Rocks greatest W – #4 – Andrew Weatherall

Only Love Can Break Your Heart (A Mix of Two Halves) – Saint Etienne (1990, Heavenly Records)

Points 156

Highest Position First Twice

Oh where do you start.  I mean if only there was someone, a friend of the blog, who could tell me something, anything, even the smallest detail about this chap Weatherall, who seems to have somehow got lucky and found himself in the Top Five Greatest W’s.  If only we had someone like that, but we don’t.  There are a bunch of comments from a few of the Jury though – let’s start at the back, here’s Jez from A History of Dubious Taste, who awarded Weatherall 19 points and backed it up with this line of evidence

“You know as well as I do that I’m not the best placed to provide comment here” – which isn’t that helpful so let’s have some music, whilst we wait for some others to offer an opinion shall we.

Come Home (Weatherall Skunk Weed Skank Mix) – James (1990, Fontana Records) – When I was a lad, my mate Chris found a bunch of records in a box in a skip on the driveway of a house in Rochester and after asking the bloke who was doing the chucking out if he could have them he took them home and all of them were rubbish, apart from one, which was a white label containing this mix.  That genuinely happened, the most exciting thing I have ever found in a skip is a sawn-off shotgun, which on reflection is probably quite exciting.  Oh, JC has his hand up.   I hope this is about Andy Weatherall and isn’t about illicit firearms found in odd places, JC?

I think that the late and great AW might win this thing as his appeal goes right across the board and covers just about every genre.  The word is all too often over overused, but he was a genius

Well, yes and no.  He was a genius, but no he won’t win this thing as he finished about 70 points behind the winner, oh just in case you’re reading Wendy James, its not you.  Let’s have another track remixed by Mr Weatherall shall we.

Smokebelch II (Beatless Mix) – Sabres of Paradise (1993, Warp Records) – and I know I have said it before, about six thousand times, but that is just beautiful isn’t it.   Here’s Khayem from the wonderful Dubhed blog who has been bouncing up and down for so long, that he either has something to say or needs the toilet or both.  Let’s have one more remix whilst he washes his hand.

Come Together (Two Lone Swordsmen Mix) – Spiritualized (1998, Dedicated Records) – all fifteen glorious minutes of it

“Swiss Adam will without question articulate far better than I why Andrew Weatherall is rocks greatest W.  An immense and rewarding body of work, as important to me as David Bowie.  No hesitation with where to score my twenty points”

Who is this Swiss Adam that you speak of Khayem…?  I mean I was going to offer up that Andrew Weatherall was a chap with a beard who remixed a bunch of tracks and made the tea for Primal Scream whilst they made ‘Screamadelica’, are you telling me that this Swiss Adam can do better than that….?  Well, here he is so let’s find out (and the short answer is, he unquestionably can….)

“The greatest remixer and producer British music produced in the acid house period and a man who then meandered in a zig zag line, avoiding the limelight and the big money, through techno, acid house, dub, post punk, rockabilly and garage rock, ever shifting, never giving people exactly what they thought they wanted, resurfacing for a late period purple patch in the 2010s through to his untimely death in 2020.  Being a world class DJ in one genre is beyond most people.  Weatherall could do it in multiple genres and styles.  His bands Sabres of Paradise and Two Lone Swordsmen redefined electronic music.  His eye for a quote, a phrase, a picture, a record, a sample was second to none.  An inspiration.”

Which is as good a paragraph about Weatherall as you are ever going to read.

I’m going to end with referencing The Guardian as they ran a piece on Weatherall after that untimely death and featured what they claim are to be his ten greatest tracks, here are three of them (and I’ve featured some of the others as well up above) in no order – although they like me should have just asked Swiss Adam.

Glide By Shooting – Two Lone Swordsman (1996, Cacophony Records) – which has this haunting beauty about it.

Explode – Basic Units (2002, Firewire Records) – The Guardian described this as a nicotine stained basement banger and I can’t top that.

And finally…because, well because Songwhip doesn’t have his remix of My Bloody Valentine’s ‘Soon’ for some unknown bloody reason.

Loaded – Primal Scream (1990, Creation Records)

Here is the saccharine coated lyrical test for tomorrow.

