Wrong Meeting

We Say...

Review by Todd Burns

Andrew Weatherall and Keith Tenniswood shocked their fans with 2004’s From the Double Gone Chapel. Those who had come to expect the deep-sea dub of Stay Down, the blunted breakbeats of A Virus with Shoes or the dank electro of Tiny Reminders found themselves staring straight in the face of two legendary dance producers making PiL-style post-punk. Huh?

If you’ve followed Weatherall, however, the shift made complete sense. His career has been littered with moves that fly in the face of accepted wisdom. So, when every dance producer was transitioning to digital, the Two Lone Swordsmen (apt name, eh?) went analogue.

It’s now three years later and on Wrong Meeting, you’ll find the Swordsmen pulling more skuzz rock out of the vaults, taking up where Double Gone left off: “No Girl in My Plan” conjures up scratchy riffs that run up against an unrelentingly fuzzy bass, while “Evangeline” might have you wondering whether Grinderman had randomly come up in your playlist.

The title track is similarly menacing, but it leavens Weatherall’s monotone and ghastly chorus verbalizing by letting Tenniswood to squeeze out a charming, sprightly guitar lick that cuts through the murk. Opener, “Patient Saints,” is the best Wrong Meeting has to offer, though. There’s an ease with which the snarling bass unfurls itself alongside a glistening organ — it serves as a tiny reminder that Weatherall and Tenniswood can do this sort of thing effortlessly. Next time out? Don’t be surprised if they take on another genre entirely. Either way, we’ll be running to catch up.