One can only hope more material to remix will be unearthed and that Western’s musical legacy will find further incarnations such as this collective masterpiece. Throughout the record, Western’s uncanny knack for pure invention shines through, guiding us along one more late night journey of blissful inner exploration.
A source of inspiration
Phil Western once said in an interview, “The quest is to create a timeless piece of music that never sounds old, or dated, or cliché.” If that was his mission statement as an electronic musician, he succeeded with aplomb. These remixes and re-workings by his friends, loved ones, people he touched continue to set the bar high for what can be done when pressing technology into service of the imagination. Yet it is not just for his creativity that so many people connected to Western and his work. From what I’ve read and heard he was beloved by everyone who knew him. It has certainly been true that all the music I’ve heard from Western’s heart, mind and imagination has touched me. He remains a source of inspiration and these versions are no exception.
“The quest is to create a timeless piece of music that never sounds old, or dated, or cliché.” ~Phil Western
My first exposure to Western’s work came from the group Download who I fell in love with immediately when I first heard their album III, late at night, stoned in a dorm room at Antioch college. I wanted to hear everything by Download after that, and they quickly became one of my favorite post-industrial outfits. The first several Download albums were something of a supergroup with Dwayne Goettel and cEvin Key from Skinny Puppy, Mark Spybey of Dead Voices on Air (née Zoviet France) and even Genesis P-Orridge, alongside Western, who for these outings went by the name of Philth. This music overloaded my sensorium and remained a favorite in those few years.
Shortly after I discovered Download, Effector came out in 2000. Here the group had been pared down just to Western and Key. To use the parlance of the current day, it brought a definite vibe shift. It was still hard hitting, but it wasn’t quite as dark or angry. There was an ebullient effervescence bubbling up through the machines and an energy path that built and built towards a blissful climax. It seems the pair of Key and Western merged inside of their combined subconscious undermind—and the result—was an album that still never sounds old, dated or cliché. Any time I put it on, even after having listened to it countless times, I inevitably get entranced and listen to it all the way through.
Abstract, cerebral, electro-tribalistic constructions ::
I found the same to be true across the board with Western, whether it was his other albums with Key under the Plateau moniker, where they celebrated the highly inebriated coffee house culture of Amsterdam and the Netherlands (and the kush that powered it), or the abstract, cerebral, electro-tribalistic constructions he formulated with Mark Spybey as Beehatch.
His work as a solo artist across a plethora of albums reveals his own singular vision when not working in collaboration. These span from 1993’s Power/Touched 12” that was a split with aDuck, aka, Dwayne Goettel. From that banger to material he was working on right up to the fateful day he left this planet on February 4, 2019, it seemed like he never let up.
As can be seen Western was steeped in the industrial culture of Vancouver—and I think the imprint of that time of unique musical and cultural ferment can be heard all over his work. There is a mischievous and mercurial spirit that came through the music of that place and in that era, percolating up with Skinny Puppy in the 80’s before spreading its tendril outwards to any who might pick up on the energy. Western seems to have been such a vessel, and he channeled it directly into the throbbing numbers that pulsate with what I can only think of as the distinctive sound of the Pacific Northwest, and more specifically British Columbia. These are the rhythms of a psychedelic Cascadia, and they come alive in a mind and emotions soaked with rain, the smell of the ocean and wind blowing through the northern forests, breathing from all the fantastic trees.
The songs on this tribute collection don’t just take me to the PNW, though. They transport me into the bardos, into the realms beyond death, where the music of Western touches us yet again. A new transmission sent through the medium of his friends. How lucky we are to hear these recordings. His final song “Dream Death” is now available to listen to, as well the remixed version by Omar Hashmoder who had contributed material to the original.
Lysergified angels of electricity ::
As ever with his work, a driving energy kicks things off and doesn’t relent until the album is finished. This doesn’t mean there aren’t nice valleys, between the peaks, or places where it plateaus for a time in a drift of bong fog haze, but that the carrier wave has a constant flow of voltage throughout. Every song is dripping with the lysergified angels of electricity.
The whole shebang was curated by Seth Branum who had some remix packs Western had given him. He was also inspired by the work of Dave King and his Longwalkshortdock project. King has been posting a yearly song in tribute to Western since he passed. Branum had remixed Western before, and thought he’d do another one. That was in 2021. Later that year he got to gabbing with Jaime Dunkle (Love Above Will) and the idea of “putting together a bunch of remixes from Phil’s friends/collaborators as a tribute album” got spinning. She was enthusiastic and helped him keep that mental ball rolling.
