david holmes has had a long association w/ the sabres crew. i 1st came
heard him on their "smokebelch II" single, and his remix of that track was
widescreen acid strafed tribal pounding of the highest order. pretty
amazing as it begins sounding like a fairly inoccuous piano based house
shuffler. this version is pretty easily available on the "sabresonic II"
compilation on warp. his best stuff imo is in a similar vein in that the
tracks are basically one long crescendo, and if yer lucky end in a torrent
of drums and acid squelch. the "johnny favourite" single on warp is a more
subdued and sinister take on this approach but is also worth having. the
saint etienne single "like a motorway" is a definate must, a blinding mix
from holmes, plus an autechre mix, and anyone who is a sucker for shangri
la's style pop death story songs (like me, unfortunately) will also enjoy
the original. did this have a chemical bros mix when they were still the
dust bros? don't have it w/ me so i can't check, but they did a lot of
similar forgettable thumpers around this time. actually they still do.
-btw- a. weatherall also weighed in w/ a great dubby hip hop mix of saint
etienne's "only love can break your heart" some time earlier.
around '94 holmes was also part of 4 boy 1 girl action on his own exploding
plastic (...?) imprint , with at least kooner + burns of the sabres, who i
think released 2 singles. unfortunately i only have 1 track, "hawaiian
death stomp", on a cd comp "euphoria" (which is also reccommended). starts
off w/ a patti smith sample (?) "i haven't fucked much w/ the past, but
i've fucked plenty w/ the future.." and blasts off into a raging percussion
meltdown. anyone know if any of this stuff is still available? and then the
cinematic techno "this films crap..." phase, which left me cold. i traded
the cd. "let's get killed" is better, funky grooves, jazzy touches, short
tracks. tho' i'd swap it anyday for the two 4 boy 1 girl action singles.
-martin