Back in the early 90s this was how Andrew Weatherall appeared in an article in The Face, his long Screamadelica- era hair cut short and a sort of punk /rockabilly/techno look that seemed to be more where things were going. A bit tougher and with an edge. The Sabres Of Paradise released their Sabresonic album in 1993, a record taking in lengthy ambient tracks that took up an entire side of vinyl (Clock Factory) and Still Fighting, an extension of Primal Scream's Don't Fight It, Feel It that the Scream passed on as being too techno but which opened Sabresonic with intent, the thud of the kick drum setting out their stall. There was sublime dub techno (RSD, Red Stripe Dub) and two takes on fairly abstract club music (Ano Electro Andante and Ano Electro Allegro). There was also Smokebelch I, a pacey leftfield tune with a synth intro and reverb laden sounds bouncing around. The rattling hi- hat and then later on the strings set the heart racing and take me straight back to then.
Smokebelch I
Darren Price, DJ and friend of Weatherall put this tribute on the internet yesterday, a re-working of Smokebelch II, The Belching Smoke Salute, a version that finds new beauty in old grooves and lasts for a perfect eight minutes and eight seconds.
From 1993 to 2019 and a pair of new- to- the- internet Andrew Weatherall mixes, a pair in two halves, an hour each and sent to Mr John Minney by Lord Sabre himself in June 2019. Perfectly paced, throbbing, chuggy delights, Arabic influences and ALFOS style disco- house, percussion breakdowns, robotic voices and sections of swooshing, uplifting dance music. The DJ sets and Sabres sounds of 1993 are present here and there, echoing drum sounds, rattling snares, acidic squiggles and pumping basslines, the forward momentum although the tempos are definitely pitched down. Plenty to enjoy in both of these, especially the space age, cosmische stuff that's going on.
Part One...
And part two...
4 comments:
Still Fighting is always the first track I think of when Sabres of Paradise are mentioned. It's a musical maze goading you to try to get from one end to the other. The thing is, as you bump into the unexpected during the track, you really find yourself just wanting to camp out and never find the way out.
Great and moving Darren Price re-work of 'The Belch'. Looking forward to hearing 'The Roooksack Boogies'.
-SRC
hope the TLS mix of Smokeblech from Cut the Crap is released from the bunker one of these days...
On a side note...
Anyone have those promo sheets that accompanied the advance copies of Sabres/Sabrettes records? They were always written in Andrew Weatherall's handwriting -- you know it cuz it's that same writing as track list on Stay Down for example.
Anyway, they were amusing. The one for Slab: Sonic Grudge entailed something amazing about getting blown on a bus. Sadly I don't have them anymore...but given Weatherall's enjoyment of writing snippets I'm interested if there are more.
Quite a few of those have been posted at the Flightpath Estate fb page over the last few weeks Robert. They should be compiled. I saved a few of them.
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