Convenanza

It’s funny that Weatherall is never really thought of as a front-man in any sense – as a DJ he never performed or leapt about, and his greatest fame is from his studio work. But in among his vast production catalogue he can also boast three stone cold classic albums which centre him as singer-songwriter: viz, Two Lone Swordsmen’s From the Double Gone Chapel, The Asphodells’s Ruled by Passion, Destroyed by Lust and this solo LP from 2016. Co-produced with Nina Walsh, at the same time as they were creating the Moine Dubh label and Woodleigh Research Facility material, it’s rather less dark than its predecessors. Where the TLS album was harshly gothic and the Asphodells shot through with nightlife sleaze, Convenanza certainly has sorrow and shadow galore, but it’s also more mystical, Weatherall settling into his old wizard role with aplomb, repeating cryptic phrases in simple melodic patterns like incantations.