Oblique Saturdays

 

A series for Saturdays in 2026 inspired by Brian Eno and Peter Schmidt's set of cards, Oblique Strategies (Over One Hundred Worthwhile Dilemmas). Eno and Schmidt created them to be used to unblock creative impasses and approach problems from unexpected angles. Each week I'll turn over an Oblique Strategy card and post a song or songs inspired by the suggestion. 

Last week's suggestion was Breathe more deeply.

My responses were some deeply heavy dub techno from Basic Channel and Deanne Day's Hardly Breathe, Weatherall and Harrow mid- 90s deep house/ techno. Both encouraging deeper breathing. The Oblique Saturdays crowd made some excellent and varied suggestions- Blu Cantrelle's Breath, Kylie's Breathe, Warren Zevon's French Inhaler, Thandi Ntuli and Carlos Nino's experimental breathing, Kate Bush, Serge and Jane engaging in deeper and heavier breathing, Massive Attack's Teardrop and Aggelein by Valium. Thank you Jake, Khayem, Rol, Ernie, Jase, Iggy, Walter and Scaley Pecker for your contributions. Here's Kylie from 1998 with a song that as Scaley observed has a touch of William Orbit's Ray Of Light production about it.

Breathe

This week's card said this- Abandon normal instruments.

Eno was surely a man who would gladly abandon normal instruments. At first I thought about Einsturzende Neubauten, Blixa Bargeld and co. using homemade instruments constructed from scrap metal and tools, wielding angle grinders, hammers and metal plates and with jackhammers drilling through the stage at the ICA. This is Kollaps, eight minutes of industrial and experimental sounds from West Berlin in 1981...

I also remembered Jagz Kooner and Gary Burns describing Sabres Of Paradise recording what would become Sabresonic in London in 1993 and they mic'ed up Gary banging a scaffolding pole with a wrench and shaking a tray of matches to create the drum and percussion sounds for Smokebelch. 

Smokebelch (Exit)

Back in October 1988 I went to a gig at Liverpool Royal Court, a triple bill headlined by Billy Bragg with support from Michelle Shocked. The first act on the bill were The Beatnigs, a San Francisco band who combined punk, industrial and hip hop and played the bonnet of a VW Beetle with metal chains, a rotary saw and a grinder. I don't have any Beatnigs recordings but Michael Franti and Rono Tse would go on to become The Disposable Heroes Of Hiphoprisy and reworked one of the songs from Beatnig days in the new band, a hip hop/ spoken word, alt/ industrial classic from 1992. 

Television, The Drug Of the Nation

Lastly I thought about Tom Waits and especially 1999's Mule Variations, an album which uses normal instruments- brass, violin, bass, guitars, harp, pump organ and also turntables and samples- but sounds like it was made in a junkyard using bits of metal and old car parts. What's he building in there?

Feel free to abandon normal instruments and give up your suggestions in the comment box

Monday's Long Song

'Gimme an F'

'F!'

'Gimme a 'U'

'U!'

'Gimme a C'

'C'

'Gimme a K'

'K'

'What's that spell?'

'Fuck!'

'What's that spell?'

'Fuck!'

What's that spell?'

'Fuck!'

Deep voice 'War'

This artist- audience exchange is sampled from the 1969 film of the Woodstock festival, Country Joe and The Fish protesting about Vietnam in front of quarter of a million kids*. It kicks off the DSS remix of We Wanna Live by Sandals, a 1993 single on the band's own Open Toe label. The drums rumble in and vocalist/ poet Derek Delves begins his address. 

'Think you know what's right? Think you know what's wrong? How long? Well, it's anybody's guess, we all wake up, get out of this mess...'

We Wanna Live (DSS Remix)

The drums and percussion, courtesy of the four Sandals and on this remix Ashley Beedle, David Holmes, Jagz Kooner and Gary Burns, thump and rattle, everything part of a deep and murky, progressive house sonic stew, acid house that's been through the wringer and is now on the other side of the mother of all comedowns. 

Well, it's late 1993 yeah, over five years since the summer of love, two decades since the dawning of the Age of Aquarius, two years since the first Gulf War, three since the Soviets left Afghanistan, two since Thatcher went, five since Reagan left, four since the Berlin Wall came down and the Cold War suddenly ended and the Soviet Union fractured. Yugoslavia is becoming an ex- state, a civil war and sectarian murder, genocide, already underway. 

In Oslo the PLO and Israel, led by the US President Bill Clinton,  announce a peace process aimed at establishing self- government for Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank. A joint declaration about a peace process in Northern Ireland is issued, paving the way for the Good Friday Agreement five years later. 

'If we don't wake up/ We don't get out of this mess'

'We wanna live!'

There's a sitar, raga scales running down, synths and at seven minutes a breakdown, crowd noise and then a lone voice shouting, 'Party!' and the crowd chanting it back, 'Party!'.

Derek returns. 'How long?' 

Flute, more whispered poetry and more questions. 

The questions remain the same. And now, March 2026, there are psychopaths in the White House. No restraint. No control. Reveling in their power to kill. 

'What's that spell?'

* In a weird coincidence, an hour after writing this post I saw that Country Joe McDonald's death had been announced. He died aged 84 due to complications from living with Parkinson's disease. RIP Country Joe. 

Fifty Minutes Of Ambient Weatherall

A few days ago I revisited Andrew Weatherall's 2nd January 2020 show for NTS, a largely ambient and instrumental two hour mix he famously described as 'dusting the ornaments on the mantelpiece of your mind'.

It's a deeply affecting two hours that sets off with Prana Crafter's guitar ambience and goes deep into the psychic world of sound with a perfectly selected and sequenced set with tracks from Vito Ricci, G.S. Schray, Machete Savane, Anu Luz, Luke Sanger, Karen Gwyer, Neptune, Stephen Legget, Ana Bogner, Constantine and Christos Sakerillaridis, Felsmann and Tiley, Dream Diary, Terry Riley and Don Cherry, Ryan Teague, D.A.R.F.D.H.S., Luca Bacchetti, and Darryl Parsons. The list of artists alone indicates the range and scope of the man's musical knowledge and crate digging. Sonic adventuring leading to catharsis. 

