If Convenanza, released in February, was a distillation of all of Andrew Weatherall’s influences into one place, then Consolamentum takes that instinct a step further—here he invites friends old and new to rework the tracks from that album in their own style. On board are redoubtable musical architects such as David Holmes (under his new "Unloved" guise), Justin Robertson (wearing his "Deadstock 33s" hat), and the legendary Bernard Fevre of Black Devil Disco Club notoriety. Leading the charge of the new guard are tracks by Heretic, Red Axes, Solar Bears and Vox Low, who have twisted into existence a quiet storm out of ALFOS (A Love From Outer Space) nights.
CD $16.00
11/04/2016
2XLP $22.00
11/04/2016
***Andrew Weatherall, one of the UK’s foremost musical innovators, will return next year with his first proper solo album since 2009, Convenanza. The musician, who began his musical exploits on the decks at Danny Rampling’s Shoom club, went on to shape the sound of the leftfield with remixes and production work for the likes of Happy Mondays, New Order, My Bloody Valentine and Primal Scream and released tracks with his Warp outfit, Sabres of Paradise, has also spent the past few years curating festivals (including the now annual Convenanza festival in Carcassonne). Convenanza’ is the sound of Andrew Weatherall looking back at the clutter of a life thoroughly lived and realising it’s too late to tidy it up in any meaningful way. Many years of listening to music with a unique ear has resulted in the disordered cabinet of highlights, touchstones, revelations and half recalled good times that make up being Lord Sabre. "Frankfurt Advice’s" post funk punk rhythm takes a deep breath but soldiers on when the disquieting sound of the trumpet playing in the next room intrudes and remains firmly in control despite momentarily stumbling over an unruly guitar. "The Confidence Man’s" self-assured top line collapses in on itself and the loosened beats enjoy a gentle unrestrained boogie atop the solid bassline before the vocal’s final hymnic retreat. The upside of Weatherall’s promiscuous attitude to music is the sheer joy when it all comes into focus on "We Count The Stars." The trumpet returns but...
CD $16.00
03/18/2016
2XLP $24.00
03/18/2016
The Phoenix Suburb is the sound of Andrew Weatherall (THE ASPHODELLS) and Nina Walsh taking a disgruntled sine wave for a walk, throwing it sticks, skimming it on a rough sea and scrunching it up and leaving it at the bottom of a bag over a long weekend. It’s trying to cheer up D minor with ball games and scrabble, puppet shows with tutu’d ponies and frizzy haired gonks and clips of cavorting kittens before giving up and crushing it between rocks mined by sobbing orphans. It’s loading the hum kick and the ticky snare on a tandem and pushing them down the stairs. It’s the final note of Mahler’s 11th heard through an iphone’s earbuds then told its parents had died but why it should dance the polka anyway because life, of sorts, still goes on. Vinyl only edition of 1,000 copies.
2XLP $22.00
02/26/2016
***Andrew Weatherall never wakes up in the morning and decides to start a new album that day. Instead, recording music is a continuous process usually working with different collaborators and seeing where the muse takes him. Somewhere down the line the rewards of a collaboration will coalesce into a body of work between thirty minutes and an hour long and he will put a call into the Rotters’ team to say he has a new release ready to go. We were visiting the studio catching up on new tracks in various states of readiness when he offered up some remixes of tracks from his recent “Ruled by Passion…” he’d been sent by fellow musicians. Tim Fairplay, Andrew’s partner in The Asphodells, Sean Johnston from A Love From Outer Space and Scott Fraser live and work in the area and all popped in at various points. Andrew’s black book reads like the who’s who of contemporary music but rather than plunder it for remixers he’d let drop the idea of a remix with friends and neighbours. These plus a couple a swaps with musical friends who were new to the concept of remixing, gave Andrew an hour of music he thoroughly enjoyed listening to. It goes without saying none of the tracks are duds but our ears always prick up when Justin Robertson’s take on “Beglammered” ups the heart rate or Daniel Avery’s own unscrewing of “… the Axis” ruffles the neck hairs. We’ve stopped arguing in the office...
CD $13.00
10/15/2013
2XLP $24.00
10/15/2013
***On this album ANDREW WEATHERALL has partnered with TIMOTHY J. FAIRPLAY as THE ASPHODELLS. Their friendship goes back to Tim’s time with BATTANT in the latter part of the 2000s with Andrew helping out on production. Tim has been responsible for a number of independent tracks variously on Astro Lab Recordings, World Unknown, Bird Scarer, Emotional Response and Magic Feet. He has played live across Europe including at Fabric in London and Robert Johnson in Germany and DJs at regular Glasgow night Crimes of the Future with Scott Fraser. Musically the album’s yet another game changer. Andrew has left behind the rock and roll leanings of Wrong Meeting and A Pox on the Pioneers and looks back over his shoulder to the purer electronics of the Kraftwerk-inflected TWO LONE SWORDSMEN but without the sparse introspection that characterised those times. Now the music is saturated in repetitive beats overlaid with sinuous melodies played out over whole tracks. Songs still feature but sound haunted, guitars still ground the tracks but are more resonant. John Betjeman’s ‘Late Flowering Lust’ sits surprisingly comfortably alongside A.R. Kane’s ‘A Love from Outer Space’ but ultimately it’s Weatherall and Fairplay that imbue the album with it’s own sense of a journey through a time and space that only dimly reflects our own.
LP $22.95
02/19/2013
CD $16.50
02/19/2013