The Return Of The Sabres Of Paradise

There was a flurry of excitement in the middle of last week, not to mention some 'I didn't expect to see that happening' style comments, when the line up for Primavera 2025 was announced (Primavera is an annual festival held in Barcelona). Tucked away with little fanfare in the list of artists on the right hand side of the poster is the name The Sabres Of Paradise.

Jagz Kooner soon confirmed via social media that it was indeed correct, The Sabres Of Paradise are reforming as a live act. A year ago next week me and my friends in The Flightpath Estate held an evening at The Golden Lion in Todmorden to mark the 30th anniversary of the release of Sabresonic, the first Sabres Of Paradise album. We had Jagz and Gary Burns fielding questions (by me!) and talking at length about their time as Sabres with Andrew Weatherall, how they met Andrew, how Sabres worked, what reocrding sessions were like, who did what, how remixes were done, all the fine detail that a small but committed audience wanted. After the Q&A was over we played Rob Fletcher's recording of Sabres playing live at Herbal Tea Party in Manchester in 1994, the only live recording of the group in existence. Jagz stood by the speaker listening and nodding. 'We sounded pretty good', he said. Later on Jagz DJed and he was still around when Red Snapper played the following night. At some point over the weekend Jagz told me and a few others that he was thinking about getting Sabres back together as a live band, do some gigs, draw a line under the Sabres story, and do it respectfully, in Andrew's memory. He also swore us to secrecy. 

The live band version of Sabres played twenty two gigs in 1994, a few one offs starting in London, then Sugar Sweet in Belfast, Sabresonic, Megadog and a tour in May 1994, Herbal in December 1994 and then a tour supporting Primal Scream (and then a few in Japan). Andrew was on stage with the band for the first few gigs but stepped down after the Belfast gig, saying that he felt like a fraud standing behind a keyboard. He much preferred to stand in the crowd and watch the band play the songs he, Jagz and Gary wrote, with Weatherall DJ sets before and after. 

The revived Sabres Of Paradise will be very much the musicians who played those gigs in 1994. That live band line up was Jagz and Gary, Rich Thair on drums, Phil Mossman on guitar (who would later join LCD Soundsystem) and Nick Abnett on bass. Nick established a key part of the visual identity of Sabres on stage, bass slung low, cropped hair and long leather trenchcoat. Jagz has got this line up back together and next June Primavera Sound will be graced at some point with the resurrection of Sabres Of Paradise as a live band. Jagz recently found the original sampler that he used when Sabres played live. He switched it on and it still holds within its memory banks the stems to some of those Sabres Of Paradise songs including Smokebelch and Edge 6. 

Clearly, Sabres aren't going to get together and rehearse just for one gig- I think I'm allowed to say that a UK tour is very much on the cards, as are gigs elsewhere. 

In celebration I thought a Sabres Of Paradise Sunday mix was the order of the day. I've deliberately avoided the big hitters, the tunes we all want to hear played live, and gone for some deep cuts, remixes and B-sides, the smokey, murky, dark and dubby Sabres Of Paradise.

Forty Five Minutes Of The Sabres Of Paradise

• Haunted Dancehall (Performed By In The Nursery)
• One Day (Endorphin Mix)
• Lik Wid Nit Wit
• Tow Truck (Depth Charge Mix)
• Theme III
• Jacob Street 7am
• Ysaebud
• Mother India (Sabres At Dawn Mix)

In The Nursery are from Sheffield, twin brothers who have been making music since 1981 and under a different name, Les Jumeaux, they contributed to Smokebelch. Sabres recorded and released Haunted Dancehall in 1994, their second album and the one Jagz considers to be the 'proper' Sabres album (as it was recorded as an album rather than a collection of already completed but unconnected tracks which is how Sabresonic came together). Remixes were commissioned and a remix EP Versus came out on CD with the remixes spread across 7", 10" and 12" on vinyl with versions by In The Nursery, LFO, Depth Charge, The Chemical Brothers, and Nightmares On Wax. In The Nursery took the title track and did their own version. This track had a bizarre second life when it as chosen by the BBC to be the style of music that would be played in the event of the death of the Queen and was played by Radio 1 when Diana was killed in a car crash in August 1997. Depth Charge was J Saul Kane, who made some fantastic sample laden hip hop// trip hop in the 90s and whose music has not to my knowledge been used to soundtrack the deaths of any members of the royal family. 

Sabres remixed Bjork's One Day (from her debut solo album Debut, one of 1993's best records) and the three remixes were released twice, once as Bjork Cut By The Sabres Of Paradise (two versions) and once as a Bjork remix album (titled The Best Remixes From The Album Debut For All The People Who Don't Buy White Labels) along with remixes by Underworld and Black Dog. As was the Sabres practice at the time, the three men would do a remix, then another, then another, changing tempos upwards and pushing things further. The three remixes of One Day are the beautiful slow and chilled Endorphin Mix, the Springs Eternal Mix and the Adrenaline Mix (of Come To Me). 

Lik Wid Nit Wit is a dub techno track that could be Sabres at the best, seven minutes of Andrew's vision and Jagz and Gary's playing- rim shots (that could be Gary banging a drum stick against a scaffolding pipe at Orinoco Studios), melodica, the dull thud of the 909, dub bass, the unmistakeable Weatherall '93 sound. It was played on Andrew's 1993 Essential Mix and appeared on a CD only compilation (Volume) before being re- released by A Sagittarian in 2018. Lik Wid Nit Wit also seems to be the genesis of another pair of Sabres tracks, giving birth in one way or another to both RSD and Wilmot.