Andrew Weatherall NTS 2nd January 2020

Andrew didn't create a huge amount of ambient music but it's definitely there throughout his back catalogue, one of the many strands that made him. When you listen to the ambient tracks from his Sabres Of Paradise or two Lone Swordsmen days and then play some from later on, the solo and Woodleigh Research Facility years, there's a striking coherence, the drones and synth sounds all fitting together into one larger whole. At least, that's the way it seemed to me when I put some of them together in a fifty minute mix. It's not entirely ambient- Andrew was never far away from a drum machine or drum sample- but it's an ambient inspired mix for Sunday. 

Fifty Minutes Of Ambient- ish Andrew Weatherall

• Two Lone Swordsmen: The Crescents
• Andrew Weatherall and Michael Smith: The Deep Hum (At The Heart Of It All)
• Two Lone Swordsmen: Hope We Never Surface
• Two Lone Swordsmen: As Worldly Pleasures Wave Goodbye...
• Two Lone Swordsmen: It's Not The Worst I've Ever Looked... Just The Most I've Ever Cared
• Woodleigh Research Facility: Gardens Dub
• Woodleigh Research Facility: Emancipation Garage
• Woodleigh Research Facility: Alma Coogan
• The Sabres Of Paradise: Chapel Street Market 9AM

The Crescents was originally only to be found on a small circulation promo CD in a tie in deal with a Japanese clothing brand from 2003, some otherwise unreleased Weatherall and Tenniswood tracks plus the A and B- side from Hidden Library 002 (a 7" release from 2002). It was then given its first vinyl release on Sounds From The Flightpath Estate Volume 1 in 2024 and then when Rotters Golf Club put Still My World out on vinyl for Record Shop Day the same year. It's Andrew and Keith ambience and a very lovely track.

In 2013 as part of his artist in residence period at Faber and Faber Andrew collaborated with Hartlepudlian author Michael Smith on a version of Smith's novel Unreal City (a novel about modern life, art, commerce and London). Andrew and Nina Walsh put together a seven track soundtrack to accompany a new edition of the book with Andrew's annotations in the margins, a CD of the soundtrack and a 10" single. Andrew and Nina's ringing drones and Smith's East Yorkshire accent are made for each other. If you'd like to hear the whole Unreal City, you can find it at my Mixcloud where Michael popped in with a link to an article he'd written about making it. 

1998's Stay Down seemed like a slightly subdued Two Lone Swordsmen album on release, twelve short pieces of sub- aquatic, downtempo, somewhere between ambient and underwater techno. It's grown over the years and has become my favorite TLS album, a full piece that has its own sound, ebb and flow, perfectly captured by its pair of deep sea divers on the cover. It's bookend by Hope We Never Surface and the lilting, gorgeous As Worldly Pleasures Wave Goodbye... (the latter is as good as any ambient electronic music made by anyone in the 90s, ambient music with dolphin chatter). A languid, strange and atmospheric album. 

It's Not The Worst I've Ever Looked... Just the Most I've Ever Cared was on side six of 2000's Tiny Reminders, a three disc record that goes deep into bass, purism and experimentation. It's Not The Worst.. was the album's outlier, a three minute moment of calm, an acoustic guitar riff loop, some gentle synth sounds, a dusty rhythm, and acres of space.

Woodleigh Research Facility began life in Crystal Palace in 2015, Weatherall and Walsh recording in Youth's garden shed. The first results were an album, The Phoenix Suburb (And Other Stories), a double vinyl album in 2015 with Emancipation Garage the most ambient sounding track on the record. At some point in 2015 they sent Gardens Dub out to everyone who'd ordered the Moine Dubh series of 7" singles as an apology for the non- appearance of one of the singles- pressing plant problems I think. 

Alma Coogan is an unreleased WRF track- it's on Youtube, a twelve minute ambient excursion which was done as part of the Faber residency. Andrew had worked again with Michael Smith to produce three tracks/ video poems about the English coast. In 2018 at Festival No. 6 WRF performed Alma Coogan as part of Andrew's Psychedelic Faber Social. WRF performed Alma Coogan live at a Durham literary festival where Andrew was a judge on the Gordon Burn Prize. Burn wrote Alma Coogan, a 1991 novel reprinted in 2004, set in an alternate world where Alma did not die of cancer in 1966 but lived to recount various seedy and unpleasant experiences in the entertainment industry, all based on real events, with the imagined Alma narrating the novel from retirement by the sea in 1986. 

Sabres Of Paradise's second album Haunted Dancehall came out in 1994, a double disc masterpiece that followed the adventures of one Nicky Maguire. Side four concludes things in largely ambient style with Maguire at dawn in London as the city wakes up, first on Jacob Street and then at Chapel Street Market. The second of these is an Sabres at their ambient best, seagulls and wobbling synth sounds, Weatherall, Jagz Kooner and Gary Burns following Maguire through the streets, just a few steps behind. 

Sabres, Nicky Maguire And The White Hotel

Haunted Dancehall was the second Sabres Of Paradise album, released in November 1994. It was recorded as and should be listened to as a whole piece, a musical wander round the minds, music and influences of Andrew Weatherall, Jagz Kooner and Gary Burns. 

On the inner sleeves were extracts from a novel, also Haunted Dancehall, by James Woodbourne. The extracts follow a character called Maguire round London at night, a London noir novel taking in Battersea Bridge, Borough tube station, Soho, Berwick Street and a strip club on Dean Street*. In the final extract Maguire pulls some planks off the front of a boarded up cafe and steps inside...

