SECURE SHOPPING
Spare two hours in your schedule very soon and sit through the above Red Bull Music Academy lecture with Juno Plus favourite Andrew Weatherall, recorded at this year’s edition held in Madrid.
Ahead of the release of their fifth album, Death In Vegas will take over the cavernous surrounds of Fabric’s main room later this month for a one-off midweek live show.
The Red Bull Music Academy were on hand to record Juno Plus favourite Andrew Weatherall’s set the recent Electron Festival in Geneva, Switzerland.
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French imprint Astro Lab has remained an under appreciated gem of a label despite launching with a Pilooski release way back in 2007 and treating the more attentive vinyl acquirers to releases from such luminaries as Photonz, Hardway Bros and Mr Shake Shakir. Their latest reason for you to pay more attention comes via the musical mind of Timothy J Fairplay – who you may know as part of the excellent Kill The DJ regulars Battant or via his solo excursions on the Rotters Golf Club Boardroom compilation from a while back. Those unfamiliar should at least be impressed that the likes of Ivan Smagghe and Andrew Weatherall have been involved in some of Fairplay’s finest moments to date.
Newly inducted into the Astro Lab familia, Fairplay drops three cuts that pay homage to the OST icon John Carpenter. Whilst 70’s soundtrack synth odysseys of Carpenter and his contemporaries have been a much leaned on source of inspiration in recent times – with labels as diverse as Not Not Fun and Nang indulging with differing results – Fairplay’s own attempts definitely fall within the “oh gosh this is good” category. “Dawn” opens with the familiar brooding crystalline synth work that Carpenter specialised in, but crucially Fairplay embellishes the track with a low slung punk-funk sensibility that brings something different. Furthermore, there’s a pleasant variation to how Fairplay reveals his affection for Carpenter with “Different Land” taking on a delicate cosmiche feel – filled with expansive waves of ethereal synths veering above and beneath the laidback patter of drums, whilst the final simmering arpeggiated tension of “General Arrives” is complemented by a skeletal mid-tempo bump and warm throbbing bass.
Echoing previous releases on the label, Astro Lab match the original material with some fine remixes as the aforementioned Sir Weatherall opens the B Side with a typically unique treatment of “Sleigh Ride/Blizzard” which straddles the source with a muggy, druggy, languid techno vibe. Complementing this, Astro Lab’s London dwelling Portuguese correspondent ZNTN switches up the sounds of “General Arrives” – embellishing the rhythm with an ever changing percussive direction that will delight the more esoteric DJing ears out there.
Tony Poland
It was announced today that BBC 6Music have welcomed Erol Alkan back to the station, with the hugely popular DJ, producer and record label impresario to return on Sunday November 28.
Juno Plus favourite and all round legend Andrew Weatherall has turned his remixing skills on Danish producer Trentemøller.
UK news agencies have today been awash with news that the BBC digital radio station 6 Music is set to close by 2011.
BBC’s 6 music station is facing closure, according to a leaked strategy report.
After going 20-odd years without a solo album to his name, the inimitable Andrew Weatherall is set to release two in two years – with a follow-up to Pox on the Pioneers due out this summer.
Seminal UK record label Creation will be featured in a documentary called Upside Down, due to hit cinemas in March.
DJ History Classic Interview: Terry Farley
Juno has teamed up with the disco dons over at DJhistory to bring you regular classic interviews from the archives. After ten years and a growing number of books, the DJ History ethos aim remains the same as always: to document the rich history of dance music and to collect and share knowledge about fantastic music. First up is British music icon Terry Farley, part of the original Boys Own crew.
Interview: Bill Brewster and Frank Broughton
Artist: Various
Title: Andrew Weatherall vs The Boardoom Volume 2
Label: Rotters Golf Club
Genre: Disco/Nu-Disco, Minimal/Tech House
Format: CD, Digital
Buy From: Juno Records
British electronic music legend Andy Weatherall is pretty busy right now, what with releasing his debut solo album, producing the superlative second Fuck Buttons album, wowing clubbers with his all encompassing DJ sets and maintaining the most impressive moustache in the business.
Eschewing the chance of a well deserved breather, Wevvers has instead decided to unleash the second volume of his collaborations and productions with the ever-mysterious Boardroom collective on his Rotters label. As with most of the material on last years inaugural volume, this collection of slow burning electronic disco and techno chuggers is primed for the dancefloor as opposed to home listening.
Whilst Weatherall’s productions are most immediate, the horror disco of Brother Johnston’s “Travelling Disco” also stands out, while Rotters Golf Club mainstay Tim Fairplay provides what proves to be the highlight with “U Know U Jack”, an awesome slice of throw back house replete with cascading 808 drums and sinister synth lines.
Review: Tony Poland
Interview: Andrew Weatherall
Dapper, bookish, a connoisseur of everything from beard-stroking techno to punk, soul and rockabilly: Andrew Weatherall really needs no introduction. After his production of Primal Scream’s ‘Screamadelica’ set the blueprint for what became know as indie-dance, he went on to pioneer the UK’s acid house scene and make seminal electronic music in the 90s with Sabres Of Paradise and Two Lone Swordsmen.
For such a prolific figure it’s something of an anomaly that it has taken until 2009 for a solo album to emerge (A Pox on The Pioneers, Rotters Golf Club), although, in typical Weatherall fashion, it came amidst a frenzy of other projects and the revelation that he already has a second album all but finished. “Wevvers” took some time out to chat to JunoPlus scribe Aaron Coultate about polar explorers, Edwardian fashion and the similarities between rockabilly and techno.
