Two Lone Swordsmen

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I got Tiny Reminders a few weeks ago, and I think it's a real stunner. I love the drone-bass over hard electro beats that pops up on a few tracks, and I think they have a special knack for uncanny but good melodies. Also, for such a unified mood, this record is pretty *gulp* eclectic.

Any thoughts? Also, tangentially, what do you all think of the new Drexciya record? All I've heard is The Quest, and I am infatuated with it.

― Clarke B., Sunday, 5 May 2002 00:00 (twenty-one years ago) link

haven't heard tiny reminders,but i got a virus with shoes a while ago,and its excellent,not what i was expecting at all but original and interesting all the way through... also,i had a tls related question that i had meant to post here a while but forgot,so i may as well ask now:i saw andrew weatherall mixing around this time last year,and he played an absolutely brilliant straight up techno set...what i was wondering is,does anyone know of any techno mixes by him that are available? either released on cd or the andrew weatherall live @ i love techno type things you can get on audiogalaxy? i'm asking rather than searching because i know he's been involved in a lot of different types of music,and at the moment its just a techno mix that i'm after...anyone have one/know of one,etc? cheers, robin

― robin, Sunday, 5 May 2002 00:00 (twenty-one years ago) link

When I first heard Tiny Reminders, I didn't like it too terribly much. But it grew on me, especially through the headphones. I do agree, it is unified and eclectic at the same time. I can't tell what effect(s) they run their beats and basslines through, but they give the tracks a squishy and rolling quality that I really like. Tiny Reminders will not sound dated either in the next decade, because I believe it's a fairly progressive record. Really, who dances to it? And it's not really "chill" music either. It's challenging yet maintains an electro-"classicism" at the same time. It isn't a total headfuk. Can't say I'm familiar with Drexciya. Who/what are they?

― bryan, Sunday, 5 May 2002 00:00 (twenty-one years ago) link

Other people could say better, I'm sure, but Drexciya are a shrouded- in-mystery duo from Detroit, probably the pre-eminent electro duo of the past decade (though I'm not sure how long they've been around). No one really knows who they are (well, Michael Taylor does, but he won't tell! ;-) outside of Detroit circles. I believe they claim to come from a sub-aquatic "lost city," and there are apparently some really interesting afro-futurist undertones to their music (though I'm not sure exactly what those are). But they are amazing, and must be heard! I'm curious to hear what Michael T. thinks of Two Lone Swordsmen myself.

― Clarke B., Sunday, 5 May 2002 00:00 (twenty-one years ago) link

tiny reminders isn't bad, but theres a really good track on the album before (cant remember name, has a great pic of a man in a diving suit on front). hasn't reached the standard of haunted dancehall tho. as for drexciya, i think they're rather overrated although i do like them to an extent. i love the other people place record though...

― gareth, Monday, 6 May 2002 00:00 (twenty-one years ago) link

I think of Drexciya as closer to techno than electro, but I've only heard Harnessed By Storm (which I like a lot -- also enjoying the Other People Place record).

The TLS record before Tiny Reminders is called Stay Down, and I don't like it nearly as much. Not nearly as clean, as much less electro.

― Mark, Monday, 6 May 2002 00:00 (twenty-one years ago) link

Whas' the name of that double CD, I think it was their first? Now that's a fine album.

― Lee G, Monday, 6 May 2002 00:00 (twenty-one years ago) link

"I'm curious to hear what Michael T. thinks of Two Lone Swordsmen myself."

.... british .... commercialism .... rape .... true spirit .... detroit .... those who know, don't tell ....

― Tim, Monday, 6 May 2002 00:00 (twenty-one years ago) link

Return to the Flight Path Estate

― dog latin, Monday, 6 May 2002 00:00 (twenty-one years ago) link

The other TLS albums are bound to be a bit of a letdown after Tiny Reminders. Stay Down, which I got first, has a couple of good, hard tracks and a lot of dull, wandering ones. I've yet to get much into Fifth Mission, the double album, but the more ambient parts actually impress me more so far.

