It made perfect sense for French beat-head Kid Loco to dedicate one of his albums to both Jimi Hendrix and Andrew Weatherall. In the techno scene, Weatherall dwells in just as lofty a realm as Hendrix does in the rock world.
As a club DJ he has been a prominent U.K. figure since the '80s; as a remixer he hasgiven his golden touch to everyone from the Happy Mondays to the Orb and New Order and as a producer he was responsible for the blissed vibe of Primal Scream's anthemic "Screamadelica." As an artist in his own right he has brought us the dub-wise grooves of the now-disbanded Sabres of Paradise and, in recent years, the twisted electro grooves of Two Lone Swordsmen.
As a sort of electronica godfather, Weatherall was in Tokyo Nov. 24 to take part (with the other Lone Swordsman, Keith Tenniswood) in Electraglide at Makuhari Messe in Chiba. Attracting approximately 20,000 music fans, it was perhaps one of the biggest techno events in Tokyo's clubbing history. It was also a scenario considerably different from the acid house/techno movement of the late '80s from which Weatherall the DJ emerged.