Andrew Weatherall: It's Only Rock 'n' Roll But I Like It

The forthcoming release of Sci-Fi Lo-Fi Volume 1 on Soma reaffirms this. Eschewing the contemporary sounds of many fashionable but forgettable commercially released mixes, Weatherall instead showcases the musical passions of his formative years - fifties and sixties rock n' roll, glam rock and a handful of other musical curios.

"The first music that truly excited me was 50s rock 'n' roll. There was a mid-seventies revival and tracks like Hank Mizzel's Jungle Rock were heard on the radio and also got used for a Pan's People Top Of The Pops dance routine... My other pre-teen tingler was glam rock," he adds. "The first record I ever bought was Solid Gold Easy Action by T-Rex, a space age rock-a-billy record if ever I heard one."

The film Stardust, a story of the transition from rock 'n' roll to the early 60s beat scene was another inspiration: "Images of leopard skin drape coats and bumper cars with a Del Shannon soundtrack had as much an effect on my loins as the girl called Dawn who lived in the next street."

He's also quick to credit The Cramps for his obsession. "Their Gravest Hits fell into my sweaty teenage hands and helped introduce me to music that spawned the rock 'n' roll I was in love with. Primeval, visceral, poor folk's rebel dance music." Tracks like their New Kind Of Kick, Crazy Beat by Gene Vincent and T-Rex's Free Angel went on to form part of the playlist for the Wrong Meeting monthly club night he organised alongside Ivan Smagghe. However, an album stocked full of vintage rock 'n' roll is definitely something of a departure for the Soma stable.

Weatherall explains: "For the first night of Wrong Meeting I thought a free gift would be in order. That gift took the form of a compilation CD, a copy of which fell into the hands of Glenn Gibbons at the label. He got in touch to express an interest in releasing something in a similar vein."

Alongside the rock 'n' roll and dash of glam, esoteric obscurities by Killing Joke and The Fall have also found their way onto the compilation, the contents of which he says all influenced this year's Two Lone Swordsmen Wrong Meeting 1 & 2 albums. Both built upon the approach first introduced on previous release, Double Gone Chapel, with Weatherall on vocals, and Keith Tenniswood on guitar and bass. Though at first glance this might seem something of a musical departure for the pair, the former Lord Sabre argues otherwise: "There's still plenty of electronics on the album, it's just that a lot of it's buried under a wall of fuzz and twang."

This recording process was also adopted for his Bullet Catcher's Apprentice EP of last year; a release which saw him use his own name for the first time, largely due to the fact it was 'proper' solo debut. "In the past I wasn't looking to take all the glory, I was working with very talented musicians and engineers and thought they deserved equal credit. On Bullet Catcher's... it was me who barked all the orders."

Following on from Sci-Fi Lo-Fi, his forthcoming projects look set to continue the rock 'n' roll theme, though he doesn't like to look too far ahead: "I've just remixed Battant, XX Teens and Siouxsie Sioux," he says. "I'm also six tracks into a solo album. I only start planning things once I finish a project and some poor soul works out what can be done with it. While they're doing that I'm free to carry on working - it's a system that works for me."