“No New Year’s Day to celebrate.  No chocolate covered candy hearts to give away”

Nearly Perfect Albums – #97

Sabresonic – Sabres of Paradise (1993, Warp Records)

Todays, Nearly Perfect Album piece is a rare thing, in that it is written by someone else, but its not someone else’s nearly perfect album.  Although it is.  It straddles both series, if that is an easier way of putting it.  It is of course, as you have probably guessed, ‘Sabresonic’, the debut album by Sabres of Paradise a band that featured Andrew Weatherall and that being the case I must revert to Clause  #12 of the No Badger Manifesto, which clearly states : –

“When talking or writing about anything to do with Andrew Weatherall, just ask Swiss Adam to do it because a) he do it better than you will and b) See a). “

So without further ado, here’s Swiss Adam, with frankly, a miles better review of ‘Sabresonic’ that I could ever write.  Adam, for those who lives under rocks, is the brains behind the marvellous Bagging Area blog – which is an essential part of my daytime blog browsing and if it isn’t part of yours then, well it should be.  Here’s Adam.

Released in September 1993, Sabresonic was the first album by Andrew Weatherall’s new group Sabres Of Paradise. Weatherall had met the other two Sabres, Jagz Kooner and Gary Burns, out clubbing and suggested they should work together. Jagz (programming and production) and Gary (instruments) both agreed that would be great but didn’t expect anything to happen. Both were amazed when Andrew did indeed make the call and invited them to begin working with him (the first track they worked on as a trio was Andrew’s remix of Jah Wobble’s Visions of You; they ended up producing not one but three remixes, which when sequenced together on the 12” worked effectively as half an album). Andrew had been the remixer of choice in the years 1990- 1992, the man who unwittingly birthed indie- dance, and who now wanted to head further away from the light, to something darker, less obvious and more underground. He wanted to be the member of a gang too and Sabres Of Paradise were often presented as such, a gang, a group, the techno- Clash.  

Sabres signed to Warp and as record companies do, they expected an album. Andrew, Jagz and Gary had DATs and tapes filled with material, often recorded when they’d been commissioned to do a remix (at a major label’s expense in a decent studio). When the remix was finished but they still had several hours of studio time left, they’d load up some drums or a sample and all start chipping in, Andrew at the desk directing operations, Gary playing guitar, bass, keys, percussion and whatever else was required with Jagz programming and producing, manning the Roland machinery, the pair transforming Andrew’s ideas into music on tape. When mixing the three Sabres would stand over the mixing desk, each responsible for a number of faders, each fader a single sonic element. Someone would press record, the tape would roll and then they’d be off, fading sounds in and out live, instinctively knowing when to bring elements in and out. When one run through was complete, they’d have another go, faster (or slower), louder (or quieter), dubbier (or not), ending up with multiple versions of tracks, to be named later by Andrew.  

When Warp asked for an album, Andrew went through the shelf of DATs and pulled out the tracks, sequenced and named them, and sent the final version through to the label. His club, also called Sabresonic was based under a railway arch near Waterloo station, water dripping from the brick roof. Calling the album ‘Sabresonic’ tied to the two together. By autumn 1993 ‘Smokebelch II’ had already seen the light of day, a now legendary 12” single, an electronic ambient/ techno/ dub journey. The percussion on ‘Smokebelch’ included Gary banging a scaffolding pole with a drumstick and shaking matches on a metal tray, ana nyhting goes approach to making music. ‘Smokebelch’ was then remixed by David Holmes, Jagz and Gary assisting David on the remix, into a fifteen-minute epic with marching band drums and rippling piano lines, an end of the night, last tune trip.

Smokebelch I – Sabres of Paradise (1993, Warp Records)

‘Sabresonic’ is as a result not even proper album- it wasn’t recorded as one, it was compiled from individual recordings, tracks and remixes the trio recorded over the previous year. But it seems and feels like a proper album. It kicks off in heavy, provocative style, with ‘Still Fighting’. Gone are the day glo, euphoric, arms- in- the- air sounds of Andrew’s early remixes, those lolloping indie dance remixes and era defining samples. This is a fast, thumping kick drum, portentous synths and a certain amount of attitude. ‘Still Fighting’ is actually a remix of a remix, Primal Scream’s ‘Don’t Fight It, Feel It’ pushed further outside itself, Denise Johnson’s voice almost recognisable, but we’re a long way from the heady days of ‘Screamadelica’, two years earlier.