Theme III was on the Theme CD single, a metallic dub of the hip hop title track. Theme 4 was on Haunted Dancehall. Theme II turned up on Select Magazine's free cassette Secret Tracks. 

Jacob Street 7am is from Haunted Dancehall, part of the run of three tracks that conclude the album and that form a psychedelic/ ambient endgame to the record and to Nicky McGuire's tour through London's grimy underbelly, as described in noir style in the sleevenotes by one James Woodbourne (actually Andrew).

Ysaebud was released as a one sided 7" single on Andrew's Special Emissions label in 1997, credited to S.O.P. From The Vaults. Easydub. The vocal sample, 'Ever since I was a youth/ I've always been searching for the truth', is from The Truth Theme by The Truth. Killer Sabres dub. 

Mother India was by Fun- Da- Mental, released in 1995 with two Sabres remixes, Sabres At Dawn and Sabres At Dusk. Each remix sounds exactly like the FDM track being redone at that time of day in the title. 

An Hour Of The Flightpath Estate AW61 Afternoon Set

This is my hour's set from last Saturday afternoon at AW61 at The Golden Lion, Todmorden, re- created at home. The photo above shows my view from the DJ booth as my set ended and the auction and raffle began- you may recognise some of the faces getting ready to bid on items from Andrew Weatherall's studio. 

Once we've got all the other sets and the evening's rotations recreated we can upload the entire thing but I thought I'd share mine in the meantime. It comes in at over an hour and I only played for an hour on the day- from memory, I mixed Biosphere's En- Trance out because the file seemed very quiet (even for an ambient track) and it is in the mix below too. I think I mixed out of Underworld's 8 Ball halfway through as well but just left it playing in full here because, really, what sort of person mixes out the second half of 8 Ball? I'd just faded the GLOK Starlight Dub of A Mountain Of One's Star in when Gig, the Golden Lion's legendary landlady, took the mic to start the auction (along with Lizzie and Sofia) so that track was left mostly unplayed- you'll have to imagine the auction and raffle taking place when you reach that point in my set (unless you were there in which case replay it in your mind). I played Emotionally Clear as the raffle ended and to provide my handover to Dan who was waiting in the wings. 

Adam's Flightpath Estate Afternoon Set At AW61

• Coyote: Western Revolution
• Durutti Column: Bordeaux Sequence
• Psychederek: Test Card Girl
• Four Tet: Loved
• Rick Cuevas: The Birds
• Biosphere: En- Trance
• Underworld: 8 Ball
• Wixel: Expressway To Yr Skull (Long Champs Bonus Beats)
• This Mortal Coil: Edit To The Siren
• Bjork: One Day
• James Holden: Common Land
• A Mountain Of One: Star (GLOK Starlight Dub)
• David Holmes and Raven Violet: Emotionally Clear

Western Revolution is Coyote's sublime edit of Gil Scott Heron's The Revolution Will Not Be Televised. I had half a mind to start with Lonely, which is from the same vinyl only EP out last year, Magic Wand Special Edition Vol. 2, but Mr Holmes played it the night before. 

Bordeaux Sequence was on The Durutti Column's 1987 album The Guitar And Other Machines, a moment of genuine beauty from Vini Reilly. It is a re- recorded version of Bordeaux from 1983's Another Setting. A couple of people in the room gave me a 'thank you for playing Durutti Column' look.

Psychederek is from Stretford, just up the road from me. Test Card Girl was a digital only single from 2023 and I'm not over it yet

Loved was a single from Four Tet, also from last year and is now the opening track on his Three album. Another 2023 song that has stuck around well into '24. 

The Birds is by Rick Cuevas, from a self - released, private pressing album called Symbolism that came out in 1984, an album described on Discogs as 'soft rock/ AOR'. I wouldn't necessarily call The Birds either- a friend once described it as 'Durutti Column on steroids' which I'm happier with. I'm fairly certain I only know of this song because of Andrew Weatherall referencing it in an interview or playing it on a radio show. 

Biosphere's En- Trance is ambient/ techno from Belgium in 1994, an album called Patashnik. It's just some synth drones and an acoustic guitar- I say 'just', it's much more than that obviously. Shame this WAV file I have is so quiet. 

Underworld's 8 Ball was on the soundtrack to The Beach, the Leonardo Di Caprio film from 2000. 8 Ball is a nine minute low key epic with fluid guitar playing and some of Karl's loveliest singing, lyrics about men with empty whiskey bottles and walkie talkies and flaming 8 ball tattoos on their arms, a man who eventually throws his arms around him. They gave this away to a soundtrack, a soundtrack where it was overshadowed a little by All Saints and Moby- most bands would kill for a tune this good and would make it a single or the track they built an album around. Someone in the Lion asked me what this was and took some convincing it was Karl on vocals.

Wixel are from Belgium (with hindsight, there's a bit of a Belgian theme running through this mix) and put out a cover of Sonic Youth's Expressway To Yr Skull in 2008, part of a seven track EP of Sonic Youth covers. The Long Champs edit turns it into a shimmering, semi -ambient haze that led to a couple of enquiries in the pub- and if you turn a couple of people onto something new to them, that's what it's all about isn't it. 

Edit To The Siren is an In The Valley edit of Song To The Siren, This Mortal Coil's signature cover of Tim Buckley's song. Someone once told me this was sacrilege but for me its got a dubby/ Balearic splendour and is perfect Saturday afternoon vibes. 

One Day is one of the key early Bjork solo songs, from 1993's Debut. The dubby bassline, house shimmer, Nellee Hooper's production and Bjork's delivery are all superb. 

