Andrew Weatherall has left the building. The legendary producer, DJ, tastemaker, and fashion plate passed away over the weekend at the age of fifty-six. The cause of death was a pulmonary embolism.
Famous for his roles in such seminal works as Primal Scream‘s Screamadelica and remixes crafted for the likes of My Bloody Valentine and Saint Etienne, when news of Weatherall’s death swept across social media, a wide-ranging cast of luminaries stepped up to pay homage to the music legend.
“Absolutely distraught to hear this terrible news,” writer Irvine Welsh shared on Twitter. “Andrew was a longtime friend, collaborator and one of most talented persons I’ve known. Also one of the nicest. Genius is an overworked term but I’m struggling to think of anything else that defines him.”
“I’m utterly devastated to hear about Andrew Weatherall,” posted UK singer Dot Allison, who fronted ’90s act One Dove, whose work was produced and remixed by him. “I loved him, he was a one-off and true genius and so generous to me from signing my first band & championing us, to gifting me many diverse music compilations to absorb and inspire, I will remain indebted to him.”
Weatherall’s discography is as vast as they come, with nearly one thousand credits—production and otherwise—to his name. Among his best known work is his grandiose and aggressively epic production job on Screamadelica.
“Looking back, my arrogance makes me wince, but I would never have had the confidence to do it if I didn’t have that kind of attitude,” Weatherall told NME in 2011. “In a few months I’d gone from basically bumming around to all of a sudden being part of a proper scene. I was at the center of the cyclone and loving it.”
Weatherall’s signature blend of anything and everything he considered good touched on dub, rock, and techno, all with equal aplomb. His vision remained steadfast throughout his career, even as digital technology turned remix and production culture upside down.
“Be patient. Very pertinent to today,” Weatherall told The Guardian in 2016. “Digital culture sells you this theory that if you don’t get involved immediately, you’re going to be left behind. When you see an advert for broadband, it’s always got a caveman in it, because if you haven’t got the latest broadband, you’re a caveman. But if you’re making music or any art, just wait, wait six months, see if you still like it. If you release something immediately, you’re not going to be happy with it and it’s just going to be part of the digital noise. Here we are at the apex of the punk-rock dream, the democratization of art, anyone can do it, and what a double-edged sword that’s turned out to be, has it not?”
Here’s a selection of ten of Andrew Weatherall’s most essential tracks.
1. Primal Scream — “Loaded”
2. Saint Etienne — “Only Love Can Break Your Heart” (A Mix of Two Halves)
3. New Order — “Regret” (Sabres Slow ‘N’ Lo Mix)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vQuqvgXvNCE
4. One Dove — “Fallen”
5. My Bloody Valentine — “Soon” (Andrew Weatherall Mix)
6. Happy Mondays — “Hallelujah” (Andrew Weatherall Mix)
7. The Sabres Of Paradise — “Smokebelch 1”
8. Beth Orton — “Tangent”
9. Grinderman — “Heathen Child” (Andrew Weatherall Remix)
10. The Dust Brothers (a.k.a. The Chemical Brothers) — “Song to the Siren” (Sabre of Paradise Mix)
