End Beginnings

Sandwell District release their highly anticipated new album End Beginnings – via Point of Departure. The group’s first music since Juan Mendez (Silent Servant) tragically passed away in January 2024. End Beginnings is a majestic coming together of cinematic techno and mind-bending dancefloor dynamism; an album that marries Drexciya’s idea of techno being an act of seditionary innovation to a sense of unbridled fun, an imperative that means an awful lot to O’Connor. Having a good time is pretty much why you get into it in the first place, he notes wisely. And it is fun. I think we feel a lot more fortunate now, especially with what happened with Juan. We’re grateful. End Beginnings then is also a moving requiem to a fallen soldier – Juan Mendez. At the beginning of 2024, Mendez tragically died just as things were moving in the right direction for the collective. Mendez’s stunning artwork and visuals were always a central pillar of Sandwell District; indeed, he was working on a piece of art entitled ‘End Beginnings’ that was mooted to be the album cover. That work was never finished, but O’Connor and Sumner took the title to honor their friend’s contribution. It remains a fitting tribute to the stop-start nature of this rebel alliance. We were a real gang, O’Connor reminisces. We used to come into town, tear it up and go home. We got banned from about three airlines for fighting with each other. We used to turn up at the airport, get hammered and it would go downhill from there. No wonder they were described as techno’s answer to Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young by online music organ, The Quietus. O’Connor laughs when that interpretation is put to him. That’s brilliant, he says. It’s probably very accurate. As long as I can be Nash.