Still Fighting – Sabres of Paradise (1993, Warp Records)  

‘Smokebelch I’ bears little relation to the epic, euphoric melancholy of ‘Smokebelch II’- dark, thumpy, echo laden 90s dub techno, rattling hi hats and pumping synth bass.

‘Clock Factory’ takes up a full side on the vinyl edition, a fifteen-minute experiment. In some ways now in 2024, it sounds like the album’s defining track, the whirring and clicking of clocks, springs and wires stretching and contracting, long synth notes and a feeling of time standing still. Andrew made no secret of his love of the industrial music of Throbbing Gristle and Coil and on ‘Clock Factory’ those experimental sounds are given full rein.  

‘Ano Electro (Andante)’ is slow paced, a chugging rhythm track and steampipe hisses, synth notes descending gently, the track covered in a smoked out haze.

Ano Electro (Andante) – Sabres of Paradise (1993, Warp Records)

‘R.S.D.’ is a highlight, a thrilling dub techno excursion, bassline- led and with horns. The track’s origins lie in a session paid for Red Stripe (RSD = Red Stripe Dub), a ridiculous fee paid to the Sabres for making some music for an advert. Several versions were recorded, the Sabresonic one presumably the best of the bunch (or at least Andrew’s favourite at the time). Rumours of 3 other mixes exist but no one seems to have a tape. The DATs ended up in a skip when the offices were emptied. Read that again and weep.  

R.S.D – Sabres of Paradise (1993, Warp Records)

The title of ‘Inter- Lergen- Ten- Ko’ plays on the then press vogue for labelling some electronic music ‘intelligent techno’. The track is sublime, six minutes of hiss and drums, synth flourishes and bass, Kraftwerk retuned for a basement south of the river, everything pushing onwards. One of those tracks which is a genuine lost gem of the 1990s.

‘Ano Electro (Allegro)’ is fast, rapid fire drums and synth squiggles with trademark metallic percussion, some handclaps and a bassline that could dredge the bottom of the Thames. Dancing to this requires stamina. The sped-up sister of the earlier, similarly named track.

Limited numbers of the double vinyl came with a one sided 7” single, a three-minute remix of ‘Smokebelch’, the famous Beatless Mix. They removed the drums, Gary played a twinkling guitar part and ‘Smokebelch’ became an ambient classic. It sits apart from the rest of Sabresonic but part of it too, connected but distantly (unless you bought it on CD in which case it runs straight on after the end of Ano Electro (Allegro), a complete change of pace and tone).  

Full disclosure- we played the Beatless mix at the graveside when we buried my son Isaac in December 2021. It’s part of me.  And part of Isaac.

Smokebelch II (Beatless Mix) – Sabres of Paradise (1993, Warp Records)

Is Sabresonic perfect? No, maybe not, but it’s very close.

I mean, you may as well al shut your internet browsers down for the rest of the day, close your eyes and go back to bed – because after reading that your day ain’t getting better.  An incredible read, thanks so much Adam.

A Month Curated by A Ten Year Old #19

Smokebelch II (Beatless Mix) – Sabres of Paradise (1993, Warp Records, Taken from ‘Sabresonic’)

Welcome to the final two days of this series.  A series where nearly all the songs have been taken from a playlist designed by my ten year old daughter.  A playlist that has given us music by The Orb, Primal Scream, Lush, Massive Attack and The Muppets amongst other things.  Why only two days left, there are five days left in March – I hear you all yell – well yes there is but I made the decision at the start of the year to limited each series this month to twenty posts – so for Wednesday, Thursday and Friday this week a very small series will appear.  But before then lets discuss the wonderful Beatless Mix of ‘Smokebelch’ by those cheeky Sabres of Paradise chaps.

I’m sure that if I get any of the below bits wrong then Swiss Adam from the brilliant Bagging Area blog will jump in and correct me (and Adam please do that, you are as far as I am concerned the authority on Weatherall). 

‘Smokebelch II’ was I think the debut single from Sabres of Paradise, who were a band that consisted of Andrew Weatherall, Jagz Kooner and  Gary Burns. The Beatless Mix was I think originally on the B Side of the single and got a new lease of life when it appeared on the very first Café Del Mar album just as all that Ibiza vibes nonsense was kicking off.