Those of us that spent time in second hand books shops looking for Haunted Dancehall (back in the pre- internet age) found out fairly quickly that no- one had heard of it. Unsurprisingly really, as the novel didn't exist. Neither did James Woodbourne. The author of the text was Andrew Weatherall, using one of his many pseudonyms to create one of his many worlds and subcultures. 

On Wednesday night Sabres Of Paradise arrived in Salford to play at The White Hotel, the second stop on their week long tour of the UK, bringing those tracks from 1994 and 1995 to life on stage, Jagz and Gary with the 90s live band, Nick Abnett (bass), Rich Thair (percussion an drums) and Phil Mossman (guitar, keys, synth). While returning home from the gig, elated, in the murky black Mancunian night I wondered about whether  James Woodbourne could make a to return to the Haunted Dancehall...

Maguire was lost, no doubt about it, lost and a long way from home. The East End of London he knew very well, and Soho like the back of his hand, but he was now well out of his manor. He stepped off the train at Piccadilly, through the barrier and down the escalator. A quick pint in a pub across the road from the station, The Bull's Head he recalled now some days later, to settle the nerves and then he stepped back into night. He headed up Dale Street and round what locals called the Northern Quarter ('as if this northern town was somehow French', he snorted to himself). The backstreets seemed familiar, similar to some of the ones in London but dirtier and wet, always wet. He slipped down Shudehill and pausing to check his bearings turned right up Cheetham Hill Road. Ahead of him the tower and walls of the infamous Strangeways prison loomed out of the darkness. 

He was only five minutes from the city centre but this was a different world, vape shops and takeaways, a distinct lack of gentrification. Turning left- 'can it be down here?', he asked himself, 'a music venue round here?'- he saw concrete fences, barbed wire, yards with barking Alsatians, graffiti, urban dereliction and businesses that couldn't be totally law abiding. He could hear the thump of the bass now, up the road, and he continued, turning right past a few optimistically parked cars. Ahead of him, The White Hotel. 

Someone, Maguire thought, was having a laugh. This place was not a hotel, never had been and it wasn't white either. It looked like a rundown mechanics garage, single storey and unadorned, with a bouncer outside. Maguire approached the man sitting by the door. 'I'm on the list', Maguire muttered. The list was checked and indeed, Maguire was on it. 'Round the back', the doorman said. He walked round the building, past the smokers and through the door. Maguire entered The White Hotel. Colourbox were playing through the sound system, the dub bassline rattling round the building and gunshots echoing out. 

Looks Like We're Shy One Horse

Inside it was clear the venue was indeed once a mechanics garage. There was a hole in the wall covered in a sheet, the pit to work on the underneath of cars was still there and a roller shutter formed the back wall of the stage. The stage was only a couple feet high and there was no barrier between the stage and the crowd. The room had a pillar in the centre and a girder formed a cross, ready for some urban crucifixion. The DJ, one Alex Knight, was playing from inside a cage. Maguire moved inside the room and shuffled round the back. He waited. It smelt of damp, grease and beer. Nearby someone lit a spliff. The room was busy and still filling up. They all seemed to know each other. 

Colourbox faded into In The Nursery and as the symphonic strings played five figures took the stage, The Sabres Of Paradise, suited and booted. At the back of the stage, Jagz Kooner, behind a table full of boxes and mixers. Near the front Mossman, behatted, strapping his guitar on. The bassist, Abnett or something like that Maguire remembered, looked sharp, short hair, suit and tie and bass worn suitably low. They started up, a slow ambient intro, the guitar and synths kicking in gently, the sound moody and dark. Like the venue. Maguire nodded along. 

Mossman hit the riff and the song shifted, the drums kicked in and everything lurched, a James Bond theme but if Bond had been a proper wrong 'un, a small time hood rather than an international spy. The Sabres weren't playing the songs as Maguire remembered them, they were looser, dubbier, more drawn out with the bass loud and central. There were parts where Abnett pummelled his bass for ages, the noise filling the venue, a huge wall of distortion, then suddenly cutting it and the band back into the track. Maguire grinned to himself. All this on a wet Wednesday in an unloved corner of Salford.

Kooner hit a button or moved a fader or did something and the horns from Theme blared out. A cheer from the crowd and the nodding and shuffling increased, the hip hop drums thumping and the gnarly guitar hook caught in a whirl, going round and round. A pause and they slid into Edge 6. 'What a track', Maguire thought, 'and a fuckin' B-side too'. The drums shuffled, the bass pumped. The descending mournful keys at half speed. The spirit of King Tubby lurked somewhere in the room Maguire thought- maybe trapped in that fuckin' mechanic's pit. 

Years before Maguire had encountered Wilmot, chasing that trumpet line. It repeated its magic, the trumpet and the keys and snatches of a vocal, 'ai ai aiee'. Maguire hadn't expected to hear these songs played live, not three decades after the band split and, what was it now, nearly five years after the man that dreamt it all up had sadly left this world. But here he was, among two hundred and fifty other revellers, hearing Wilmot. The skank of Wilmot. Fuck. 

'Chase that tune, scour the shacks, pester the sound boys', Maguire recalled, a line from a book he once read.

On it went, the band now in their element, feeding off the crowd and playing the songs as if they were both brand new and centuries old. Kooner stopped between two of the songs and made a dedication to Mani, 'a fucking great musicians and a fucking great bloke', Jagz said and they began to play Smokebelch, the twinkles of the ambient, beatless version lighting up the darkness of the room. Abnett's bass and Burns' piano and oh, what a moment. Grown men with tears running down their faces. Even Maguire was moved. 

Clock Factory, many minutes of delicious weirdness located somewhere between ambient and industrial, a ticking of clocks and doomy chords, a track that somehow expands time and makes it stop. Maguire rubbed his chin. This was special, it made him think of things bigger than himself. Music and its power. Both beautiful and strange, he thought. 