Common Land was one of the tracks on James Holden's 2023 album Imagine This Is A High Dimensional Space Of All Possibilities, an album I still go back to a year later. The burbling synths, birdcall, techno- ish drums and warbling sax combine to create something very heady and transportative. It's also a tribute to the free party movement and early 90s rave and felt quite fitting for the Lion and Todmorden.

A Mountain of One's Stars Planets Dust Me was one of my favourite albums from 2022. Andy Bell's GLOK remix is a spaced out, sun- baked treat. 

Emotionally Clear is from David Holmes' Blind On A Galloping Horse, 2023's number one Bagging Area album. Seeing David Holmes bidding at the auction at AW61 from behind the decks will take some beating in 2024. 

In A Forest

The BBC re- runs of Top of The Pops have got to the end of 1995 recently. I record them and watch them in bunches, fast forwarding through the rubbish and watching the good stuff- in this way I can get through some episodes in just a few minutes, the charts in 1995 being a smorgasbord of rubbish, big selling pop, guitar bands breaking through and some genuine moments of brilliance. In late August 1995 Bjork was back at the Top Of The Pops studios promoting Isobel, the second single from her album Post. Jarvis Cocker was presenting...

Isobel is a strange choice for a single, not a natural radio friendly unit shifter but I think Bjork's confidence in 1995 was such that she did whatever she wanted to and her record company largely went along with her- I think Isobel was an important song for Bjork and she wanted it as a single. The third single would be It's So Quiet which it's fair to say crossed over. Isobel is one of post's highlights, a dramatic and enticing song with sweeping, cinematic strings, very mid- 90s percussion and a trip hop breakbeat, co- written by Nellee Hooper (who co- wrote and produced Debut). There's a sense that Isobel is a film or play condensed into song form, part of something much bigger than a five minute song. Bjork's lyrics were co- written with Icelandic poet Sjon, and a based on a story Bjork wrote about a girl who goes back to live in a forest. The lyrics were sparked a year earlier in 1994 by a moth that Bjork found in her collar one day and which stayed there until the evening. She saw the moth as an omen and went off creating a story and a person around it, writing apparently 900 pages of a diary. On the verge of mania and almost throwing the book away, but wanting the song to be completed for her next album, she contacted Sjon, explained it all to him and they collaborated on the lyric. 

On Eurotrash (!) in 1995 she explained the story of Isobel- 

'She [Isobel] was born in a forest by a spark, and as she grew up, she realized that the pebbles on the forest floor were actually skyscrapers. And by the time she was a grown-up woman and the skyscrapers had taken over the forest, she found herself in a city, and she didn't like all the people there so much, because they were a bit too clever for her.

She decided to send to the world, all these moths that she had trained to go and fly all over the world and go inside windows of people's houses— the ones that were too clever— and they'd sit on their shoulder and remind them to stop being clever and start to function by their instincts. They do that by saying "Nah-nah-nan-nah-nah!" to them... and then they'd say "Oh! Sorry! I was being all clever there!", and start functioning on instinct'

Isobel is isolated, lives by herself In the city she danced on tables and fell in love with the wrong people so she returned to the forest, living in isolation. It seems fairly clear that Isobel is at least partly autobiographical and in the song Bjork switches between third person and first person. It's a superb, dramatic and complex combination of words and music- pitched among the sheer madness of mid- 90s Top of The Pops it almost seems like a completely different artform. 

Isobel

Bjork has said that Isobel is part of a song cycle, preceded by Human Behaviour (from Debut in  1993) where Isobel is a little girl, living with animals, happier in the natural world than with people. Human Behaviour is one of the best songs on Debut, and that's saying something, a bouncing house beat and typically outstanding vocal. 

Human Behaviour 

Bacholorette was on 1997's Homogenic, part three of the story, more strings and timpani and another co- write with Sjon, and sees Isobel go to the city, finds things not working out and returns to the city. 

Bacholorette

In the 00s Bjork added two further songs to the Isobel song cycle- Oceania from Medulla from 2004 and Wanderlust from 2007's Volta. Oceania is sung from the point of view of the ocean, all human life emerging from it and a place with no borders, races or religions. Again Sjon was on board lyrically. This song, the last recorded for Medulla, was commissioned by the International Olympic Committee for the 2004 Athens games opening ceremony. That's some journey Ms. Gudmundsdottir has made, from Icelandic punk to Top Of The Pops to the Athens Olympic games. 

Forty Minutes Of Fluke

From the moment I first heard the needle find the groove and the opening synth wobble of Fluke's Philly poured into the room, some time in spring 1991, I loved the sheer joy of the song- the 'put your hands up high' vocal line, the pump of the acid house drums and bass, the start of a new decade feel it provoked. Their albums from 1991, The Techno Rose Of Blighty and Out (In Essence) brought more of the same- house, synth- pop, downtempo, seamlessly brought together in a streamlined, mid tempo rush. Mike Tournier, Mike Bryant and Jon Fugler formed Fluke in the late 80s, and released five albums before calling time in 2003. Their early 90s records are as much a part of my record collection at that time as any others, the sound and feel of the early 90s wrapped up. 

Forty Minutes Of Fluke

• The Bells (Mix 1)
• Philly (Jamorphous Mix)
• The Garden Of Blighty 
• Slid (Hypogasmix)
• Joni
• Big Time Sensuality (The Moulimix)
• Taxi

The Bells was a 1991 single, a track with three mixes (1, 2 and 3) and punningly titled 'The Peal Sessions', with a vocal conflating ecstasy and Jesus. 

Philly (Jamorphous) first came out in 1990, a 12" on Creation backed with two further mixes- Jameoba and Jamateur. It was then the opening track on Creation's Keeping The Faith compilation twelve track album released in spring 1991 that was as good record of the time as any other- alongside Philly were the likes of Sheer Taft's Cascades, Weatherall's remix of My Bloody Valentine, Hypnotone, Primal Scream, Love Corporation, J.B.C's cover of The Rolling Stones' We Love You and World Unite. 

