian house, post punk and dark pop. 

Forty Five Minutes Of Justin Robertson

• Formerlover: Correction Dub
• Formerlover: Discomfort (Dub)
• Justin Robertson's Deadstock 33s and Brix Smith: Brix Goes Tubular (Dub Version)
• The Deadstock 33s: The Circular Path (Asphodells Remix)
• Daniel Avery and The Deadstock 33s: Magnetic
• Justin Robertson's Deadstock 33s Feat. Formerlover: Dark Endless
• Justin Robertson's Deadstock 33s: Numerical Discord Swap

Formerlover is a lockdown born project, Justin and his wife Sofia Hedblom, marrying Lagos beats, dub and a sleazy underbelly. Correction Dub came out on a Galactic Service Broadcasting compilation and Discomfort on Bandcamp in 2020. The Deadstock 33s and Brix Smith single is from only a few weeks ago, a 2022 treasure. The Asphodells remix of The Circular Path came out in 2013. The Daniel Avery and Deadstocks collaboration was a four track EP on Optimo in 2012. Dark Endless is from a compilation from earlier this year, put together by the Spun Out Agency called More Of That Frightful Oompty Boompty Music, the stand out track to these ears, nine minutes of dubby/ cosmic Balearica. Numerical Discord Swap was the A- side of a 7" on Paradise Palms in 2017, a fantastic slice of upfront acid disco. 

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. 

Half An Hour Of Fairplay

It's a Timothy J Fairplay weekend at Bagging Area. Here's thirty-six minutes from Tim's back catalogue to give your Sunday a jumpstart- rapid fire drum machines, vintage synths and keyboards, hi- hats and all manner of uptempo analogue, sci fi soundtracks. Four tracks under his own name and two from his ravey Junior Fairplay alter ego (Faxes From The Future and Sugar Puss). Stream it at Mixcloud or get it here. 

• The Cat Prowls Again
• Faxes From The Future
• Honecker Complex
• Jennifer Has Some Strange Ideas
• My Etherealrealness
• Sugar Puss

I had my ears syringed on Thursday after weeks of muffled hearing and some discomfort. When I got water in the right ear, from dunking my head under the water in the bath, it felt like it was in there for ages afterwards and I haven't been fully hearing on my right hand side for a long time. Walking out of the audiologist on Thursday evening I felt like I'd been given new ears and since then I can actually hear the cavities in my head, a sort of natural reverb. It's a remarkable sensation. It hasn't done anything for my tinnitus but I didn't expect it to but being able to hear in stereo and more clearly is a blessing. The pleasures of middle age eh?

Free Andromeda

Timothy J. Fairplay releases a new album today, Free Andromeda, out on Sweden's Hoga Nord record label. Tim has a room stacked with vintage synths, drum machines, FX units and pedals. He's been releasing music since 2011, a steady stream of 12" singles, cassettes and albums. On Free Andromeda Tim has pulled all his signature sounds into one unified whole, under the label electro but with a variety of influences seeping in- video game soundtracks, science fiction, West German cosmische from the 1970s, East Germany in the 80s, the soundtrack work of John Carpenter (not least Escape From New York), Italian horror soundtracks by the likes of Goblin, Vangelis and the rhythms and sounds of rave and bleep techno. 

Free Andromeda bursts into life with the opening track The Gang Sets Free. Distorted squelch bass, thudding kick drum and filtered synth lines providing the melodies- it all goes off further with the arrival of the hi- hats. Drum pads bounce in. There's no fade in or softness, everything is on the B of the bang and the K of the kick drum, the Attack dial turned all the way to the left. 