On Harnessed the Storm, I think only a few of the middle tracks can comare with most of The Quest, but that may be enough to make it worthwhile for you. The first and last tracks are long, comparatively calm "framing" pieces, which I feel only get in the way. Between them, it gets wicked.

― Curt, Monday, 6 May 2002 00:00 (twenty-one years ago) link

Stay Down really does bore me save for a handful of songs. Now Sabres of Paradise's Sabresonic II? That's a keeper.

― Lee, Monday, 6 May 2002 00:00 (twenty-one years ago) link

The "Radioactive Man" LP is great too.

― david, Tuesday, 7 May 2002 00:00 (twenty-one years ago) link

yes it is david. I met Keith Tenniswood and I think i scared him with my pissed-up praises. Played a blidning set. What I like about the Swordsmen is that they're as much music fans as they are musicians. You can tell what they've been listening to and what artists/styles they're referencing in each track without it being really blatant. There is definitely a TLS "sound" even though one minute they'll be doing dub or hiphop or latin vibes or whatever. Saw them DJ live at Reading festival and they started with straight Dub and Reggae which was so well mixed together that by the end I was dancing around to Techno without realising they'd changed the song... top class.

― dog latin, Tuesday, 7 May 2002 00:00 (twenty-one years ago) link

Stay Down is great. It's brilliant atmospheric underwatery mood music. I've been disappointed by Virus and Tiny Reminders.

Virus because it just didn't grab me. Forgettable.

Tiny Reminders has some fantastic stuff. But because the mood is so varied I never get round to playing it. I put bits and pieces from it on compilations sometimes.

― phil, Thursday, 9 May 2002 00:00 (twenty-one years ago) link

three years pass...

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― Gear! (Gear!), Monday, 18 July 2005 05:14 (eighteen years ago) link

Love that track. That's real micro~~house~~rave

― dog latin (dog latin), Monday, 18 July 2005 09:51 (eighteen years ago) link

I really haven't enjoyed their recent output though. We've already had The Rapture, we don't need them again.

― dog latin (dog latin), Monday, 18 July 2005 09:52 (eighteen years ago) link

I agree that their recent output is spotty at best, but it hardly seems like the Rapture...same post-punk fetishism, yes, but much more dirgy and gloomy and filthy. Almost, dare I say, Killing Joke-ish (and they did use one of KJ's old drumkits, or so the press materials would have us believe).

― Telephonething (Telephonething), Monday, 18 July 2005 10:05 (eighteen years ago) link

the whole point of the word "house" following micro in "microhouse" is that house is to some extent a set of rules.

― Ronan (Ronan), Monday, 18 July 2005 10:12 (eighteen years ago) link

whatty?

― dog latin (dog latin), Monday, 18 July 2005 12:24 (eighteen years ago) link

"Spin Desire" omg. seriously. if this isn't a preview of Heaven's waiting room, i'm making my afterlife reservations elsewhere.

― echoinggrove (echoinggrove), Monday, 18 July 2005 12:30 (eighteen years ago) link

The Fifth Mission is to me the pinnacle of TLS. It's like the perfect soundtrack to a moody, disquieting, low-key gangster flick. Fantastically atmospheric. Kind of disappointed that they moved away from that sound, although I eventually grew to love Tiny Reminders. Don't really rate anything in between except Light the Last Flare off Stay down, a great example of their knack with uncanny melodies.

― ledge (ledge), Monday, 18 July 2005 13:10 (eighteen years ago) link

one year passes...

Did I write that? Hmm. Anyway the new question is Does Anyone Care Anymore? Gave the new one a listen, and by now they're just as far from their techno roots as it's possible to get. Kudos for such a radical reinvention I guess, but sorry - just not innarested. Even the uncanny melodies have vanished.

― ledge, Monday, 21 May 2007 10:08 (sixteen years ago) link

I kinda liked the previous one, but the new one is very generic sub-Gun Club.

― baaderonixx, Monday, 21 May 2007 10:23 (sixteen years ago) link

It's bad rockabilly with electronic embellishments. Dud.

― braveclub, Monday, 21 May 2007 10:45 (sixteen years ago) link

i haven't really been enjoying their new stuff. Still got lots of fantastic memories of their techno stuff though.