The version of The Garden Of Blighty here is from Out (In Essence), a five track live album Fluke released in 1991, a gloriously uptempo document of their sound at the time.

The Hypogasmix of Slid, remixed by Tom Middleton of Global Communications, came out on the Absurd EP in 1997, the pick of four remixes and one which sounds as fresh today as it did in 1997. Slid was on their 1993 album Six Wheels On My Wagon, a typically optimistic blend of club rhythms and melody, songs and beats, sequenced so it started out poppy and full of hooks and gradually becoming more ambient and experimental. 

Joni samples Joni Mitchell and first saw the light of day on a self released white label in 1990. The B-side was Taxi (a nod to Joni and her Big Yellow Taxi). Joni was then included on The techno Rose Of Blighty album. Joni is very much a progressive house thumper.

Fluke remixed Bjork several times, two versions of Big Time Sensuality in 1993 and two of Violently Happy from '94. The two remixes of Big Time Sensuality are among my favourite records, part of the fabric of my life in 1993/ 1994. The shorter, slower Minimix is a stunner but the longer, faster Moulimix was the one required here. 

You're On Your Own Now

1995's Top Of The Pops repeats continue to reward, frustrate and amuse in equal parts. This recent clip was definitely in the reward section. April, 1995, Bjork singing Army Of Me, a piledriving and huge sounding song with Ms Gudmundsdottir issuing stern words to a boyfriend. In the clip she looks extraordinary, standing on the very lip of the stage, the audience visibly shrinking back slightly in her presence, dressed in an enormous black, floor length puffball skirt and a Ren And Stimpy t- shirt. 

Army Of Me was a single from her second solo album, 1995's Post. Co- written by Graham Massey, it is led by a weather system of a bassline, one that could have been borrowed from the heaviest metal song and then slowed down and made louder. Bjork issues instructions - 'stand up/ You've got to manage/ You're alright/ There's nothing wrong/ Self sufficiency please'. Futuristic modern dance/ rock and streets ahead of the rest of the pack. In classic random Top of The Pops style, they go straight from Bjork to Deuce, a shockingly identikit two boy two girl Europop foursome who finished third in the race to represent the UK at Eurovision. Watching the episode segue from Bjork's otherworldly and electrifying performance to Deuce is one of those moments where you just have to shake your head and applaud the brain scrambling quirks of mid 90s pop television. 

Army Of Me

Two weeks later she was back with Skunk Anansie for a different version of the song, an episode presented by a very cool looking Whigfield, with a version that is furiously mid- 90s industrial rock, Skin and Bjork giving it all and singing live. 

The Skunk Anansie version came out on CD2 back when record companies released multiple versions across multiple releases. This was one where both CDs were packed full of goodies.  

Army Of Me (feat. Skunk Anansie)

The CD single also included Graham Massey's Masseymix which distorts everything further, slows the pitch down and chops it up, a total deconstruction job. 

Army Of Me (Masseymix)

In honour of Bjork's t- shirt in the first Army Of Me performance, here's some classic Ren and Stimpy, Space Madness, with Ren losing his mind. Again. 

Forty Minutes Of Justin Robertson Remixes

A few of Justin Robertson's early 90s remixes today, chunky beats and tempos, samples and trumpets- lots of trumpets- and indie bands transformed into dancefloor monsters. Ideal for the spring sunshine that has finally arrived this weekend in this part of the world. 

Forty Minutes Of Justin Robertson Remixes

• The Sugarcubes: Birthday (Justin Robertson 12" Mix)
• The Stone Roses: Waterfall (Justin Robertson's Mix)
• Bjork: Big Time Sensuality (Justin Robertson Lionrock Wigout) 
• Lionrock: Packet Of Peace (No More Fucking Trumpets)
• Yargo: The Love Revolution (Justin Robertson's Scream Team Remix)
• Inspiral Carpets: Caravan (No Windscreen Mix)

Justin's remix of Birthday by The Sugarcubes turns singular Icelandic post- punk oddness into seven minutes of dub loveliness. Released on vinyl in 1992 along with remixes from Jim and William Reid and Tommy D.

I was of the opinion once that remixes of songs by The Stone Roses were totally unnecessary. I've come round to some of them, not least this remix of Waterfall, Reni's drums replaced by a skippy drumbeat, some echo- laden cymbal splashes and Ian's voice sitting above the music with John's guitar drizzled on top.

Big Time Sensuality was inescapable in 1993, not least in Manchester's clubs and bars, and enjoyed every time. I met my wife on the dancefloor at Paradise Factory dancing to it. Justin's remix, in his Lionrock guise, was a big hitter too, a slo- mo groove, with those massive trumpets and Bjork's barely contained sense of gleeful abandon.

Justin, Mark Stagg and rapper MC Buzz B were Lionrock. Packet Of Peace was their 1993 12". The remix here is Justin's own Lionrock remix of Lionrock and clearly by the title,  he'd had enough of his signature trumpet sound by this point. I can keep enjoying those trumpets ad infinitum.