Here’s the original version of ‘Smokebelch’ all twelve minutes of it – well it is Monday.

Smokebelch II – Sabres of Paradise (1993, Warp Records, Taken from ‘Sabresonic’)

‘Smokebelch’ courted controversy, in 2015 a chap called Lamont Booker also known as L.B Bad claimed that Weatherall and co ripped off his track ‘The New Age of Faith’.  That was a hidden track on a 6 track house music album.    Which you can listen to below (and if you want to you can read more about this on the 909 Originals website – which has interviews with LB Bad as well).

The New Age of Faith – The Prince of Dance Music L.B Bad (1989, Nu Groove Records, Taken from ‘The True Story of House Music’)

They are very similar – albeit The Prince of Dance Music version is much more stripped down.  Of course, I’m no expert, so I played both versions to my daughter who judging by her tastes and this playlist clearly is an expert.

“The second one has someone playing a xylophone on it and the first one doesn’t and so they are different, also the first one is better”

Well that’s that then.

Let’s spin that shuffle button for the last time.

Chicken Payback – The Bees (2004, Virgin Records, Taken from ‘Free the Bees’)

In the summer of 2021, we went to the Isle of Wight on holiday.  On the third evening we went to the seaside resort of Ventnor for an evening walk and some tea.   Ventnor despite being a busy seaside resort with a decent sized sandy beach, has very little to show for itself.  Even the live music blaring out of the sea front bar was awful.  

The Bees are from Ventnor, make of that what you will.  ‘Chicken Payback’ is from their second studio album ‘Free the Bees’, which I have never heard.  I suspect that this song is only on the playlist because it has the word ‘Chicken’ in the title and probably meant that my daughter could dance like a chicken to it.  I maybe wrong.

Of course, the best thing to have ever come from the Isle of Wight (apart from HMS Victory Rum that is) is this lot.

Chaise Longue – Wet Leg (2021, Domino Records, Taken from ‘Wet Leg’)

Tomorrow – Air and it’s Confession Time – I left Air till last because I was trying to persuade my daughter to write something about them but I have failed in that quest.  She has told me her top five Air songs though, all of which appear on the playlist, so tomorrow, we will go through those.

Counting Up from Two – #6 – Seven

7 Like That – Quickspace (1998, Kitty Kitty Corporation Records, Taken from ‘Precious Falling’)

When I was seven years old we moved house.  It was an exciting time.  I remember reading all the information about my new school, proudly stating that I was going to join the football club, and various other after school clubs that the school appeared to run.  The house we were moving was a bit smaller than the old one and my brother and I would have to share a room.  Something we were excited about until about a week after we moved in, and we reverted to lengthy arguments about who could fart the loudest and whether we were cheating at Monopoly (we both were).

On the third day in our new house, our dad sent me and my brother out into the street to play football, so that he could properly unpack.  Slowly a gaggle of boys our own age all turned up and a mass kick about was taking place on the small grass area in front of our house.  After an hour we had learnt all the nicknames of the kids – some of which remain to this day, there was Baldy, Plum, Griff and a few others who I forget.  It was like we had been picked up and dumped in an episode of the Bash Street Kids. 

We all went in for our teas – shouting that we would see them at school tomorrow, which was conveniently located at the end of the road.  Half the kids I’d been playing with would be in my class and I thought I would fit in really well.  I was also better at football than most of them, apart from Plum, who despite only being 8 told me he played for Gillingham (he didn’t he played right back for Wigmore Whippets), and I had already been told by Baldy, captain of the First year team that he would tell Mr James, the ‘manager’ that I should play on the right wing, because I was better that Matty who currently played there.

Monday arrived and we looked forward to going to our new school.  Baldy even knocked for us and said he would walk with us.  Which is when my dad dropped the bombshell that we weren’t going to the school at the end of the road.  

Turns out they didn’t have room for us and so my dad had got us places in the school about two miles away, the one stuck in the middle of a really rough council estate – not that I knew or cared about that back then (or now for that matter) – but they had plenty of room for us and according to my dad, school is school, they all teach the same stuff. 

My new school was pretty rough, on my first day, I got thumped by the school bully, a lad called Michael (who got expelled in the final year for various nasty deeds, including taking a dump on the floor of the staff room).  The reason for the thump is that I got the highest mark in the class for a times table test, and that I was a ‘boffin’. I’m not convinced Michael knew what a boffin was.   In my second week I tried to get in the first year football team and failed miserably.  A tall lad called Wayne, who claimed to be 8 but looked about 19, marked me out of the game completely. 

