Andrew & Nina Walsh & the Woodleigh Research Facility Weatherall - Phonox Nights

Phonox Nights is the last album completed by Andrew Weatherall with Nina Walsh at her Facility 4 studio before the much-missed DJ- producer passed away in February 2020. Introducing the set’s exquisitely crafted electronic diamonds with a bubbling starburst of 21st century acid house, the title track’s deep sweeping majesty is graced by ethereal synth lines from Weatherall himself, joining the percolating squelch of Walsh’s Roland TB-303 in a heady blend of melancholic reflection and pulsing dancefloor wallop. Like a raft of other recordings the duo made through this time, Phonox Nights carries a spiritual and musical connection with Nina’s late partner Erick Legrand, whose fathomless hard-drive archive she plundered with Andrew to the extent he can qualify as W.R.F.’s invisible third member. Legrand’s presence shines brightest underpinning the translucent weightless flight of ‘Church Of Burnt Offerings’, his rolling drums from the archive originally earmarked for a Barbican event that sadly never happened.