There was a pause and then it got louder, thumping kick drums and whoops from the crowd, metallic clangs and throbbing bass, that Sabres collision of spectral melodies and thumping rhythms, everyone, band and crowd in the same place. Mossman waved his hands in the air, encouraging the crowd. Kooner conducted from the back, red shirt and black tie. 

Still Fighting started with long chords and tension, and then the release, the thump of the bass drum. That's the spirit, Maguire thought, that's it, they're still fighting. Crashing drums and early 90s synths, and then that two note whistle, the track betraying its origins, a remix of a remix, a version of a version, Don't Fight It, Feel It, Nicolson's topline refrain- doo doo doo dit dit- ricocheting round the space, this former industrial unit, God knows how many cars ended up in here, Cortinas, Datsuns, Fords, knackered vans and failed MOTs, oil and spanners all over the place, mechanics in dirty overalls- and now this epic piece of music filling it. Still fighting.

The Sabres took the applause and headed off stage, through the hole in the wall. A few minutes later they returned, as the crowd knew they would, cheers and hollers welcoming them. They went in for the kill, more Smokebelch, the David Holmes version, dancing piano lines and that enormous acid house squiggle, the drums battering the walls and the roller shutter. One of the venue's speakers was right behind Maguire and he could feel the music, the bass rippling his trousers and rattling his chest. Behind him a scouser was lost in his own world, his head in the bassbin. At the back a woman danced on a step against the wall, grinning, lost in the moment. In front of him people jumped up and down, danced and span. Then the breakdown and the drummer, Thair, on the snare, recreating Holmes' majorettes- then the bass bumping up and down and those Smokebelch melody lines riding the wave, on and on... Maguire had to pinch himself to check it was real, that he wasn't imagining it from his room in Limehouse, an armchair reverie. No, it was real and it was happening right in front of him. The Sabres stepped out from behind their machines, moved to the edge of the stage and arms around each other, took their bow, all smiles. 

Afterwards, in the outdoor area, the band milled around with punters and well wishers, taking in the Salford air and drizzle. Maguire overheard Jagz telling a fan that when they arrived he saw the graffiti and barbed wire and thought 'this is exactly where Sabres should be playing'. He looked on from a distance, pleased he'd made the effort. Maguire enjoyed the pursuit, the chasing of the tune. He contemplated the walk back to Piccadilly and wondered whether he could find somewhere on the way to have a drink. Maguire walked past the band and their fans and stepped into the street outside...

Smokebelch (David Homes Remix)

* The strip club on Dean Street was the home of the Sabres Of Paradise office, which operated on the first floor above the strip club. 

Thanks to Linda Gardiner for the photo of the band onstage.

Songs From The Sabres Tour Bus

Sabres Of Paradise board the tour bus and head out on their UK tour tomorrow, a gig in Bristol first, followed by The White Hotel in Salford on Wednesday, Leeds on Thursday, the Forge warehouse in Sheffield on Friday, Bugged Out at Tramsheds in London on Saturday and then bringing the curtain down in Brighton on Monday. Back in May and June they played Fabric in London and Sydney Opera House and a pair of festival appearances- Primavera in Spain and Dekmantel in The Netherlands. I saw them at Fabric and am going to The White Hotel. I'm sure I can't be the only person who did not start 2025 expecting to see Sabres Of Paradise play live, twice. There are a handful of tickets still available for some of the venues I believe- try here.

Back in the 1994 Sabres Of Paradise played twenty two live shows, on their own and supporting Primal Scream. They finished the year with some dates in Japan. The live band- the Sabres studio pair of Jagz Kooner and Gary Burns along with Rich Thair (percussion and drums, on loan from Red Snapper and The Aloof), Nick Abnett (low slung bass) and Phil Mossman (guitar, later of LCD Soundsystem)- would kick up a storm, a heady stew of programmed drums, samples and live instruments bringing those classic Sabres tracks to life on stage- Smokebelch, Wilmot, Theme, Tow Truck... Andrew Weatherall started out on stage with them, playing some keys, but said he felt like a fraud and preferred to DJ before and after, and skulk around in the crowd watching them play, smoking and enjoying seeing his band play the gig. 

The Sabres re- union comes in part from a night The Flightpath Estate put on at The Golden Lion two years ago, a Q&A with Jagz and Gary (with me in the David Frost hotseat) and then Jagz DJing. Rob Fketcher, of Herbal tea party fame, has a live recording of Sabres playing at the club in 1994 and we played it after the Q&A. Jagz stood by the speakers listening and nodding his head. 'We really pretty good back then', he said. Two years down the line, the Sabres albums re- issued in the summer, rave reviews from the shows they played in the summer and a UK tour imminent, the horses saddled and ready to go, I thought it might be good to get a Bagging Area exclusive, songs from the Sabres Of Paradise tour bus in 1994 and 2025. I asked Jagz and he and the rest of the Sabres were happy to oblige...

Jagz Kooner

1994 tour bus song: Nas feat Az and Olu Dara, Life's A Bitch (from Illmatic in 1994).   

'Remember listening to this on the tour bus and when that chorus landed it was a proper 'damn that's a hook and half!', so much so that Bob G improvised it over a Primal Scream song when we toured with them too'.

Life's A Bitch

2025 tour bus song: Rapture in Blue (Midnight Version) by Daniel Avery with Cecile Believe (from Tremors)

'This whole album is a sonic masterpiece and I love the fact he has an entire full live band with him when he tours too. Respect to Dan!'

  

Gary Burns

1994 tour bus song: Cypress Hill, Hits From The Bong. 

Hits From The Bong

'I remember listening to this (very stoned) on the bus quite a lot. Loved the fact it sampled Son Of A Preacher Man by Dusty Springfield which was always a favourite of mine too'

2025 tour bus song: Bloomy Mulberries by K2W0.

'Downtempo and dirty. Reminds me of old school acid house times'. 

