Heavenly Remixes 3 & 4: The Weatherall Remixes Volume 1 & 2

The stroke of genius with these two double albums is not making them chronological. Just the beginning is remarkable: the sensuous 1991 birth-of-prog-house remix of Sly & Lovechild segueing into a 2017 spaghetti-western-goth-dub remake of Mark Lanegan‘s “Beehive” pretty much gives you the measure of what you’re going to hear thereafter. Over 16 remixes from Saint Etienne to Confidence Man, Flowered Up to Gwenno, you’ll hear Weatherall visit and revisit these core elements in different configurations and with different moods over 30 years — somehow (as John Peel said of The Fall), “always different, always the same.” Whether he’s just himself or in one of his partnerships like Two Lone Swordsmen or Sabres Of Paradise, who are both represented here, Weatherall built a musical world that you can explore forwards, backwards, sideways or any way you like and still find strange, stoned stimulation. The fact that every single one of these tracks appeared on the same record label is boggling enough, that they represent only a drop in the ocean of the man’s remix work is barely possible to grasp.