Yargo were Manchester's best kept secret, an urban funk/ soul/ blues group graced by the honeyed voice of Basil Clarke who are probably best known for their song of the same name being the title music to Tony Wilson's Other Side Of Midnight, a semi- legendary music programme from the late 80s (which The Stone Roses appeared on, playing Waterfall- see above). The Love Revolution came out as a 12" in 1990 with co- vocals by guest singer Zoe Griffin and samples the drums from Fool's Gold. Yargo's 1987 album Bodybeat is something of a lost classic. The follow up, 1989's Communicate, didn't manage to crossover outside Manchester but is (again,) one of the period's lost gems. As is this remix

I posted this Justin Robertson remix of Inspiral Carpets a couple of weeks ago, a 1991 acid house banger complete with the 'you play consciousness expanding material' vocal sample and general '91 madness. A numbered 12" vinyl release in a run of 10, 000. 10, 000!

An Hour Of Björk

A month ago Khayem did a fairly definitive recreation of a Björk mixtape centred around her 1993 solo debut Debut. I'd been planning on doing a Björk Sunday mix here for some time and almost shelved the idea but a few days ago decided to go ahead. Debut and its surrounding singles and remixes are massively important songs and records for me, so resonant of a time in my life where it seems looking back like it was perpetual weekend. In Big Time Sensuality she sings, 'I don't know my future after this weekend/ And I don't want to', a line summing up how life felt. Almost everywhere we went Björk's songs were being played, stitched into the fabric of mid- 90s nightlife. When my then flatmate brought Debut home we played it constantly, the album seeping into our every day life. If I had to draw up a list of the albums which mean the most to me, Debut would be on it. It's hugely innovative too, Björk and producer Nellee Hooper inspired by the previous few years changes and freedoms, the sounds and rhythms, creating something self contained, optimistic, joyous and life affirming, a record in love with itself and with endless possibility. 

I've expanded the mix below beyond Debut but there's nothing post- 1997, it's all 20th century Björk. Her output from the 21st century can be obtuse and bewildering at times (and incredible at others), and it needs a mix of its own. My Sunday mixes have tended to be between thirty and forty five minutes long, the ideal length for a trip out (or one side of a tape, subconsciously maybe). Once I started this one it just kept getting longer and having reached the forty minute mark I couldn't leave off Underworld's marathon remix of Human Behaviour so what we have here is an hour of Björk Guðmundsdóttir, her unique vision and singing accompanied by a cast of like minded collaborators- the production of Nellee Hooper is an essential part of Debut and Graham Massey of 808 State played a pivotal role in her solo adventures beyond the Sugarcubes as the 80s became the 90s. Listening back to this last night I was struck by how good everything here still sounds, from the giddy skipping pop- acid house of Big Time Sensuality to the dislocating oddness of The Black Dog's version of The Anchor Song. She's brilliant and we're lucky to have her.  

An Hour Of  Björk

• One Day (Sabres of Paradise Endorphin Mix)
• Ooops
• Big Time Sensuality (Fluke Minimix)
• Violently Happy (Fluke Well Tempered Mix)
• There's More To Life Than This (Recorded Live In The Milk Bar Toilets)
• Hyperballad
• Venus As A Boy (7" Dream Mix)
• Army Of Me
• The Anchor Song (The Black Dog Mix)
• QMart
• Human Behaviour (Underworld Remix 110BPM)
• You've Been Flirting Again (Icelandic Version)

One Day was remixed not once but three times by Andrew Weatherall's Sabres Of Paradise. All three are superb, increasing in length, intensity and tempo. There was a 10" single with two of the remixes, the Endorphin Mix and the Springs Eternal Mix titled Björk Cut By Sabres, and then a six track compilation in 1994 called The Best Mixes From The Debut Album For People Who Don't Buy White Labels which rounded up all three Sabres remixes, the twelve minute Underworld monster and the two Black Dog remixes. I included The Black Dog's remix of The Anchor Song here too although it could easily have been the one of Come To Me. Such is the embarrassment of riches of Björk all six remixes could have/ should have been included here.

In 1991 808 State released ex:el, one of the period's  best dance albums although it tends to get a bit overlooked now. Björk's co- wrote and sang on two songs, the magnificent, slow burning sex- techno of Ooops and QMart. This sparked a long running song- writing partnership with 808's Graham Massey. Björk had loved 808 State's 1989 album 90 and phoned them up out of the blue looking for some help with drum programming. She flew to Manchester the next day. The 808 State boys showed Björk round the sights and clubs of Manchester and wrote and recorded at various studios in the area. 

Big Time Sensuality is off Debut, a song about being in love with going out and dancing, the sheer giddiness and delight evident in her vocal. The video, filmed in black and white on the back of a flatbed truck with Björk in a long silver dress is so of the time too. This song as much as any reminds me of 1993/4- it was played constantly in the flat I lived in, the remixes played in every club around town and me and Lou pretty much met on the dancefloor while it was being spun at Paradise Factory in Manchester. The Fluke Minimix is the version for me but there are some other remixes that hit the spot too, not least Justin Robertson's (not included here). Fluke also remixed Violently Happy (two versions) another single from Debut. 

Two more songs from Debut are on the mix- There's More To Life Than This is an astonishing song from an album full of them, full of manic Björk energy, and the jaw dropping moment she records the sound of the Milk Bar, running from the dance floor to the toilets, closing the door and then coming out again. I also love the way she sings 'ghetto blaster'. Venus As A Boy, the second single from Debut, is absurdly good, marrying post- club ambient sounds with tabla. The version here is the 7" Dream Mix, a mix by Mick Hucknall and Gota Yashiki. This marks the only appearance of the Simply Red singer at this blog. 

Hyperballad is from her second solo album Post, released in 1995, an exhilarating fusion of folk, acid house and synth pop. Hyperballad swoops in and out, as if the song is dropping from a height and shooting then back up again, head spinning production and vision. Post has several such moments- Possibly Maybe should possibly, maybe, also have been included on this mix.

