Nineteen

I was going to post something else but given events at Old Trafford this afternoon I'm going to put this up- Two Lone Swordsmen's remix of Throbbing Gristle from 2004. Weatherall and Tenniswood keep the Genesis P. Orridge vocal and give the song a techno twist. The song is called United. Purely coincidental...

http://download372.mediafire.com/lyqnnecmnfzg/gdvp76h20a429le/04+United+%5BTwo+Lone+Swordsmen+Remix+--+Vocal+Version%5D%5BVersion%5D.wma

Dot Dot Dot

Finding this song, We're Only Science, from Dot Allison's second solo album We Are Science gives me the perfect excuse to post this picture of Dot. Or finding this picture of Dot Allison gives me the perfect excuse to post this song, We're Only Science, from Dot's second solo album We Are Science. Either way round, this was song was also worked on by ex-Two Lone Swordsman Keith Tenniswood.

http://download839.mediafire.com/m3nr7ibpruxg/zn41dkmcd1xep5n/01+We%27re+Only+Science.wma

Lord Sabre Day

Today is April the 6th, Andrew Weatherall's birthday. Two Lone Swordsmen's excellent and krauty remix of Fujiya and Miyagi is your present. Blow the candles out and make a wish.

Electro Karaoke (Two Lone Swordsmen Remix).mp3#1#1

Dexter

Time for some more Weatherall I think. This is the Two Lone Swordsmen remix of Ricardo Villalobos' Dexter from 2004. TLS took on the remix but then didn't get the files sent through in time, so did a live remix/reworking using real bass and drums, with Weatherall then doing his sonic knobtwidling. Result? Nearly six minutes of Joy Divisionesque post punk with a melancholic edge. Wonderful stuff.

Dexter_Two_Lone_Swordsmen_Remix_.mp3

Surface Noise

Acid Ted featured Two Lone Swordsmen's remix of the Kenny Hawkes' track Ashley's War on Monday, a new one to me and very nice it is too. This is the return leg- Kenny Hawkes remixes Hope We Never Surface by TLS, a good length piece of electronic funk. Hope We Never Surface was on the Stay Down album (the one with the painting of the deep sea divers on the cover), which I listened to over the Christmas holiday and was struck by two things- firstly, it was much better than I remembered, full of lovely bass, weird noises, laid back sounds and drums, and a load of depth I'd not noticed when it came out- really good understated electronic music. Secondly, the sleeve was crinkled where the cat had pissed on it.


Hope We Never Surface (Remix By Kenny Hawkes).mp3

Trish Keenan

I've just read on the web that Trish Keenan, vocalist and one half of Broadcast, died on Friday morning following complications with pneumonia arising from swine flu. She was 42. Broadcast have been making highly acclaimed records for Warp since 1997, fusing 60s pop art and modern electronics, 2003's The Ha Ha Sound being a personal favourite (the cd version coming in a lovely hardback book). 2009's Broadcast And The Focus Group Investigate Witch Cults Of The Radio Age was chock full of interesting and arresting moments, retro and futuristic at the same time. This is Two Lone Swordsmen's remix of Come On Let's Go from 2000, one of the first records I bought using the then-newly-fangled-to-me internet mail order system at Warp. RIP Trish Keenan.

cmonletsgo tlsremix.mp3#2#2

Spine Bubbles

In 1999 Warp celebrated their birthday slightly less expansively and expensively than they have this time around. There were some compilation cds and a load of remixes. This track is about as laidback as Two Lone Swordsmen ever got. Spine Bubbles was a track from their 1999 Stay Down album -the one with the lovely cover painting of Deep Sea Divers, and many of the tracks had a bassy, submerged, underwater feel. When Warp got a load of remixes together for the Warp 10+3 cd Spine Bubbles was remixed by Ellis Island Sound. Somewhat improbably Ellis Island Sound included Pete Astor, formerly of Creation records 80s indie kings/flops The Weather Prophets, and before that The Loft. Ellis Island Sound released a whole album of understated, ambient, instrumental subtleness. I've got it downstairs and apart from the fact I know I liked it whenever I last listened to it, I really can't remember any of the songs. But that's kind of the point of the ambient end of things- wallpaper music to wash over you without leaving much of a trace. Now I come to think of it the Warp remix cd also included a decent stab at remixing the Sabres Of Paradise wonderful Wilmot by Red Snapper. I better go and have a look hadn't I?

This remix, as I started out saying, is laidback and lovely. It hangs around for a bit, bubbling and chirruping, patter patter drums, and then fades away. Nice stuff for a Friday evening if you're not doing fireworks and have had one of those weeks.

Spine_Bubbles_Ellis_Island_Sound_Remix.mp3

Rare Audrey

Some Andrew Weatherall for you on an August Wednesday morning, where at the moment it's not raining. This is the Two Lone Swordsmen remix of Paul Weller's Heliocentric, from his album of the same name, from 2000. Not one of his best albums I'm afraid. The remix is one of TLS's best though, and was only released on white label (500 copies I think, got my sticky mitts on one in Vinyl Exchange for under a fiver). Rumour has it that Weller didn't like it and it's never had an official release, not even on that 3 cd boxset of b-sides, remixes and other stuff that Weller put out a few years back.

I love this track, and it's best listened to loud. It takes the drums and bass, and a load of noises, and heads into krautrock territory, with a dash of Killing Joke in there as well. Can't imagine why Weller didn't like it. Several years ago a friend in a band once asked me to play records at a gig they were doing, and they'd hired a large PA. Sticking this record on made my night. It sounded immense. It does what a remix should do, take the original and bend it out of all recognisable shape, making something new from something old.

a Heliocentric (Swordsman 4UR Mix).mp3

Spiritualized 'Come Together' (The Two Lone Swordsmen Mix)

Bagging Area hasn't had much from Lord Sabre Mr Andrew Weatherall recently although he's featured in more posts directly or indirectly than anyone else round here. So one more can't do any harm can it? This is the Two Lone Swordsmen remix of Spiritualized's Come Together, one of the stand-out tracks from 1997's Ladies And Gentlemen We Are Floating In Space. Needless to say this remix by Weatherall and Tenniswood sounds little like the original. This is fifteen minutes of dubby, scary, smoky brilliance, with an opening vocal sample 'How big are your eyes?' repeated several times, looped drums, discordant horns, strange sounds and noises surfacing and disappearing. On and on it goes, sucking you in. When they finished it and went outside for some air, I'm guessing their heads were swimming a bit.

02. Come Together (The Two Lone Swordsmen Mix).mp3