Dreams Of Andromeda follows sharply, gentler rhythms at the start but still a fast tempo. Acid squiggles and a sinuous keyboard melody, part vintage sci fi, part Eastern scales. Maniac Death follows, wobbly bass and the tsk tsk tsk of the cymbal. More repetitive topline melodies and arpeggios, altering subtly. At three minutes ten seconds a wall of synths crash in. Fourth track A Remarkable Claim cuts the tempos in half, bump and grind bassline from somewhere near Miami and bleeps from somewhere, Sheffield maybe, or the further reaches of the Milky Way. Satanic Cults is a wall of rave synths and crashing drums, 1990's promise of bedroom technology, 'faceless dance music' and white labels- exhilarating stuff with a voice from American television intoning, 'our families, our children and our communities' and then 'satanic cults'. 

The title track bounds in, driving rhythms, energy and tempo levels still high. Sci fi phaser sounds, rising keyboard stabs, rattling drums, a voice repeating the title. There's a breakdown and the synth sounds go all whooshy, veering from left to right, tension building. The percussion hits in and the kick drum thumps back, walls of synth again, the voice comes back, missives from the outer reaches. Eyes All Over The City halves the tempo, built around a huge rubbery bass part. Underwater Struggle comes in like the early 80s, reel to reel tapes and Roland Juno sounds and an echo laden lead line that could possibly be a guitar- the retro- futuristic sound of a nightclub somewhere in East Berlin. The Source Of This Energy finishes the album in style, six minutes of taut, John Carpenter meets Altern- 8 electro with a distorted voice muttering the song's title while the 808 bangs away. 

Go!!!

Back in 2010 Andrew Weatherall remixed Danish producer Trentemoller's track Silver Surfer, Ghost Rider, Go!!! At that point Timothy J. Fairplay was Andrew's studio right hand man, a partnership which would result in their album as The Asphodells (the superb Ruled By Passion, Destroyed By Lust, named after a shlocky gladiator porn movie). One of the key influences at the time, all over the Trentemoller remix, was the glam rock stomp, a wonderfully retro sound derived from twin sources- Big New Prinz by The Fall and Let's Get Together Again by The Glitter Band, 'the men in satin trousers it's ok to like' Andrew quipped after playing the song on one of his radio shows at the time (that's The Glitter Band not The Fall obviously). 

Big New Prinz is a remarkable piece of Brix- era Fall, built around Glitter Band drumming, some really grimy bass and vicious guitar lead lines, a song that developed from a 1982 song (Hip Priest) and was reworked for their 1988 I Am Kurious Oranj album, a record that combined some kind of tribute to William of Orange's ascension to the English throne in 1688 and the soundtrack to a Michael Clark ballet along with a version of Jerusalem. Meanwhile Mark riffs about rock records, drinking the long draft, big priests and the self referential refrain, 'He/ Is/ Not/... Appreciated'. 

Big New Prinz

Let's Get Together Again is 70s social club manna, a football chant and double drumkit stomp, sax and Les Paul. No mp3 I'm afraid but I've found it on Youtube- there's another clip on Youtube where they perform the song on Top Of The Pops and are introduced by a well known sex offender/ DJ but we don't need to see his face here.

Andrew and Tim channelled these sounds into the Trentemoller remix, one of those tracks you wish could loop endlessly whilst you go about you daily business. 

Silver Surfer, Ghost Rider, Go!!! (Andrew Weatherall Prinz Remix)

There is a second Weatherall/ Fairplay remix, the Sky 81 remix, which is less Glitter stomp and more echo- laden, submerged, Wobble era- PiL take on the original. Both remixes, the original and two other mixes can be bought here. And for completion's sake here are the twin heroes of the Trentmoller song, from the golden age of Marvel and the pens of Stan Lee and Jack Kirby. 

My Etherealrealness

This 2016 Timothy J. Fairplay track, My Etherealrealness, is a masterpiece of modern house/ new beat/ synthwave. It came out on Rotterdam label Charlois and there is something very Dutch about this track, very early 90s rave. It starts instantly, in on the beat almost taking you by surprise, then there's monster juddering bassline and the first of the synth toplines comes in. At one minute nineteen there's a second topline melody, a descending one, contrasting with the first. It's exhilarating, hair raising stuff even at less than ninety seconds in. Synapses popping, head nodding, fingers tracing lines in the air or tapping on imaginary percussion.