Get Bloomy Mulberries at Bandcamp. 

Rich Thair 

1994 tour bus song: Depth Charge- Bounty Killers.

'For me in the 90s J Saul Kane was a huge influence, an amazing, creative producer and sculptor of beats. Jon produced fantastic remixes for The Sabres & Red Snapper. RIP J Saul Kane x'

Bounty Killers

2025 tour bus song: Snorkel- Sirene

'Frank Byng’s Snorkel deserve more recognition for their inventive rhythm chaos. Check the new album'.

Find Snorkel's Sirene at Bandcamp.

Nick Abnett 

1994 tour bus song: The Beach Boys - God Only Knows. 

'Weirdly enough the only music I ever remember being played on a Sabres bus was the Pet Sounds album! Andrew bought it in a service station and we listened to it on the journey to wherever we were heading'.

God Only Knows

2025 tour bus song: Nia Archives / Clipz- Maia Maia. 

'There’s an exciting new school of jungle producers around at the moment. Nia is a great example of an open minded generation of new artists. Good vibes and killer tunes!'

Get Maia Maia at Bandcamp. 

Adam says- a bang up to date blend of Brazilian sounds and new generation jungle, new to me and very good indeed.  

Phil Mossman 

1994 tour bus song: The Sandals- Feet (Slam remix). 

'The thought of the Sandals always brings a smile to my face and takes me straight back to those days. The Slam remix is a seminal piece of 90s techno'.

Feet (Night Slam VI)

2025 tour bus song: Sunn O))) with Scott Walker, Herod. 

The whole Sunn O))) and Scott Walker album is at Bandcamp. It is, it almost goes without saying, pretty intense. Those miles shuttling round the country this week with Scott Walker and Sunn O))) on the bus sound system are going to be quite a trip. 

I've sequenced those ten tracks into one mix, a Sabres 94/25 tour bus tape- it comes in at just over forty six minutes so with a bit of trimming you could get it on one side of a 1995 friendly c90 cassette. It starts with God Only Knows and ends with Herod so it could be described as Biblical. 

Sabres Tour Bus 94/ 25 Mix

• The Beach Boys: God Only Knows
• Cypress Hill: Hits From The Bong
• Nas ft Az and Olu Dara: Life's A Bitch
• Depth Charge: Bounty Killers
• Nia Archives & Clipz: Maia Maia
• Snorkel: Sirene
• K2W0: Bloomy Mulberries
• Daniel Avery ft. Cecile Believe: Rapture In Blue (Midnight Version)
• The Sandals: Feet (Night Slam IV)
• Sunn O))) and Scott Walker: Herod 2014

If you prefer to stream the mix is at The Flightpath Estate's Mixcloud here. Massive thanks to all five Sabres Of Paradise for doing this- see you at The White Hotel on Wednesday Night. Love and Sabres to you all. 

Monday's Long Songs

Over at Ban Ban Ton Ton last week Dr. Rob wrote a post about various Sabres Of Paradise remixes, Selected Sabre Cuts. One of his selected cuts was the Sabres remix of Primal Scream's Jailbird, part of a 12" single released in June 1994. 

Jailbird was the second single from the album Give Out But Don't Give Up, an album released in March 1994 that was it's fair to say, a tad divisive. In 1991 Primal Scream with some production and remix assistance from Andrew Weatherall and Hugo Nicolson as well contributions from The Orb and Jah Wobble released Screamadelica, an album that saw Primal Scream go day- glo acid house, long haired converts to the new sound (although the album contained some more trad Scream rock music too in the shape of the Jimmy miller produced Moving On Up and the strung out ballad Damaged). They followed it with the Screamadelica 12", Moving On Up plus the album's title track, a huge piece of symphonic wide screen acid house and a beautifully downbeat cover of Dennis Wilson's Carry Me Home. When the band returned in 1994 they had gone full on Rolling Stones, first with Rocks and then Jailbird (which opens Give Out...). The album came with a Confederate flag on the cover (a William Eggleston photo) and got the band the tag 'Dance Traitors'. Having rewritten what an indie guitar band could do on Screamadelica they went into reverse and indulged their Rolling Stone fantasies. At this point some of the Scream were living like Keith Richards and if you live like Keef long enough, you'll start writing like Keef. 

I didn't take to Give Out But Don't Give Up when it came out. I was in the Dance Traitors camp although I liked Rocks just because it was so brazen. In 1994 I wasn't too fussed about bands who wanted to be in 1973. If I wanted to listen to Sticky Fingers I'd put Sticky Fingers on. Some years later I found it to be a better album than I did at the time but in 1994 it was too retro, too backwards looking. 

The remixes on the other hand were where the action might be- after all Mr Weatherall had played such a key role on Screamdelica that surely the Weatherall remixes of any of the Give Out... tracks would be what we wanted. The Jailbird 12" was highly anticipated in this household and when I got it home and put it on, there was again, a sense of 'this is not what I expected..' about the pair of Sabres Of Paradise remixes clad in a bright red sleeve shot of Throb live on stage, guitar and crotch plus amp and Confederate flag. The first of the two Sabres remixes was this one...

Jailbird (Sweeney 2 Mix)

The songs drumbeat looped up and running for thirty seconds, then a squiggly distorted noise, presumably Throb or Innes' guitar amp. Huge single descending piano notes, slowed right down and then some organ doing the same. An oscillating synth line kicks in, similar to the theme tune from The Sweeney (presumably where the remix title came from). This is Jailbird gone slow mo, out of it, no longer higher than the sun but very much damaged. We were indeed a long way from home.

The second remix (and the one Rob chose for his post last week) was a big one, nearly thirteen minutes long and where Andrew, Jagz and Gary went fully in with the dub... 

