Day 0762 - Haunted Dancehall

Sabres of Paradise "Haunted Dancehall" (1994)

Producer and remixer Andrew Weatherall formed Sabres with engineers Jagz Kooner and Gary Burns.  The group made acid house and dub-based music and set up their own "Sabresonic" warehouse raves.

This is a sonically interesting album of largely (maybe completely, I'm forgetting) instrumental electronica.   There are some grimey dubby baselines, moody synth-lines, interesting beats, what sound like industrial/machine noises and even a brass band at one point.  

This album would work really well as a score/soundtrack: interesting, but not overwhelming.   Hypnotic, but not repetitive in any kind of boring way.

Day 0547 - This Nation's Saving Grace

The Fall "This Nation's Saving Grace" (1985)

The band had had a bit of a reshuffle prior to making this album.  One of their two drummers having left, and their stand-in bass-player moving onto keys and guitars once their original bassist returned from parental leave.

According to the book, the Fall teamed up with producer John Leckie who gave the band's new songs a glossy, professional sheen... which singer Mark E Smith hated.  He insisted that the producer instead work with the shabby audio cassette version of the recordings that he had.  One song even ended up with some sounds inadvertently recorded over the music by Smith when he was at home, leading to an impromptu sound collage that... actually kind of works.

The album is somehow noisy, uncompromising, yet quite accessible and catchy.  I guess that must be 'the way of the Fall'.

Day 0434 - Live at the Witch Trials

The Fall "Live at the Witch Trials" (1979)

A British band championed by the late great DJ John Peel.

There's a definite punk feel to the album, but with a broader range of sounds such as spoken word sections, moments of musique concrete and theatricality. I can see why a musical omnivore like Peel would enjoy it.

The rhythm section is tight and pounding with guitars that are sometimes abrasive, sometimes washy and insubstantial, playing over and against the off-kilter organ and with Mark E Smith's frantic Mancunian voice over the top.