Andrew Weatherall at Dekmantel 2019

Much as Weatherall loved to touch many bases in his work, he was also capable of fierce focus – as on this set which is all the kind of slow electronic disco / electropop sound inspired by the odder corners of 80s Balearic DJing and especially by the “cosmic” style of Italian maestro Daniele Baldeli. It rises and falls, it ebbs and flows, but it never tries to push towards any kind of peak or release: the diametric opposite of EDM’s cheap rushes, it’s tantric dance ritual, and maintains the pleasure principle exquisitely for three and a half hours. It’s also another sad reminder that when Weatherall died in February 2020, he was taken from us in full flow – there could, and should, have been decades more from him.