Army Of Me came out in 1995, the lead single from Post. It's her most streamed song on Spotify which suggests its her most popular song. Björk and Graham Massey wrote Army Of Me in a terraced house in Gatley that belonged to a mate of Massey's and had a home studio set up. Gatley's not that far from here, I pass through often on my bike. The idea of Björk popping out from one of the houses to nip to the shop in the mid- 90s in a break from writing is bizarre and amusing. From such humble, suburban beginnings does great music appear- Army Of Me is a force of nature, the bassline alone more a landslide than a musical element and the pulverising industrial drums contain a sample from Led Zeppelin's John Bonham. The final song on this mix, You've Been Flirting Again (Icelandic Version) was on the Army Of Me CD single, the orchestral strings bringing things to a dramatic conclusion. 

Triumph Of A Heart

We've been away for the weekend, spending two very enjoyable days in Sheffield and a walk in the Peak District yesterday. Late on Saturday night we started playing songs and videos from YouTube through the TV and this piece of brilliance was selected...

Triumph Of A Heart came out in 2005, the closing song on Björk's Medulla album. I haven't heard Medulla and this song and video were new to me. The video, directed by Spike Jonze (of course) is filmed in and around Reykjavik and features Björk driving off from her house into town for a night out, disappointed as she is with her husband. Who is a cat. 

Triumph Of A Heart

The song is a riotous musical adventure too, with human trombone sounds courtesy of Gregory Purnhagen, beatboxing, orchestral strings, synths, and Björk singing 'just celebrating the body, cells doing rollercoasters rides up and down your body'. Mark Bell from LFO is on board and beatboxing comes from Dokaka and Rahzel.  The version of the song in the video is different from the one on Medulla, mixing the album version and the Audition Mix from CD single 2 I think, making a superior version but either way Triumph Of A Heart is great fun, bouncy, idiosyncratic, cacophonous, celebratory pop music. 

The video is a blast- the part where Björk nips to the toilet, the song stops and the rest of her party step in and begin beatboxing and making all kinds of vocal noises is superb. She then goes off, falls over, bangs her head, stumbles around and is eventually rescued in the car by her feline husband. Back at the house they kiss, the cat grows to human size and they dance around the living room. 

Marzipan Fingers Then Marble Hands

I was listening to The Sugarcubes a while ago, sparked by a Twitter account that posts photographs of pages from the music press, in particular a run of issues of NME and Melody Maker from 1989. The Sugarcubes featured often in the live reviews, single and album reviews and interviews from that year. The Sugarcubes had hit the UK music scene hard when Life's Too Good was released in 1988. John Peel fell heavily for the single Birthday the year before, a song that sounded like little else- strange avant- pop about a girl who keeps spiders in her pocket and collects fly wings in a jar, sung in a unique voice. The album followed, a rush of post- punk, dance- pop played by a group of Icelandic punk veterans, spiky guitars, metallic drums, funky rhythms and a manic optimism with Bjork's squeals, hiccups and singing and Einar's spoken word voice. Delicious Demon, Motor Crash and Fucking In Rhythm And Sorrow were all perfect, wide eyed indie pop with audible punk roots but made for spinning round the floor to. Einar's interjections were funny, a counter balance to Bjork's otherworldliness. On Deus they muse about the existence of God. 

Deus

The indie holy trio of Peel, NME and Melody Maker banged their drum throughout 1988. The Sugarcubes had front covers and went to the US, the album sold well. What the NME and Melody Maker cuttings on Twitter made clear was how sour the relationship turned and how quickly. The group's punk nature was never far from the surface. They became suspicious of all the fawning and didn't always take interviews seriously. The NME and MM printed stories about the band eating puffins and put their focus on Bjork (naturally maybe). This upset the rest of the band who wanted them to be seen as a group, a democracy, not Bjork and The Sugarcubes.  Einar especially seemed prickly about it. As 1988 became 1989 The Sugarcubes released album number 2, Here Today, Tomorrow Next Week! the NME and Melody Maker turned on the band, slagging the album (and listening to it again recently there's no denying it's a much weaker set of songs) and attacking Einar's contributions especially. It's amazing reading some of the reviews three decades later how vitriolic and personal some of the articles in the music press were (not just the ones about The Sugarcubes, more generally articles like weekly pages of singles reviews where bands, singers and individuals get savaged by whichever critic was in the chair that week. At the time it seemed funny I guess, and a bit edgy, a bit punk but it reads pretty cruelly now. There was a review of a Wedding Present single that read like Gedge and the boys had committed a war crime and I was left thinking that a bit of perspective was needed, it's just some indie pop). 

I saw The Sugarcubes play at Liverpool Royal Court in October 1989, a gig reviewed by one of the two papers. The journalist was in the tour bus with them, reporting on the tensions and reviewing the gig. Things clearly got to Einar. That night in Liverpool he jumped off the stage to remonstrate with a heckler, grabbing hold of him in the pit. By that point there were plenty of fans who were wondering why Bjork needed a second  vocalist alongside her, shouting lines in the gaps between her singing. On record Einar's vocals made more sense. Live his presence as a shouter/ dancer was part of the band's punk roots. Hot Meat came out as a B-side, a version of Cold Sweat from Life's Too Good, Bjork and Einar perfectly in balance with each other. 

Hot Meat

By the time of 1992's Stick Around For Joy the spark had gone and Bjork was already planning a solo career. She'd spent much of 1989 and 1990 in Manchester and London, soaking up the club scene. She'd recorded with 808 State, the wondrous Ooops coming out as a single and featuring on 1991's ex:el album (as well as another song Qmart). Bjork and 808's Graham Massey would write together throughout the 90s. 

Stick Around For Joy had a decent single in it though- Hit- which obviously became one, their highest chart position achieved just before splitting up. 