Jailbird (Dub Chapter 3 Mix)

The Dub Chapter 3 remix took some getting my head around too. Now, thirty- one years later, it's an example of Andrew's genius, his way of taking a song and deconstructing it completely, taking one or two elements from the original and constructing something entirely new from it (something he'd done on Screamadelica with Loaded and Come Together). 

Dub Chapter 3 is long, dubbed out and full of production tricks that the three Sabres had been honing during '93/ 94. Echo, FX, rattling drum machine loops, a three note synth part, acres of time and space, whole galaxies of time and space, and eventually, half way through something from the original song turns up, not one of Throb's guitars but a snatch of Bobby's vocal used as a sound rather than a voice. It's an epic Sabres Of Paradise remix, with King Tubby and Lee Perry was the inspiration, a million miles from Screamdelica and a million miles from Jailbird too. 

Further remixes were on the 12", one from Kris Needs and one by The Dust Brothers (later Chemical Brothers) and (I'm Gonna) Cry Myself Blind single had remixes from Portishead and Kris Needs again, but none of them go anywhere near what Sabres did with Dub Chapter 3. Stick it on a playlist/ CD/ mixtape along with the Sabres Gaelic dub remix of Peace Together's Be Still and the Squire Black Dove Rides Out version of One Dove's Breakdown, both ten minutes long and both from '93, and Sabres own productions Edge 6, Return Of Carter, Ysaebud and RSD, and you've got Sabres In Dub, a Sabres Of Paradise album that never was. 

Still Fighting

Sabres Of Paradise took the stage in Fabric at 9pm on Thursday night to sirens and red spotlights, the first date they've played in 30 years, and a re- union that is missing the main man, Andrew Weatherall. Jagz Kooner, red shirt, black suit and tie, is behind a large console. To his right Gary Burns and a bank of keyboards and synths and beyond him Phil Mossman, guitar and bowler hat. To Jagz's left, Rich Thair with drums, congas, cymbals, black hat and Palestinian flag on his chest and next to him Nick Abnett, black suit, bass guitar, sharp haircut. They look ready to go. The trip hop drums of Tow Truck rumble in and we're off, Haunted Dancehall reborn for 2025, the track being reconstructed in front of us, transforming into the Depth Charge remix (another missing man tonight- J Saul Kane died last year). 

Tow Truck (Depth Charge Mix II)

Fabric is in Farringdon, a cavernous venue with several rooms all below ground level and a warren of connecting corridors and staircases. The room Sabres are playing is low ceilinged and dark, lit only by red lights, and feels industrial- it's perfect for the bass- led, swampy Sabres sound, the tracks filling the space. The room is packed with fans, friends and family, everyone willing Sabres on. Three tracks in Theme snaps into place, the horn sample and massive drums bouncing off the walls and Phil Mossman's gnarly guitar cutting through. Theme takes us into the bumpy, rough edged dub of Edge 6, these three decade old tracks sounding electrified and alive, not exactly the same as the recorded versions but retooled and remade on stage. 

Having felt their way in, the band and the room step up a gear with Wilmot, Nick Abnett's bassline working its magic and the horn riff snaking around. Jagz at the centre and always busy, his Cheshire Cat grin showing how much they're enjoying it. After Wilmot the chimes of the Beatless version of Smokebelch ring out, twinkling synths and piano. I have a long and intimate history with this track- we played it at the graveside at Isaac's funeral- and I'm sure I'm not the only one with tears in their eyes as Gary and Jagz play their blissed out ambient serenade. 

The second half of the gig is a stunner, energy levels raised, crowd and band in sync. The Ballad Of Nicky Maguire comes next- acid squiggles and burps, chunky drums, metallic dub clanks and eventually those long, melancholy chords, a track that as much as any seemed like the soundtrack to the James Woodbourne noir novel excerpts from Haunted Dancehall's inner sleeve (James Woodbourne is yet another Andrew Weatherall pseudonym and Nicky Maguire's identity is a closely guarded secret). They play Clock Factory, the fifteen minute long industrial ambient from 1994's Sabresonic, all clicks and whirs, and follow it with Ano Electro, more metallic drums and huge distorted bass and then they're done, to huge applause and waves of cheers and whoops. Sabres Of Paradise come back quickly, no messing about and launch into Sabresonic's opening track, the hard edged, acid house and thumping kick drums of Still Fighting, Jagz dropping in the whistling synth sound from Still Fighting's source material, Primal Scream's Don't Fight It, Feel It. It's is fast and frenetic, physical, techno you can feel, and it cuts deep. 

Then they push everything a notch higher with the return of Smokebelch, this time the David Holmes remix (Holmes is in the DJ booth watching having warmed the crowd up with ninety minutes of dubby sounds). Holmes's remix, released a week after the original 12" (itself a version of LB Bad's New Age Of Faith) did what seemed impossible- it made Smokebelch peakier, upping the ante. Jagz and Gary, Rich, Nick and Phil, are at the centre of a storm in Fabric now, the crowd going nuts as the drum troupe drums rattle around the room, the whistles and piano ride around on top and that huge acid line runs through the centre of it. I have a thirty second clip of it, the piano runs and drums, red lights and a sea of hands in the air- mayhem, everyone dancing and lost in the music, a thirty year gap vanished, Smokebelch very much in the present. 

It's also very poignant. Andrew Weatherall's not here and he started this whole thing, Sabres a result of a late night conversation with Jagz and Gary in a club in 1992. I'm sure I'm not the only one who, as the five man Sabres live band gather centre stage and take their bow, can imagine Lord Sabre himself, somewhere in the shadows at the side of the stage, nodding and smiling, giving them his blessing as The Sabres Of Paradise ship sails on to Sydney Opera House and then to Spain. 

The gig at Fabric coincided with an announcement that Warp are re- pressing the long out of print pair of Sabres Of Paradise albums, Sabresonic and Haunted Dancehall, remastered and available either red or black vinyl. 

In September 2023 I put together a mix made up of various versions of Smokebelch to celebrate the 30th anniversary of the 12" release, five versions of the track sequenced together for extended enjoyment. It seems the right time to repost it. 

