DJ and producer Andrew Weatherall died of a pulmonary embolism in a London hospital. He 56-years-old.
Weatherall has been a respected DJ since the late 1980s. He cut his teeth in the UK acid house scene, but remains best known for his work on Primal Scream’s seminal album Screamadelica.
His involvement with the band began, like everything in early-90s British music, at a rave. The band asked Weatherall to remix the song ‘I’m Losing More Than I’ll Ever Have’ from their 1989 self-titled album. The remix spawned a whole new track, called ‘Loaded’, which was the first single from 1991’s Screamadelica.
Listen: Primal Scream – Loaded
Primal Scream were so impressed with the rework that Weatherall was asked to produce the majority of the record. Weatherall’s contributions have a lot to do with Screamadelica‘s legacy as on the best records of the 1990s. There’s perhaps no other album of the era that so deftly intertwined the concurrent acid house, neo-psychedelia and alternative rock scenes.
But Weatherall’s work outside of the electronic music world didn’t end there. He’s also produced records for Beth Orton, Fuck Buttons and The Twilight Sad and remixed everyone from Bjork, My Bloody Valentine and New Order to Manic Street Preachers and James.
Weatherall turned his focus to solo material in the last decade or so. He founded the Rotters Golf Club label to release his debut solo record, The Bullet Catcher’s Apprentice, in 2006. A number of albums followed, including 2009’s A Pox on the Pioneers and 2016’s Convenanza. 2017’s Qualia is his most recent release.
Listen: Andrew Weatherall – Saturday International
In recent years Weatherall could be found hosting the monthly show Music’s Not Everyone on NTS Radio. It was a wonderful depiction of his wide ranging musical interests – you were just as likely to hear Indian classical music and krautrock as electronica and techno. We highly recommend combing through the archives.
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The Charlatans’ Tim Burgess was among those paying tribute to Weatherall in the wake of his death. “Weatherall was a font of all things amazing when it came to music,” he wrote on Twitter. “I’ll miss his enthusiasm and his ace recommendations.”
Weatherall was a font of all things amazing when it came to music. I’ll miss his enthusiasm and his ace recommendations. A good friend and inspiration to so many x x pic.twitter.com/0OEVdoaets
— Tim Burgess (@Tim_Burgess) February 17, 2020
