Two Lone Swordsmen
Wrong Meetings
Rotter's Golf Club
By Jose Fritz
Allahu akbar, As-salatu wassalamu ‘alayk, ya man arsalahu-llahu ta’ala rahmatan lil ‘aalameen. As-salatu wassalamu ‘alayk, wa ‘ala alika wa sahbika ajma’in. As-salatu wassalamu ‘alaykum, ya anbiya Allah. May Allah smile upon you Andrew Weatherall.
A decade ago, Weatherall was releasing a string of techno singles on Warp Records as Sabres of Paradise. The etymology of the name is questionable but appears frequently in the literature of the Murids. It’s a sect of radical Sufism whose militant practitioners seek to create Imamat, a theocratic Islamic state. The Sabres of Paradise can be actual swords, rifles missiles, any vaguely weapon used to fight those naughty infidels. Was the name change just to cover their Islamo-fascist roots? You decide.
Two Lone Swordsmen does maintain some similarities to Sabres of Paradise in terms of the more down tempo material. In some ways the experimental songs like the 12 minute opus “Smokebelch” and its remixes seem like prototypes for his 2LS material. Two Lone Swordsmen formed in 1996 collaborating with his Emissions Audio Output engineer Keith Tenniswood. They’ve released an average of 1.2 albums per year since then; a throughput only rivaled by Wesley Willis who isn’t encumbered with the burden of actually writing songs or praising Allah.
By my count this is lucky number 13 for this British duo. Of course this one is more a compilation of sorts. Wrong Meetings compiles eighteen tracks from Wrong Meeting and Wrong Meeting II, which were previously released only in limited collector's formats. This compendium includes that and two new exclusive remixes. It does not include the unreleased track they contributed to the DVD “Yoga For Indie Rockers.” But let’s not talk about that piece of trash; sometimes Allah needs a new pair of shoes.
Andy Weatherall has done a shitpile of obscure remixes: Force Legato, Alter Ego, X-Press 2, Fujiya & Miyagi, Chiapet, Slab, Sneaker Pimps, Beth Orton and literally dozens of others. More likely you first heard of him in 1991 as the producer of Primal Screams’s third LP, Screamadelica. You may recall that was their first good record; personally I credit Weatherall. Primal Scream didn’t come into their own as songwriters for another 5 years.
Wrong Meetings is loaded with pop aphorisms: the hand claps of the Beach Boys, the horn blasts of Buster Poindexter and the bleating bass farts of Kraftwerk. You’d never know that a decade ago he was releasing a string of techno singles on Warp. The rock sensibility in Wrong Meetings’ discs doesn’t even hint at his past dance floor exploits.
It was only as Two Lone Swordsmen that the guitar came out. The electronic dance beats were standard fare for him, but the time he spent in the studio with My Bloody Valentine, Primal Scream and Sneaker Pimps was giving him an itch. He wanted to lay down some power chords. But the connections to electronic music didn’t evaporate. As recently as 2004, 2LS released “Sex Beat,” a cover of a Gun Club song. The continuity is there; it’s just that as a progression the new material has drifted the direction of LCD Soundsystem or even Pop Will Eat Itself. It’s very listenable but also maintains the unexpected turns of good IDM. Dos Dedos mis amigos! Allah be praised!
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