Smokebelches

• Smokebelch (Beatless Mix)
• Smokebelch I
• Smokebelch II (Entry)
• Smokebelch II (Exit)
• Smokebelch II (David Holmes Mix)

Soundtrack Saturday At AW62

Today is day two of AW62 at The Golden Lion, a weekend celebration of the life of Andrew Weatherall at one of his favourite places, the day before what would have been his sixty- second birthday. The photo above is from our trip to Belfast in February. We were on a bus going round the city centre, turned a corner and there it was, this mural of the man. Serendipity. 

Saturdays in 2025 have all been soundtrack posts, a year long series of songs and tracks from film and TV. In 1994 the film Shopping came out, a Paul Anderson film about a group of British teenagers into joyriding and ramraiding with some future stars among the cast (Jude Law, Sean Pertwee and Sophie Frost) and some people who were already stars (Sean Bean, Marianne Faithful and Jonathan Pryce). I don't think I've seen it since 1994 and don't remember much about it except that it opens with the jaw dropping, spine tingling, twisted hip hop magnificence of Sabres Of Paradise's Theme.

Theme 

The soundtrack pulls together lots of mid 90s hip hop and rap- The Disposable Heroes Of Hiphoprisy, Credit To The Nation, Kaliphz, Stereo MCs- along with Senser, Smith and Mighty, Utah Saints, Orbital, Salt 'N' Pepa, Shakespears Sister, EMF and more. Andrew appears again twice, once with Sabres v James (Jam J Spaghetti Steamhammer) and once as producer on One Dove's Why Don't You Take Me.

Jam J 

Jam J is somewhat overlooked in the Sabres back catalogue, a four track/ remix 12" that becomes a thirty three minute suite of hypnotic dubtronica/ dub techno, James and Brian Eno completely reworked into the Sabres netherworld, the guitars eventually coming through as Andrew, Jagz and Gary take us on a dub excursion. It's best heard as one unbroken piece of music, from Phase 1 to Phase 4. 

• Phase 1 (Arena Dub)
• Phase 2 (Amphetamine Pulsate)
• Phase 3 (Sabresonic Tremelo Dub)
• Phase 4 (Spaghetti Steamhammer)

In 1996 Andrew made a brief foray into the world of film as an actor, appearing as a shaven headed club owner called Buddha in a long forgotten London gangster film Hard Men, in a case of mistaken identity.

Squire Black Dove Rides Out

The picture above shows Two Lone Weatherdolls. Except they're not alone, they're together, along with a replica of a Lewis chessman from the British Museum and a load of other bits and bobs that fill up the front of shelves in my house. The Weatherdolls are the work of Claire Doll, a teenage friend of Andrew Weatherall. Claire began making them in lockdown in the aftermath of Andrew's untimely death five years ago today. She raffled them for charity. The slightly smaller one on the right, I won in a raffle. The larger one on the left, was won by a friend and then passed to a friend who passed it to me to look after on behalf of the Flightpath Estate (he holds a copy of our album under his arm), to accompany us when DJing (he came to Head in Stretford last July when me, Martin and Dan played there and will make the journey to The Golden Lion for AW62 in April this year). 

What Andrew would have made of this is anyone's guess. He was largely I think unfussed by fame. He turned away from the light of celebrity and the greasy pole on many occasions, choosing the road less travelled. He would have chuckled about all of this I'm sure, and been secretly pleased too, the way people have kept his name and spirit alive since that day, 17th February 2020. 

His business acumen was fairly haphazard. Recently Lizzie, his partner when he died in 2020 and for the many years before that, said that in 2019 he found an envelope of cash in the studio, the payment for a DJ gig or remix presumably, and said they should 'spunk it on a holiday'. In her post Lizzie added she was grateful for his 'slipshod accounting' and said that we should on this day, 'raise a cup of splosh and a Tunnocks tea cake or two in his honour, play something fitting... and keep him present'.

I know as well as anyone from my experience in recent years that we keep those who have gone alive by speaking about them and by remembering them. This blog has done its best to do that in the years since Mr Weatherall left us. He was an inspiration in so many ways. His loss is enormous and felt daily. Wherever you are Andrew, thank you.

Breakdown (Squire Black Dove Rides Out)

Breakdown was a One Dove single, released in 1993 after a year of record company shenanigans and delays. After his work on Screamadelica Andrew went almost immediately into the producer's role on One Dove's album Morning Dove White (with Hugo Nicolson at his side, his studio engineer and right hand man in those early years). One Dove's album is the equal of Screamadelica, in many ways a more even and complete album. The spacious, dubbed out songs with Andrew's magic FX dust sprinkled over them and Dot's voice on top float by in a post- acid house haze, the sun coming up on the morning after. Sabres Of Paradise were coming into being by the time Andrew worked on Morning Dove White and Hugo's presence was also required by Primal Scream as their on stage, the man who provided the sequencer and sample action, a key part of the Screamadelica live shows. The One Dove tracks are as a result split between those done by Andrew and Hugo and those done by Andrew with Jagz and Gary (Hugo did Fallen and Breakdown, Sabres  much of the rest). The Squire Black Dove remix of Breakdown is a lengthy, full on, widescreen Sabres dub excursion, with samples from Exorcist by Shades Of Rhythm, a bass loop from They Came In Peace by Tranquility Bass, a bucket of dubbed out space, rimshots and melodica from Andrew's imagination, and a vocal sample from who knows where- 'against the black blue sky/ The shadow of the dove/ An open mind's excursion... can you remember? The shadow of the dove...'

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. 

Forty Five Minutes Of Jah Wobble

Like much of the rest of the country I was outside on Thursday night taking in the spectacle of the northern lights. To the naked eye not much more than a faint flicker but when seen through a camera on night setting giving us a dazzling display of the aurora borealis. This photo was taken from our loft window by my daughter Eliza and is better than any of the ones I took. 