Hit

Fifty

Today is my wife's 50th birthday and obviously that's the kind of milestone you can't miss. We will be having a slightly scaled down Covid friendly birthday (due to Isaac's ongoing immune system and vulnerability issues) but there are a week of activities ahead and today we will do presents, cake, balloons, a night away and everybody loves you. Happy birthday. 

Back when we first met in 1994 we spent a lot of time clubbing. Big Time Sensuality by Bjork was one of our tunes, a heady, euphoric ode to the weekend, to dancing, to joy and being alive- 'I don't know my future after this weekend/ And I don't want to!' The video, filmed on the back of a flatbed truck in New York is so of the time too and what Bjork's clothes always remind me of Lou then. 

Of all the mixes and versions available I think this is the killer, Fluke absolutely getting everything exactly right. 

Big Time Sensuality (The Fluke Minimix)

Two Suns Ready To Shine Just For You

Last Thursday The Vinyl Villain posted a review of Bjork's Debut from the NME in 1993. Debut is one of the musical high points of the 90s, a record that is giddily in love with music and possibilities of sound. Producer Nellee Hooper constructed the perfect sonic palette for Bjork's ideas. Songs like There's More To Life Than This, Big Time Sensuality and Violently Happy reflected the club culutre of the times, nights Bjork had spent with 808 State soaking up the music and the spirit of the times. On One Day they produced a real gem, a song that starts out with a little synth part and a giggling child, a beautiful bassline and then a heartbeat kick drum before Ms. Gudmundsdottir swoops in. The part at one minute nine seconds where the song shifts gear is heart-stopping and there are some beautiful little sonic touches- a bent guitar note, some backwards wobbles, a whistle. Bjork meanwhile sings her heart out 'one day/ it will happen/ one day/ it will all make sense' and 'I can feel it'

One Day

Andrew Weatherall and the Sabres Of Paradise boys produced three remixes of One Day. On the Endorphin mix they keep Bjork's vocal but slow things down to a glacial pace with a booming kettle drum underpinnng it.

One Day (Endorphin Mix)

Never Get To Zion Without Jah Love

Bringing together several recent themes today I'm offering you some prime Underworld remixes from the mid 90s, a time when we could actually feel fairly optimistic about the world.

Underworld have been all over my stereo recently with the Drift Series 1 Sampler (posted at the weekend). In addition the 90s incarnation of Underworld (Hyde, Smith and Emerson) were at The Vinyl Villain fairy recently with their epic ten minute remix of Human Behaviour- a beat heavy, tribal techno delight, Bjork skipping into the night, called by the drums.

Dreadzone have made a career out of righteous dance- floor based sounds, dub, reggae, techno and progressive house mixed into a heady stew with some politics in there to shake it all up. In Zion Youth singer Earl 16 give the wrongdoers a simple message- heads up Tories...

'You'll never get to Zion without Jah love
Never reach that land you're dreaming of
You must be good you must be careful
Live upright like you know you should...

...No evildoers will be there
No backstabbers will be there'

This remix is a ten minute long excursion- a looped keyboard part, Earl's voice, some echoey, whooshing noises bouncing around and those trademark Underworld rhythms building up a head of steam. There's a break down at eight minutes in and then it's all back on the dub techno train to the fade.

Zion Youth (Underworld Mix)

I have pondered before about an Underworld remix album, a compilation of the cream of their 90s remixes, and am really surprised no one ever put one out, especially in the heyday of CDs when a double disc remix edition would have surely been a winner.

This one from 1993 would have made the cut, a thirteen minute rejigging of William Orbit's Water From A Vine Leaf, a stomping chugger of the highest order. In among all the sonics there's a magnificent piano riff that is worth the price of entry alone, a parping synth part, a nagging upper register synth riff that goes straight to the back of the brain, a snatch of Beth Orton's vocal and a squiggly acid bassline that would cut straight through the dry ice- layers of sounds aimed at feet and the head.

Water From A Vine Leaf (Underwater Mix Part 1) 

Here's the 1993 remix of Bjork, the 110 BPM version from the A-side of the 12". On the flip was a faster one, the 125 BPM Dub, but to my mind this is the pick of the pair. The build up alone is longer (and better) than many songs. This sort of thing could pack a dance-floor tight in the early/mid 90s.

Human Behaviour (The Underworld Mix 110BPM)

This could run and run and I have posted some of these before- there are some heavy duty One Dove remixes, a pair of very techno Chemical Brothers bangers, a tasty remix of The Drum Club's Sound System, a fifteen minute St Etienne remix, Orbital's Lush and some outliers like Front 242 and Shakespeare's Sister (neither of which it seems I own either digitally of physically).

Bjork, Graham And Justin

Bjork in 1993 was a joy, making records that were fully influenced by club culture, records filled with rhythm and joie de vivre that also sounded great. She was a joy to look at too. Her songs were remixed to great effect by the best people of the day- I've posted the Sabres Of Paradise mixes of One Day before, Black Dog warped her and the Fluke versions of Big Time Sensuality are the definite versions for me. There are two more here, one from 808 State's Graham Massey, a man in large part responsible for Bjork's dancefloor experiences in and around Manchester in the early 90s, and one from Justin Robertson, resident of an M postcode at the time.

Big Time Sensuality (Justin Robertson's Prankster's Joyride)

Violently Happy (Graham Massey Long Mix)

Well Tempered

Fluke were a British acid house/techno group who put out a very good album on Creation (The Techno Rose Of Blighty, 1991) and went on to release several others and then went on to provide music for film soundtracks (The Matrix amongst others). But in some ways their best work was the remixes they did of other artists in the early 90s. They worked on several singles for Bjork's Debut including the definitive version of Big Time Sensuality and this magnificent, shimmering, rushing, dancefloor reworking of Violently Happy.