Then it happens- at two minutes seven seconds the hi- hats arrive. These aren't any old hi- hats, these aren't even Marks and Spencer hi- hats, these are my favourite hi- hats on any record ever.



They are right there at the top of the mix, sharp and with a bite, an attack most hi- hats just don't have. TSK TSK TSK TSK TSK TSK TSK TSK. They drop out at three minutes eleven. There's a bassline breakdown and a thrilling topline re- entry. The descending synthline comes back. It all builds in inensity and then at three fifty- nine a stop, a pause and... those fucking hi- hats come back in, unleashed, right back into my field of hearing, TSK TSK TSK TSK, opening and closing at the front of my brain. Fucking magic.

It may seem a bit odd, obsessive even, to have favourite hi- hats. If you mention this to your nearest and dearest you'll possibly see their eyes glaze over a little. You might actually see a thought bubble appear above their head with the words, 'what? Hi- hats? Favourite hi- hats? What's he on about?', inside it. But these are really, really exciting sounding hi- hats. They get a good ten seconds at the end almost on their own as well before the synth belch brings My Etherealrealness to a sudden halt. 

False Visions

Back in March Timothy J. Fairplay relaunched three albums on Bandcamp that were previously only available on cassette. All three are packed full of drama, tension, melodies, retro- futuristic synths, ideas and noises bouncing around.

The title track to the seven track False Visions album, originally out in 2015, is an intense ride into electronic sound, all bouncing synths, keyboards, drum pads and compressed noise. It's quite a trip. Timothy has always been a king of song titles and False Visions maintains his strike rate with Bizarre Fables and Watergate Metaphor Love Scene up there with his best.



The Promise Of Midi, released for Cassette Store Day in 2014, seven more songs for cassette. This mini- album is slower and moodier, with John Carpenter vibes to the fore. Rooftop Meeting could soundtrack a spy exchange in 1980s Berlin or the final moments of the alien invasion. Given the state of the world at the moment, I'm sure some of us would welcome our extra- terrestrial overlords putting us out of our misery.



The final track on The Promise Of Midi was/is Sleighride/ Blizzard and it was remixed by Andrew Weatherall. In Lord Sabre's hands it becomes a magnificent, twice the length bass- led, dub FX grind and prowl.



The third of the three cassette releases is Good For Driving In The Night, first out in 2013, seven more slices of twisted, nocturnal synth- based exploration, finding room for disco, techno, electro, soundtrack melodies and chillwave. This is Deserted Trawler, a twinkly synth part over ominous chords and a general sense of foreboding.

Bank Holiday Monday's Long Songs

Andrew Weatherall's back catalogue (his productions, own material, remixes and collaborations) is so vast that I keep re- discovering things I'd forgotten about. In 2017 he remixed an Australian duo called Heart People, Rachel Rutt and Ryan Grieve. The internet doesn't give much away about them- an interview with i-D Magazine in 2015 and a handful of releases in 2017. Weatherall's remix is a fast moving, sci- fi affair, lots of rattling snare drums and acid squiggles and bleeps with Rachel's vocals layered over the top. Weatherall remixed fellow Australians Confidence Man at the same time (twice in fact, Bubblegum in 2017 and ecstatic Out The Window a year later). He took an annual DJing jaunt to Oz around that time so I'm guessing the Heart People connection came via one of those trips. The remix has bags of energy and should kick start your morning if you're looking for something to plug you back in.

Voices (Andrew Weatherall Remix)

In 2014 while still during his Asphodells project with Timothy J. Fairplay they remixed She Lies, a  Berlin post- punk disco band- the internet again offering up little more in the way of information or background. This sounds very like a version of Berlin in the early 80s but with Weatherall and Fairplay's trademark drum machine rhythms and some lovely wobbly synth sounds and pulsing bassline. Waves of hypnotic sound and chilly, detached vocals. Sehr gut.

Needed You (Asphodells Remix)