1993 debut album by the trio of Andrew Weatherall, Jagz Kooner and Gary Burns. Unavailable on vinyl and CD since original release. Remastered from the original tapes by Matt Colton, contains “Smokebelch II (Beatless Mix)” for the first time on the 2LP edition.
Coming off the back of his work on the era-defining Screamadelica album by Primal Scream, not to mention groundbreaking remix work for the likes of New Order, My Bloody Valentine and the Happy Mondays, Weatherall was as revered by fans of indie guitar music as he was namechecked by hardcore ravers. The increasing demands on his services led to a studio partnership with Kooner and Burns, forming the production trio The Sabres Of Paradise (named after a 1960 book about a Muslim chieftain’s efforts to repel a Russian invasion).
The opening track on Sabresonic (named after the popular weekly club night Weatherall was then running) started life as a remix of the Primal Scream track “Don’t Fight It Feel It” but got so radically mutated that it turned into something entirely new. As well as reflecting on contemporary trends in dance music (“Inter-Legen-Ten-ko” is a swipe at the IDM genre name), the album also brought in older influences - “R.S.D” is an acronym for “Red Stripe Dub”, the deep influence of King Tubby et al evident at various points throughout the album, whilst the epic icy vistas of the 14 minute+ “Clock Factory” are informed by the electronic experiments of industrial groups such as Coil. The album also flagged future trends in electronic music, with the timeless “Smokebelch II (Beatless Mix)”, a beautiful re-work of an old Chicago house tune by Lamont Booker, becoming a staple of chillout compilation CDs for the rest of the decade.
