Hiya all,
here's another psycho babble review from your mad Finn for anyone who
cares. Yesterday I finally got the new Sabres of Paradise 'Haunted Dancehall'
(WARPCD/LP26), and the drool dribbling from the corner of my mouth I hurried
home to my measly estates. My hands trembling I carefully removed the first
record of two from its sleeve, put it on the turntable, lighted a big fatty,
and laid back.
Wonderful sounds started to sprinkle from the speakers. Mad, dubby hip hop
riddims floated in the air blue from the smoke, which was just starting to
thicken. In my ecstatic trance I saw visions of deranged Rastafaris shaking
their limbs to the robotic Kraftwerk rhythms, psychedelic Ganja cowboys
strutting their thing on the dancefloor, skanking with tattooed skinheads,
Genesis P-Orridge reading mantras, floating five feet from the floor (sorry,
a little inside joke).
There was 'Wilmot', which with its jazzy 30's trumpet sound put me in the mood
once again; 'Tow Truck' with its spiky electric guitar and wicked organ
strangely reminding me of the early Syd Barrett era Pink Floyd ('Lucifer Sam',
anyone?), which is not really a bad thing in my book: just imagine they had
Andy Weatherall to remix them in their late 60's heyday. And there were 11
other dub monster goodies to blow your mind, which made up for the whole year
of bad AFX records (_not_ really wanting to join the Aphex backlash, though),
the massive disappointment of 'Lifeforms', and all that dire 'intelligent
techno' stuff (ok, ok, _some_ of it :-), which just left me so cold... If you
thought 'Sabresonic' was scary, wait until you hear this one. What else can I
say? Weatherall is God.
Just to add some trivia, on the sleeve there's also some interesting
excerpts from the 'Haunted Dancehall' by James Woodbourne. If that book is
only as good as its 'soundtrack', it probably makes a damn good reading! Are
there any literate IDM-ers among us, who know about this stuff?
Finally, the tracks to melt your mind:
Bubble and Slide
Bubble and Slide II
Duke of Earlsfield
Flight Path Estate
Planet D
Wilmot
Tow Truck
Theme 4
Return to Planet D (Portishead Remix)
Ballad of Nicky McGuire
Jacob Street 7 am
Chapel Street Market 9 am
Haunted Dancehall
Sorry, if I have offended anyone again with my senseless babblings and my
contrived first year English Majorisms. It's just that I haven't been this
excited since my first orgasm... well, almost :) Just one more thing: get
it on vinyl, and blow your bass bins to kingdom come.
ERkki
PS. Hey, you Just-Say-No'ers out there, don't lose your night's sleep:
I lied about that weed part. But if only I'd have had some... ;)
PS2. Lazlo, you were right about that Orbital 'Semi Detached' version on
'Diversions' coming from 'TEEX1', not 'Peel Session' - my mistake. Does this
mean I can't call myself a trainspotter anymore? :)