Jacob Street 7am – Sabres of Paradise (1994, Warp Records, Taken from ‘Haunted Dancehall’)

Parallel 7 – Four Tet (2020, Text Records, Taken from ‘Parallel’)

The One Word Countdown – #30

The rundown’s most prolific contributor….

Theme – Sabres of Paradise (1994, Warp Records, Taken from ‘Haunted Dancehall’

Points 118

I think this might be the fourth week in a row that a track involving in Andy Weatherall has featured in this rundown.  I may as well change the blog name to ‘Bagging Area II’ and be done with it (not that I am in anyway worthy).  Anyway, of all the Andy Weatherall musical projects that have come and gone – and the aforementioned Bagging Area blog is a far greater place to read about them than here – Sabres of Paradise are my favourite.  It is a travesty that ‘Haunted Dancehall’, the second studio album by Sabres of Paradise didn’t achieve more than it did commercially.  It is an album that captures that after party feel perfectly – and (spoiler) it is one that will feature in the Nearly Perfect Album Series at some point.

I first heard ‘Theme’ – a track which was as close as the band came to actually having a proper hit (number 54 with a bullet) courtesy of a dance CD that I got sent when I was DJing.  I forget the name, but it also had a version of Analogue Bubblebath by Aphex Twin on it – and it may have been a Warp Records sampler, but I genuinely can’t remember, and I don’t appear to have it anymore.  Which was a shame because it was one that almost got me kicked out of the university indie society for the heinous crime of liking a CD that didn’t contain many guitars.  It might have been in the pile of CDs stolen by a bloke called Frank whilst my back was turned on the old ones and twos at university.  Might have just lost it, in a drunken haze, or lent it out and never asked for it back.  Who knows.

Analogue Bubblebath – Aphex Twin (1991, Mighty Force Records, Taken from ‘Analogue Bubblebath Vol 1’)

It’s essential Weatherall, a twisted, dubby beat, that has this almost metallic clang running through it that compliments a whole world of musical sounds.  It packs in a (sampled) brass section, a chugging, niggly, guitar riff that sounds like it comes from a car advert, a pounding, hypnotic African drum interlude and a bassline that sounds like a train going up a hill.  It is blended all together in only a way that Mr Weatherall and his bandmates know how to and the result is just astonishingly good.

There were of course one other track that were considered, one of them was ‘Wilmot’ which has one of the finest rewinds ever recorded.

Wilmot – Sabres of Paradise (1994, Warp Records) – it contains a hefty element of ‘Black but Sweet’ by Wilmoth Houdini (something that was brought to my attention by….Mr Bagging Area)

The Never Ending Playlist #37

Wilmot – Sabres of Paradise (1994, Warp Records)

Wilmot is not sadly a tribute to the eighties funny man and musical theatre star, Gary Wilmot. A man who for several months when I was about eight or nine was always on programs like Sunday Night at the Palladium – which kids, was the eighties equivalent at Live at the Apollo, only with more ropey singers, and added homophobic and racist jokes.

Instead ‘Wilmot’ is something entirely different. It starts out with this slow almost ska like beat that tweets and wails and bursts into life around a minute in and when the trumpet sample kicks in around two minutes in. By that time of course, ‘Wilmot’ its already in a full on party mood, but as the swirly ambient beats combine terrifically with the drum and that addictive trumpet sample you’ll find yourself reaching for the sun hat and a jug of Sangria or something. Its bloody marvellous, and as I happens I listened to it whilst in the waiting room to see the dental hygienist. It felt weird, because its basically the sound of the carnival unravelling in your ears and I looked up grinning away half expecting to see the other people waiting all grinning back at me, as if they were listening to it as well, which of course they were not.

If you are interested it sounds great played back to back with this.

Bingo Bango – Basement Jaxx (2000, XL Records)

Sabres of Paradise are of course the work of Jagz Kooner, Gary Burns and the all round genius that was Andy Weatherall. Its taken from the band second album ‘Haunted Dancehall’ and every bit of it is excellent and it may well find itself featured in the ‘Nearly Perfect Album’ series in the coming weeks.