Asphodells
Ruled By Passion, Destroyed By Lust
A new project from Andrew Weatherall and his studio cohort (and former Battant member) Timothy J FairPlay, The Asphodells' well-defined world is one of languorous dub-disco and trippy post-punk. 'Beglammered' opens the set and establishes the rules of engagement, being a slow and deadly 4/4 mirrorball chugger embellished with Morricone twang and Turkish melodic inflections. 'Never There' offers a fine line in crepuscular electro-pop, its mood of metropolitan ennui offset by Balearic flourishes, while 'Skwatch' takes the disco-tripping further into arpeggiated, acid-flecked oblivion, adding swampy guitar distortion and night-driving horns, all delivered at the steady, gentlemanly tempo favoured at Wevvers' A Love From Outer Space nights (which later get name-checked on 'A Love From Outer Space (Version 2)'. 'Late Flowering Lust' summons the strung-out outlaw funk of early Happy Mondays, right down to Weatherall's Ryder-esque sneer, and it's coupled with a terrific, tunnelistic dub that harks back to Haunted Dancehall-era Sabres Of Paradise. The second half of the album is perhaps overreliant on pastiching Soft Cell, Human League, John Foxx, etc, but it's hard not to be won over by New Order-indebted instrumental 'The Quiet Dignity (Of Unwitnessed Lives)', krauty cruiser 'Zones' or the OMD-ish 'Dub Minute's Silence'. A whooshing Mugwump remix of 'A Love From Outer Space' completes the package, and makes explicit its connection to AR Kane's classic of the same name.
Tracklist
1. Beglammered
2. Never There
3. Skwatch
4. Another Lonely City
5. Late Flowering Lust
6. Late Flowering Dub
7. We Are the Axis
8. One Minute's Silence
9. Quiet Dignity of Unwitnessed Lives
10. Love From Outer Space (Version 2)