It took awhile to gather all the energy it needed though. There were various obstacles and delays, roadblocks in the way. These will be familiar to anyone who has tried to bring a creative project to life. Yet here it is, they managed to pull it all together with the blessing of Western’s family. I’d say the end result was worth all the work and struggle to make it happen. Thank you.
Album opener “Dreams Come True” remixed by The Passenger has an explosive lift-off moment, while “I Love You” a track from his Kone project, and remixed by Love Above Will, captures the romantic and cherubic spirit of star crossed lovers, trysts with fate, and the spirit of agape. Robert Shea’s “Pastoral Psychedelicism” remix of “California” sounds like a coastal joy ride down Highway 1, perhaps to pick up some green from Humboldt County. How fitting that this album is released on 4/20.
Psychonautic soundtracks ::
The “Ghost in Your Bed” song, translated here out of dreamtime for us by Dead Voices on Air, captures the suspenseful esoteric side of Western’s psychonautic soundtracks, and is reminiscent of their brooding forays when their two minds joined together as a hive.
Western’s evident skill as a bass player is showcased on his final song “Dream Death” sequestered in the download version of the album (different from what would be just streamed). Like his friend cEvin Key, Western was a drummer before getting into all things electronic. His aptitude with all things rhythm is part of that background. His voice is heard here with poignant lyrics, the last things he sung. Hashmoder provided some additional synthesis. Despite the context it’s a hopeful number. And for those of us who believe that death does not end the continuity of the soul, his spirit emanates brightly from the final utterance of his mortal body.
Life and death might just be like “Asleep/Awake” the song that follows, collaged together by Vuemorph, one of the many projects of Dan Handrabur, who was a veteran of the Vancouver scene back in the early 90’s before returning home to Romania at the end of the millennium. This is one of my favorite pieces on the album, a gentle lull with plucked strings and resonating drops of synth liquid amid a bevy of esoteric samples. It is a perfect lucid dream state to be carried along with, cloudlike, before returning to the intense braindance rhythms.
A perfect lucid dream state ::
Another Kone remix follows, from Rim, with the song “Koln.” Here their combined wizardry perks things back up in a restless ascent up the holy mountain of music, where sequencers climb and climb in ascending tones, as the drum machines chug upward from one switch back to the next. Mysterious vocal samples emerge at the end in surrealist counterpoint as the song ascends further into mystical heavens.
Overdriven synth lines kick off “Dementhol” in a mix from FaxLtd. There is a bit more spaciousness here, and the bass guitar shines through in riff that has a grounding effect in a musical style that is so often hyper-frenetic and cerebral. Silly vocoder ramblings give the song its subtitle of “Fingerpie Mix.” For music that is so often intellectually stimulating, it was also body driven, and at times, like with the vocoder, quite humorous. From there it evolves into a tremolo laden keyboard fantasia of mirthful rapture.
“Boobs” are up next, with a remix from Longwalkshortdock, going further into heavily patterned rhythmic exploration. It showcases one of the exemplary things about this whole project, and Western’s music in general: how intricate and precise it is, with so many layers, so much going on. Repeated listening details out how much attention was paid to the tiniest glitch or time stretched beat or moment. This is one for a DJ to cut into a thumping dancefloor mix, something Western was no stranger too, and a genre he was excited to write for, getting bodies moving to electro-eclectic beats. This is machine music mutating through ring modulation into realms of pure fantasy.
A dark industrial hallucinatory world ::
The album continues through another version of “California” and the aptly named “Sequence Stranger.” The latter descends into a dark industrial hallucinatory world. Some trips have their moments of anxiety, and this would be one of them, where distortion and bursts of harsh tones are played over what sounds like studio talk about all the sequencers and gear such as multi-trackers Western had amassed over his years of hermetic electronic transmutation. It’s a nice glimpse into what an evening in the studio might be like with him, and how fun it would be to check out some of his favorite machines, such as the Jupiter-6 and see him put them through their paces. It ends in a dense collage with lo-fi 8-bit blurps. In the end the anxiety was just part of the process of revelation.
The album ends with a final version of “Dream Death,” a full remix from Hashmoder. The song isn’t dark at all, and ends things on an uplifting note. Memories will love, and the music he touched us with continues to live in our hearts. One can only hope more material to remix will be unearthed and that Western’s musical legacy will find further incarnations such as this collective masterpiece. Throughout the record, Western’s uncanny knack for pure invention shines through, guiding us along one more late night journey of blissful inner exploration.
Mastering: Martin Granger and Jesse Creed
Cover Portrait: Simon LaPlante
Cover Design/Layout: Jaime Dunkle
Executive Producer: Seth Branum
Afterflash: A Remixed Tribute is available on Map Music. [Bandcamp]
