Two Lone Swordsmen Thread

[Guest sirch]

does put the boring bland tunes warp etc put out nowadays to shame .

 

[Guest sirch]

I quite like 'Stay Down'.

 

i love stay down. it's their best album i think. would love it if they did something like that again.

i mean RM is alright 'n all, but they're much better when they work together.

[Guest sirch]

Anyone know what caused their huge shift in style between the albums Tiny Reminders and From The Double Gone Chapel ?

 

So from this:

 

[media=]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xyc4g5Wlv9I[/media]

 

To this:

 

[media=]

[/media]

 

not sure why/what happened but this always seemed very 'Weatherall' to me, much more than Tenniswood.

meaning i guess it was more of his thang to do something like DGC... and he does 'sing' (if you can call it that) on most tracks,...

[thumbass]

Just dusted of my CD of Stay Down. FUCK I forgot how good this shit was!

[splbt]

lol so did i just two days ago. amazing album. mainly listened to tiny reminders before.

also didn't know radioactive man was one of the two. his s/t is one of my favourite albums

[beerwolf]

Stay Down and Tiny Reminders are beast fuck brilliant. Juicy treat for the braindance epicentre of you mind. Lap it up like a coyote that just found a cool water spring deep in the desert. 
 

I was a little bit disappointed that Two Lone Swordsmen were ignored by the Warp30 NTS broadcast also all their records could do with a remaster/repress by Warp. Yet nothing.

[donquixote]

Ive been lucky enough to cross paths with Weatherall several times and i must say he seems to be a very lovely bloke. One of my anecdotes about him involves a young scenester girl who was all over him only to be put in her place with a dry "errr sorry love you're young enough to my daughter" .. another involves his, or Keith's, girlfriend seeking me out and giving me the vinyl of "tiny reminders" for being the most spangled in the club after they played. For me he is the logical successor to Peel both in his eclectic knowledge and down to earth charm. I highly recommend "musics not for everyone" if people haven't heard it, the dapper chap at his best IMO  

[beerwolf]

I would also like to bump into him. Definitely the kind of chap I know I would get on with. I watched the extended bbc documentary about the making of Screamadelica, I think probably for the anniversary. His quote on taking ecstasy has always stuck me, something like

’E is a tricky drug, one minute I was drinking Special Brew and listening to Throbbing Gristle, then after discovering ecstasy I was drinking black currant squash and dancing to ........(can’t remember name of gay band)....So I knew I was in very dodgy territory’

Something like that anyway,  the way he says it with a glint in his eye and a cheeky laugh is just brilliant. 

 

[IDEM]

Hell yeah. I was all over Stay Down when it came out, especially "No Red Stopping", I rinsed that track to death. Between 1998 and 2001, they were definitely a force to be reckoned with. Not that the stuff before or after that was bad, but their releases from that period were just quintessential, timeless and influential for their peers in a very special way.

[thumbass]

In my opinion it's a shame they went into the rock direction on later albums. It's an even bigger shame they stopped altogether. (As 2 lone swordsmen anyway)

[donquixote]

1 hour ago, thumbass said:

In my opinion it's a shame they went into the rock direction on later albums. It's an even bigger shame they stopped altogether. (As 2 lone swordsmen anyway)

Rumours would have it that they fell out unfortunately. Weatherall was always a chameleon tho so I personally always regard is incarnations as temporary. 

[thumbass]

12 minutes ago, donquixote said:

Rumours would have it that they fell out unfortunately. Weatherall was always a chameleon tho so I personally always regard is incarnations as temporary. 

Hadn't heard of those rumours before, it would be a shame. I am glad they still gave us two top notch albums together

[danshoebridge]

I'm guessing it was a falling out over Wevver's new rocky singing direction (which was pretty ropey to be fair).

+1 for the Stay Down / Blue Sparks period for me though, played them for the first time in a while last month and they hold up amazingly well.

[cwmbrancity]

Everything, let me repeat that, everything Weatherall has had a hand in is worth immersing yourself in. If you do that, you'll find undiluted gold.

Easy being gushy or nostalgic but the bloke is an institution. If you broaden your perspective, he's up there with Martin Hannett & Richard H Kirk. If you lived in the grey world acid house emerged out of, Weatherall was like some surreal Balearic Berkshire prophet ushering in a new mindscape. Listen to "Bomba". Or dig through the orig Boy's Own zines, cos that's (mostly) his writing & his ideas throughout. The way it mixed music & football terrace micro-culture observations is enough to crucify a cunt like Nick Hornby.

Personally, loved how when the likes of CJ Bolland were flogging Professional Widow, he took the reverse step & released an epic series of comedown-wonky strangeness. Stay Down = nuff said. Equally,  his Love From Outer Space mixes distil just about every record you could expect to need to hear down to just the right tempo & they flow for hours.

Not many people can entertain, educate & amuse just about any audience so succinctly, with the added clout of a personal catalogue to rival just about anyone. Last not least, this Kenny Hawkes (RIP) rmx of TLS rrrrocks any rig worth hammering

 

[thumbass]

Are his solo efforts any good?

[donquixote]

7 hours ago, cwmbrancity said:

Everything, let me repeat that, everything Weatherall has had a hand in is worth immersing yourself in. If you do that, you'll find undiluted gold.

