VA: Andrew Weatherall vs The Boardroom
Rotters Golf Club

The Boardroom is a small cluster of producers constellating around the engineering nucleus of Steve Boardman with their myriad goings-on centered upon the Boardroom Studio (itself part of the Rotters Golf Club Studio). On this outing Boardroom members Rad Rice (Radical Majik), James Moss (E.S.C.), Dave Congreve (Conman and one-time Two Lone Swordsman tour DJ), and Sidney Le Sarge (Le Sarge En Board) get their freak out with more than a little help from Andrew Weatherall. The agenda includes three Boardman member originals followed by Weatherall remixes of same, plus a pair of Two Lone Swordsmen overhauls.

In Radical Majik's “Spread the Hot Potato,” Rhodes playing takes the lead spot, lending jazzy swing to the tune's otherwise low-riding techno-funk thrust; Le Sarge En Board's “Through the Robot Chicken Shed” serves up greasy techno-funk of the body-movin' kind; and E.S.C.'s “The Legacy” gives us swinging, light-footed boogie of the slinky sort. On the remix tip, Weatherall's ten-minute makeover of “Spread the Hot Potato” cools the original's pace a bit and amps up the heaviness quotient with generous helpings of spacey synthesizer swirls and electric guitar strafings. The dubby spice he sprinkles over the Radical Majik remix is even more liberally added to “Through the Robot Chicken Shed” overhaul while a melodica's sing-song presence brightens the rough-edged chicken scratch guitar with which Weatherall coats “The Legacy.” In the disc's rocking Two Lone Swordsmen remixes, Congreve brings a tasty house thump to his clubby remix of “Patient Saints” and E.S.C. dresses up “Shack 54” in disco-funk glam.

To their credit, the club members never let the mood get too serious (as the cuckoo-clock chirp heard at the end of “Through the Robot Chicken Shed” attests) but it's hard to hear it as a terribly “necessary release”—especially when three of the eight tracks are re-rubs—even if the ride's nevertheless enjoyable enough. Andrew Weatherall vs The Boardroom could be seen as a bit of a stop-gap before the forthcoming Weatherall album, A Pox on the Pioneers (featuring co-writing and engineering contributions from Steve Boardman) hits the streets.

June 2009