Today's mix has a similar cosmic vibe, seven songs from the bass playing legend Jah Wobble. His back catalogue is so wide and deep that it would take several mixes to pay justice to Wobble's music so this is just a selection of post- PiL Jah Wobble tunes with an emphasis, as always in Wobble land, on the dubbier end of things. 

Forty Five Minutes Of Jah Wobble

• Angels
• King Of The Faeries (Avengers Outer Space Chug Dub)
• Visions Of You (Pick 'n' Mix 1)
• Higher Than The Sun (A Dub Symphony In Two Parts)
• Post Lockdown Dub
• Inspector Out Of Space
• Everyman's An Island

Angles is from Jah Wobble's Invaders Of The Heart 1994 album Take Me To God, an album with twelve different vocalists, the voice on Angels belonging to the Senegalese singer Baaba Maal, the song underpinned by one of those lovely fat dub basslines that only Wobble can conjure. 

King Of The Faeries is by Dub Trees, a Martin Glover/ Youth project with Wobble and Daniel Romar in 2016 with some loop and beats consultancy by Andrew Weatherall and Nina Walsh. The Dub Trees album is an excellent collision of dub and folk with a pagan angle. 

Andrew Weatherall is also present on the 1992 remix of Visions Of You, a single from 1991's Invaders Of The Heart Rising Above Bedlam album. Visions Of You was the first time Andrew worked with Jagz Kooner and Gary Burns, a partnership which would lead to Sabres Of Paradise. On the 12" there are three AW remixes of Visions Of You, Pick 'n' Mix 1 and 2 and then The Secret Love Child Of Hank And Johnny, twenty five minutes of dubbed out excellence with the beautiful voice of Sinead O'Connor. Everyman's An Island is also from Rising Above Bedlam. 

More Weatherall! This time from Primal Scream's Screamadelica. In an interview for the Classic Albums series Andrew describes sitting in the producer's chair and realising what this version of Higher Than The Sun needed, reaching for the phone with the words, 'Get me Jah Wobble'.

During lockdown Jah released a series of tracks onto Bandcamp, recorded at his home in Stockport (I know! How did Jah Wobble end up in Stockport right?!). Post Lockdown Dub is self explanatory. 

In May 2020 Youth and Jah Wobble released an album called Acid Punk Dub Apocalypse, a selection of dub songs with various singers- Hollie Cook, Rhiannon, Aurora Dawn, Durga McBroom- plus appearances from Richard Dudanski, Roger Eno, Nik Turner and some of the beats and programming courtesy of Mr Weatherall and Nina Walsh. 

Another Imaginary Album

Another imaginary album. Previously I speculated about the Andrew Weatherall, Jah Wobble and Sinead O’Connor album that could have followed Andrew’s remixes of Jah Wobble’s Invaders of You in 1992 and the album that he was lined up to produce for The Fall in 1993 but which didn’t happen, as well as a re- united Joe Strummer and Mick Jones album c.1989. Today’s imaginary album is another Weatherall one, this time one that existed for a while on paper but was never followed through. In 1994 following the artistic success of Sabres Of Paradise’s Haunted Dancehall, the record company, Warp, were keen on a follow up with Sabres and some hand picked guest vocalists. The Chemical Brothers and Leftfield had both made records with guest vocalists by this point, including Beth Orton, Tim Burgess, Toni Halliday, and John Lydon and Warp felt Sabres should be getting in on the action. In an interview with NME during this period, possibly the dance music page Vibes (which Andrew’s friend Sherman edited and wrote), Andrew mentioned that he was looking forward to working with Ice T. Jagz Kooner has confirmed that Ice T/ Tracy Morrow’s name was on a list of names of people that Warp were hoping would take to the microphone on this mooted Sabres Of Paradise plus friends album. 

At the Sabresonic 30th event at The Golden Lion last November Jagz and Gary Burns confirmed that a list of names was drawn up. Dot Allison and Bobby Gillespie were both on it, both singers with close connections to Andrew, Bobby via Andrew’s production on Screamadelica and Dot via Andrew’s post- Screamadelica production on One Dove’s Morning Dove White. There is a cassette that belongs to Chris from Soft Rocks, given to him by Andrew as a thank you along with a pile of records, that contains an unreleased Sabres Of Paradise track that goes by the title of Al Green (Revenge Of Dove). The track has that blissed out electronic dub sound that Andrew helped shape with One Dove, possibly even contains a One Dove sample, and although the cassette is not top quality in terms of sound, it’s a real shame it was never finished, it’s very much a lost Sabres track. I’d love to share it but I think doing so would get me into trouble.

Sirens

The tantalising thing about the track’s title is the possibility that alongside guest vocals from Ice T, Bobby Gillespie and Dot Allison, the Reverend Al Green would be making an appearance. Imagine something like Sirens, above from One Dove's Morning Dove White, with Al Green singing on it.

According to Jagz the next name pencilled in by Warp was that of Tom Waits. Tentative enquiries were being made and it was at this point that Andrew got cold feet, getting the fear about working with some of his heroes, and kiboshed the whole project, not willing to put himself in a studio with someone who he regarded as highly as Tom Waits, a hero of Andrew’s since his teenage years.

Heartattack And Vine

Again, close your eyes for a moment and try to imagine Tom Waits' growl and gravelly tones, his gutter poetry, over the top of some mid- 90s Sabres dub. Think of the remixes that could have come from this imaginary album.

Andrew was quite vocal in interviews in the second half of the 90s about dance acts using guest vocalists, in a disapproving way, so he may have had doubts from the start but sitting here three decades later, the prospect of a Sabres Of Paradise album with Tom Waits, Ice T, Al Green, Dot Allison and Bobby Gillespie all singing on it feels like a lost opportunity, one that will have to live in our imaginations only.