Andrew Weatherall - Watch The Ride

Night-stalking mash-up from UK’s greatest DJ

Since the birth of acid house, Andrew Weatherall has charted his own wayward path, long ago leaving behind the desperate clamour of wannabe superstar DJs to reach a status more akin to the musical pioneers and mavericks he loves. His most enduring and endearing trait has always been the element of surprise, from production to DJing; last year’s Soma compilation saw him explore his rockabilly fixation, but to Weatherall this music’s primal energy is the same as classic techno. Here he’s simply letting fly with a killer selection of electronic dance music, showing his uncanny knack for presenting the right records in the most toupee-whisking fashion.

Setting the scene with actor Ray Montgomery’s London Is Swinging By Its Neck monologue, Weatherall steers through names such as Simian Mobile Disco, Alloy Mental and a sublimely unsettling rearrangement of Siouxsie’s Into A Swan. The churning, spaghetti-dub electro-punk joyride reaches a heavenly peak with Saturn 5’s Oscillation and Silver Apples’ I Have Known Love. As close to the sound of London after dark as it gets in 2008, in reality or otherwise.

Harmless | CD 076

Reviewed by Kris Needs
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