Public Servant Lifestyle

Warp Records' Two Lonely Swordsmen unleash their new Showbiz Shotguns single – and for us, it’s the instrumentals that shine.

Big Silver Shining Motor of Sin EP by Two Lone Swordsmen

Not satisfied with having reinvented themselves as a noir-ish rock & roll-electro-dub-post-punk-psychobilly live band on their current album, From The Double Gone Chapel, Andrew Weatherall and Keith Tenniswood have thrown caution to the wind and recorded two brand new songs. Showbiz Shotguns and Feast were recorded in the Two Lone Swordsmen basement during the summer and continue the vibe of the album – “dredged from a swamp in the dead of night” as Time Out put it.

Dub and instrumental versions accompany the original tracks, which shape up like this:

Track one: Showbiz Shotguns, has the Swordsmen coming on like a sort of sinister version of German electro über-pioneers Kraftwerk (albeit a version where the lads from Düsseldorf had been weaned on Killing Joke, non-stop).

Track two: Feast features charming chiming bell sounds – and what seems (to these ears, at least) to be real drumming or real drum sounds at least. With its winning, repeated, eerie refrain “crash, my children...feast, my children” this is easily the catchier of the two tracks – with a bass line just made to be sampled (perhaps it already has been, who knows?) Upon reflection, this should probably have been the lead track on the EP.

Track three: Remixes Showbiz Shotguns - and resembles nothing so much as a twenty-first century take on Travelogue-era Human League, before they went POP! - and that is by no means meant as an insult…Worth the price of the EP for track three alone I’d say.

Track four: The dub of Feast - and hardly touched, to these ears, save for losing the vocals. I have to say, this is all the better for it, coming over as a classy instrumental that’s more to more liking than the (first-class still) original version. I find the (Weatherall?) vocals on the first two Swordsman tracks are a little distracting (if not actually detracting) from the overall groove.

That’s not to knock the vocalist himself – but I find both the tracks are vaguely disconcerting, in the way that it was always bizarre to realise that instrumentalists like Man, Or Astroman? Had voices – and were occasionally prepared to use them…This is great in any case and if you buy the vinyl and - like me, you prefer the non-vocal tracks - just call the ‘B’ side the ‘A’ side and have done with it. A cracker.

The duo’s From The Double Gone Chapel album has garnered near-universal acclaim. Jockeyslut gave it ‘9/10’ and called it “the best Swordsmen album to date”, as did DMC Update, who made it their ‘Album of the Week’, gave it ‘5/5’ and reckoned it was: “…the start of a whole new and exciting chapter in the lives of two of the most talented people to emerge from the club scene”.

Here’s what the rest of the media had to say about From The Double Gone Chapel:

“The duo’s most arresting album yet… the same backstreet menace and flashes of poignancy as Haunted Dancehall” 4/5 - The Guardian

“...love and sex become entwined with madness and violence...you can almost hear the drunken ghost of post punk, demented and decayed, rattling through the halls” - The Daily Telegraph, Arts & Books.

“...bristles with a surly, almost gothic menace...a blackly compelling twist from the old master” 4/5 - The Big Issue.

“Incredible” 4/5 - Touch

“A fusion of electro-pop with post-punk (primarily Joy Division)...hugely enjoyable” - Word.

But that’s not even half the story. The big news is that Two Lone Swordsmen now announce details of long-awaited, fully live shows this autumn. These are the first live shows that Weatherall has done since the Sabres of Paradise days in the mid-90s. This is huge news! TLS will be accompanied by special stage sets, lighting, atmospherics...the works.

The TLS band is: Andrew Weatherall (on vocals), Keith Tenniswood (on guitar and keyboards), Lung (on bass and keyboards), Chris Rotter (on guitar), Nick Burton (on drums).

Showbiz Shotguns is out now as a vinyl 12” single and CD, from Warp Records. Follow this link for more information on the wacky world of the Two Lone Swordsmen.

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