Violently Happy (Fluke Well Tempered)

This remix of  Spooky was the fourth single from their 1993 Republic album (and there is a sign of how things had changed- New Order on Factory would never have done something as major label as releasing 4 singles off an album). One of the (few) highlights of the album and its related singles were the 3 remixes Fluke did of Spooky.

Spooky (Magimix)

This Wasn't Supposed To Happen

I was in Top Shop the other day- with my teenage daughter, just to provide some context- and this song started playing over the in-store sound system.

Hit

It took me a moment to place it but it sounded really good, thumping away over the bright lights and rails of clothes. Its unexpectedness, a 27 year old song in among what they'd been playing beforehand, was part of it. But it sounded good on its own terms too- the loose early 90s drums, the synth horns and funky guitar riff and Bjork's vocals (Einar's contribution too). I always think that as a band they never matched the songs on Life's Too Good but at the tail end of 2017 I was proved wrong. I'm happy to be proved wrong with music.

As a bonus here they are on The Word in December 1991 (the sound is a bit patchy I'm afraid).

Motorcrash

In August 1987 The Sugarcubes released Birthday, an instant indie hit thanks to John Peel and the music press, a record so different and otherworldly that almost on its own it took the band round the world. I've posted it before, twice. The following year they put out Life's Too Good, an album with Birthday plus nine slices of high octane Icelandic guitar-pop. I've included many of them, Delicious Demon and Fucking In Rhythm And Sorrow especially, on compilation tapes and mix cds ever since. Motorcrash was the last single from the lp, released to promote their US tour at the end of '88, a tour which saw them wined and dined and play at The Ritz in New York with Bowie and Iggy in attendance.

Motorcrash

During the American tour they played Saturday Night Live, which you can watch here. The performance by co-vocalist Einar Orn which illustrates exactly why Bjork would eventually go solo. In this clip they play Auburn, Alabama with similar results- blistering band, brilliant lead vocalist, irritating co-vocalist.

The Gate

It seems to me that at some point around the turn of the millennium Bjork lost the sense of fun that characterised her 90s solo work. Debut and Post were informed by dance music and possibility, inventive and arty at the same time, but full of life and with a pop sensibility. She has continued to make art but the artier its become, the more multimedia the packages, the more difficult I've found it to engage with and enjoy. Often very impressive but not always that much fun. Her last album was a traumatic divorce record. I understand why she made it but I haven't played it very often. She's just released a new song called The Gate, the first from a new album, and it is about rebirth, hope, moving forward, a utopia compared the the self described 'hell' of Vulnicura. The video is dazzling, a bit hippy-dippy, but dazzling. The song is over six minutes long and while it never quite leaps forward and takes off like I expected it to the first time I heard it, it sounds a step into the light and part of an album that might be fun to listen to.

And as a reminder of what she gave us back in 1993 here's Come To Me, a song about the giddiness of falling in love and absolute devotion, set to a some softly padding drums, a haze of synths and sounds, and strings that sweep in to set your skin ablaze.

Come To Me

Squeaky

I mentioned LFO yesterday so it seems appropriate to follow up with something from their back catalogue. LFO were a Leeds based duo (Jez Varley and Mark Bell) who put out bass heavy techno and bleep 'n' bass on Sheffield's Warp Records. This track is a monster, the first track on their 1991 ep What Is House? Not as sparse as yesterday's Testone, Squeaky has a long, winding, descending synth noise, tough drums and lashings of sub-bass. Pretty abstract and in many ways quite extreme.

Squeaky

Jez left in 1996 leaving Mark on his own as LFO. He went on to work extensively with Bjork, remixing her and becoming part of her band for her Homogenic and Volta tours. This remix of Possibly Maybe chops up and distorts Bjork so much it bears little relation to the original song. Sadly, Mark Bell died in 2014.

Every Morning I Walk Towards The Edge

I was reminded of this song on social media the other day and it re-awakened the song for me. Hyperballad swoops in from somewhere else, from Bjork's imagination and Nellee Hooper's fingertips, picks you up and carries you off for a few minutes, somewhere else entirely. Not so much a song, more a force of nature. There's nothing ordinary, prosaic or run-of-the-mill about Hyperballad. Bjork's own explanations of it, about being a few years into a relationship and making it feel alive and 'the art of not forgetting about yourself' add to the song (sometimes when artists explain what I song is about I wish they hadn't bothered). The music sweeps by in a rush of rhythms and textures, brilliantly and beautifully.

Hyperballad

Lift Going Up

A couple of weeks ago I posted 808 State and Bjork's Ooops off 1991's Ex:el album. Ctel then posted a recent remix of In Yer Face from the same album so I went back and listened to the whole thing for the first time in ages. 1991 has been all over the internet in the last few days, mainly because September 1991 saw the release of Screamadelica, Teenage Fanclub's Bandwagonesque, Nirvana's Nevermind and A Tribe Called Qwest's Low End Theory amongst others. Not a bad month all things considered. In November My Bloody Valentine put out Loveless. Ex:el came out in May so pre-empted the autumn rush but what a good album it is. Both Bjork songs are superb, In Yer Face is techno heaven, then there's the Bernard Sumner sung Spanish Heart, Cubik, Olympic and the spooky Nefertiti. It also uses the Willy Wonka Gene Wilder sample- 'we are the music makers and we are the dreamers of dreams'. Tucked away inside Ex:el is this, Lift, a wonderful, uplifting, updating of Kraftwerk with rave drums.

Lift