Easy being gushy or nostalgic but the bloke is an institution. If you broaden your perspective, he's up there with Martin Hannett & Richard H Kirk. If you lived in the grey world acid house emerged out of, Weatherall was like some surreal Balearic Berkshire prophet ushering in a new mindscape. Listen to "Bomba". Or dig through the orig Boy's Own zines, cos that's (mostly) his writing & his ideas throughout. The way it mixed music & football terrace micro-culture observations is enough to crucify a cunt like Nick Hornby.

Personally, loved how when the likes of CJ Bolland were flogging Professional Widow, he took the reverse step & released an epic series of comedown-wonky strangeness. Stay Down = nuff said. Equally,  his Love From Outer Space mixes distil just about every record you could expect to need to hear down to just the right tempo & they flow for hours.

Not many people can entertain, educate & amuse just about any audience so succinctly, with the added clout of a personal catalogue to rival just about anyone. Last not least, this Kenny Hawkes (RIP) rmx of TLS rrrrocks any rig worth hammering

 

Here here, a true ledgend. My biggest love due to my age probably "smoke belch" by the sabres of paradise. This takes me back to an innocent time (even if it was a complete rip off): 

 

Honourable mention to the "blood sugar" mix series. Takes me back to the "Lost" raves every time. 

[IDEM]

3 hours ago, donquixote said:

Here here, a true ledgend. My biggest love due to my age probably "smoke belch" by the sabres of paradise. This takes me back to an innocent time (even if it was a complete rip off): 

 

Honourable mention to the "blood sugar" mix series. Takes me back to the "Lost" raves every time. 

So wonderful. "Tears in the rain" and so on ...

[cwmbrancity]

9 hours ago, thumbass said:

Are his solo efforts any good?

This might read as patronising, but start at the beginning & wade in.

Maybe break things down to engineering props initially for a raft of more mainstream acts, the list is metaphorically endless. At least that way you wouldn't miss gems like St Etienne's Only Love Can Break Your Heart et al. Bocca Juniors & Dayglo Maradona releases have aged wonderfully, equally so many Boy's Own records, jfc. Two Lone Swordsmen i'm down with up until about Stay Down, previously The Fifth Mission & Stockwell Steppas are/were marvels. Likewise w/Sabres, start with Discogs & enjoy!

My favourite Weatherall experiences were the Sabresonic weekly @ Crucifix Lane & it's sod's law that associated mixtapes didn't survive over to the era of digi transfers (bong water is the devil's liqueur). Well worth rummaging around for longer mixes online/p2p....

 

More recently, hours of ploddy 4/4 cosmic Balearic if that's your thang:

https://soundcloud.com/search?q=love from outer space

https://soundcloud.com/search?q=andrew weatherall

[thumbass]

Nice to pump some life back into this thread. These guys are fucking underrated.

Today I've stumbled onto a compilation album of theirs called "Emissions From The Archive". That shit is good!

It seems my journey with the two (lone) swordsmen hasn't come to an end yet.

 

 

EVEN FROM THE DOUBLE GONE CHAPEL IS GROWING ON ME

[sidewinder]

I've just revisited Stay Down due to seeing this thread yesterday. Classic album, gets stronger as it goes along. Yes the Stay Down/Tiny Reminders/Blue Sparks/Virus with Shoes era is best, but I also enjoyed the rockier direction of From the Double Gone Chapel. Beyond that I didn't pay attention.

[cwmbrancity]

Test Pressing has some good rabbit holes along the lines of Weatherall as inadvertent cultural engineer

Interview (some what brief) 1992:

 

http://testpressing.org/tag/andrew-weatherall/

[thumbass]

Never listened to a virus with shoes before

[Taupe Beats]

The Weatherall Essential Mix from '93 posted above is pure gold. Oh to have been around when he was doing those Sunday Balearic sessions. It sounds idyllic.

Not sure if it's been mentioned, but Sabres of Paradise (Weatherall's project that overlaps with early Two Lone Swordsman) is also really great stuff. The pre-Warp Two Lone Swordsman records are worth checking as well (esp. Fifth Mission).

It's a tough call though, if A Bag of Blue Sparks or Tiny Reminders is better. Probably have to go with the latter.

[sidewinder]

I was revisiting Tiny Reminders earlier today and much like Stay Down, it gets better as it goes along. Both start out pretty subdued and tasty nuggets start to emerge as the albums progress. I suppose that's a fairly standard approach for electronic music anyway. At first I'm like, yeah this is good but does it warrant the 4/5 rating I've got here? Then by midway and through to the end I was certain that it does.

I'm up to 55 2LS plays so far this week thanks to this thread. I'm not sure I ever listened to their early albums so I've added those to my queue. I have lots of work coming up this week and weekend that will require deep focus, so my electronic intake will be high.

[IDEM]

9 hours ago, sidewinder said:

I have lots of work coming up this week and weekend that will require deep focus, so my electronic intake will be high.

Yup, that's how I swing as well. I work from home and listen to (mostly electronic) music all day. Not only does it help me focus, but I feel it also facilitates getting into a "flow" mindset. Quite magical indeed. Classical music also works, but mostly I prefer a more steady beat.