― the next grozart, Monday, 21 May 2007 10:52 (sixteen years ago) link

i've always thought this band was a little too polite.

― Tracer Hand, Monday, 21 May 2007 11:01 (sixteen years ago) link

i thought that for a long time, them being on warp and all they seemed a bit "straight" for that label. Listen to their stuff like you would dub (helps if you have a little green to hand). Or alternately, wack on "Tiny Reminders" really really loud, switch off all the lights and get all your mates round to sniff poppers and dance about like lunes.

― the next grozart, Monday, 21 May 2007 11:27 (sixteen years ago) link

yeah, there's just a sort of tight constrictedness to it no matter how kerrazy it gets. i like that sometimes, just not very often.

― Tracer Hand, Monday, 21 May 2007 11:33 (sixteen years ago) link

Fifth Mission was pretty loose. Compared to their later stuff. Maybe.

― ledge, Monday, 21 May 2007 11:38 (sixteen years ago) link

two months pass...

Fifth Mission is fucking terrific. AMAZING on good headphones.

― Scik Mouthy, Tuesday, 24 July 2007 21:24 (sixteen years ago) link

Shit, you're not wrong. Gotta break out the 'phones more often.

― ledge, Tuesday, 24 July 2007 22:24 (sixteen years ago) link

It's weird that album. It threw me at first because it's so, well, shallow at first. I thought a lot of it sounded cheap and nasty. I was wrong.

I have the new album but I daren't listen to it in case it's cobblers.

― the next grozart, Tuesday, 24 July 2007 23:11 (sixteen years ago) link

two years pass...

Got Tiny Reminders for $6 today. Sometimes these dudes just hit the spot.

― EDB, Tuesday, 22 December 2009 02:41 (fourteen years ago) link

three months pass...

So are these guys going to do anything good together again? I really don't like their rockabilly stuff and that AW solo album was some boring glo-fi nonsense. STOP TRYING TO MAKE PROPER MUSIC AND GET WITH THE TECHNO YEAH?

― village idiot (dog latin), Friday, 16 April 2010 11:55 (fourteen years ago) link

^ i've been saying this since forever

― Tracer Hand, Friday, 16 April 2010 11:56 (fourteen years ago) link

resurrect sabrettes

― Tracer Hand, Friday, 16 April 2010 11:57 (fourteen years ago) link

I always assumed Keith Tenniswood was the techno/electro man in 2LS. I'm not super familiar his solo work as Radioactive Man, but I think it's much more "techno" than whatever 2LS are doing these days.

― Tuomas, Friday, 16 April 2010 12:37 (fourteen years ago) link

four years pass...

So are these guys going to do anything good together again? I really don't like their rockabilly stuff and that AW solo album was some boring glo-fi nonsense. STOP TRYING TO MAKE PROPER MUSIC AND GET WITH THE TECHNO YEAH?
― village idiot (dog latin), Friday, April 16, 2010 12:55 PM (4 years ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

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I have a real hankering to hear Tiny Reminders again, which for me was my introduction to electro music in 2000, and what a great introduction it was.

― radioplay vs coldhead (dog latin), Friday, 29 August 2014 14:26 (nine years ago) link

three years pass...

What is going on here? This definitely isn't the right track: https://open.spotify.com/track/3UcMBpcdmZlI0zgMy45IpA

― Badgers (dog latin), Friday, 16 February 2018 09:30 (six years ago) link

Warp could really do with getting some vinyl reissues out. The next three Autechres and Tiny Reminders would be nice too

― Badgers (dog latin), Friday, 16 February 2018 09:36 (six years ago) link

xp is that the bunker? yeah something's up. maybe that explains why i didn't recognise about a quarter of the tracks on drukqs when i listened to it yesterday...

― lana del boy (ledge), Friday, 16 February 2018 11:09 (six years ago) link

It's definitely not the Bunker that's on my copy of Tiny Reminders, but it's what's in its place on Spotify. I thought I was having a senior moment when it came on because I've listened to the album countless times and I don't recognise it. Sounds like a parody of their style and there's a horrible clip every bar.

― Badgers (dog latin), Friday, 16 February 2018 13:56 (six years ago) link

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