Reviews (page 3 of 8)
Schrottplatz - next level!
Crap BDS band with no songs on Spotify. Therefore, unheard 1/5.
Very of its time but pretty enjoyable. At least it's not more 90s big beat. It outstays its welcome a bit.
bruh what the hell bruh It’s like you keep waiting for something interesting to happen. Didn’t finish
I am obsessed with this. Immediately bought it.
A thunderous cacaphony of beeps and boops. I didn't love it but surprisingly didn't mind it.
I think if I want random background music, I think I’m gonna go back to the shaft album, but there are some good gems in here not gonna lie so at a fairness of chef, I’m I’m going to rate it the same 2/5
no me deja escucharlo lol
Not available on any streaming platform available to me.
It's so bad it's not even on Spotify. It's just a bunch of sounds that go on for 1 hour and 16 minutes. Wasted spot on this list. 1 / 10
This album at times sounds like music a mushroom would make when connected to a synthesizer.
every time one of these electronic albums pops up I do my best to come in open minded and tell myself that it's possible I'll actually quite enjoy it and every time... I don't. I tried, I swear but other then a few occasions I don't get it. 2/10
Completely shitty listening experience. The soundscapes sound unfinished, haphazard, hollow, and murky. So little care seems to have been taken to distribute the repetition effectively which results in each song getting mind-numbingly grating by minute 2.
great
Don't think I will listen to it anymore, but was interesting nevertheless
Strange, but very good
So good I played it three times, went on a wiki hunt, and downloaded the discographies of all the band members later projects.
Too long but I actually didn't mind this. Was decent vibes for getting some work done. Will obviously never relisten because it's not on streaming but a decent hour.
Spotify didn't have it as of today, so YouTube the right thing?? Well it got better as it went on at least, though not sure what the concept album part was, dodgy plumbing through to 60s Sci fi spy soundtrack, by way of early video games. Google tells me a cinematic journey through a dark fictional underworld, no mention of dodgy plumbing but being dark plumbing is probably off. Guess it was listenable, though essential not so sure. Wiki doesn't give a lot away, not sure 2004 was a bumper year in music but apparently there were 46 better albums. Which over the 70 odd years the list covers would have over 3000 more potentially valid albums if taking the representive placing, but to be fair don't know the genre well, and this maybe the killer representation. Anyway heard it, moving on 2 Star
0.5 - this was not good. Normally, even if it’s an album I don’t like, I can understand why someone would listen to it. This album is a mystery to me as to why anyone would decide to put this on
This album was not on Spotify but I listened to some of their music. All instrumental, some of it was cool!
This comes across as someone that had a big idea to experiment with computer music, but didn't really have musical intent to put something together that was actually enjoyable or interesting. It relies heavily on futuristic computer effects to carry the load. In 2026 it's just not that interesting. The result is pretty boring and really hard to engage with.
I didn't hate it, and in some specific circumstances I think I would enjoy listening to it, but the album length combined with the repetitive tracks made it hard to listen to it all the way through.
Believe me when I say that the majority of this album sounds like if a not-at-all musically-inclined space alien were forced to make songs using only the components of its broken spaceship. It does not contain any of the atmospheric complexity you might expect in an ambient electronica album, nor does it pulse with any of the energizing rhythms of a typical 90s dancehall album. The easiest way I can describe most of the songs is a low quality imitation of a Depeche Mode beat, although some songs lack even the fundamentals of what I'd even consider to make a "beat". I'm not sure what the producers of this record were attempting to accomplish with this strange assemblage of dissonant foolishness, but I do not like it. I think that perhaps they forgot to make music and instead attempted to make a compilation of cheap sci-fi sound effects. I would implore anyone to not waste their time listening to this.
track 1 sounds like they took samples from a toilet lol
This is what happens when you have a group of men who have never once in their lives been told “no” before. Someone should have put a stop to this.
Not sure how this compares to other IDM artists of the 90s aside from Aphex Twin. It’s enjoyable and interesting enough to be engaging. Hard to tell if there’s any there there, but good enough to be worth a second listen sometime to make sure.
Hard to find on Spotify. YouTube helped Going in, I had no idea what to expect from Haunted Dancehall, as I had never heard of Sabres of Paradise.To my surprise, Haunted Dancehall isn't bad at all. It’s a little far on the ambient side would prefer more techno or industrial
Feels like if I was tripping hard the music here would no doubt take me on some crazy journey. However at the time of listening to this I'm not tripping (sadly) therefore it's a 1. Lifeless repetition which when listened to in the context of "listening to music" not just background noise, just doesn't tick any boxes for songwriting, song progression, or hooks.
Boring and dragged on and on. Bubble and Slide II beat was weirdly and coincidentally nostalgic since I used to beatbox that exact beat as a child, despite never having heard this record until now
Pretty cool
More music well suited to soundtracks, shops and elevators. No thanks.
Weak
Not for me. Liked some stuff on Wilmot and Tow Truck but all of the songs could be half the length they are. 1.5/5
so not for me.
i mean its on warp records so its not gonna be terrible. but still, not stellar. i quite liked some moments while sometimes it just drifted on and on. you know
i get the idea, but its abit too long for me
We need to stop calling electronica, music. I can't even say is was decent background noise. I have a feeling that when I die and end up in Hell, electronica stuff will be played on a constant loop. Maybe this is a sign and I should start to embrace some sort of religion? What would Prince do?
1.5 Historically, I haven’t given ambient electronic music good scores (or really any ambient stuff for that matter), and this is no different. In fact, I think this was one of the worst instances I’ve heard on this list so far. The word “grating” feels a bit strong, but the amount of siren-like noises on this was too damn high - your album is not likely to put me in a good mood if I have to constantly lean over to turn it down. Outside of that, there are some moments of mild enjoyability, but for the most part, this thing was incredibly one-note and uninteresting, despite the sort of “spooky, scary skeletons” ambience they were clearly going for here. I don’t like to throw around the phrase “every song sounded the same” lightly, as I think it often comes from a place of willful ignorance, but this genuinely sounds more or less like the same song on a loop over and over for an already above-average length album. While there’s a hint of Kraftwerk influence to be found that I had an ounce of appreciation for, this feels more like a diminished, diluted version of their sound, with much worse production - despite being around 20 years newer than most of their work. Well, maybe reading the Wiki will help add to my appr- wtf this was hailed as the first concept album in techno? Just because it sounds like something that could be heard at a theoretical haunted dancehall? I feel like we’re stretching the term here, but okay. If there’s supposed to be some sort of arc here, it certainly missed me. Maybe they just assumed the dancehall was haunted because everybody abruptly got tf outta there after having to listen to this.
Electronic.
they took all their music off spotify helpp
The first song sounded like a toilet flushing fed through a robotic voice filter. The rest wasn’t much better.
Could not listen to this without taking drugs and having disco lighting. Please make it stop.
Yes it's repetitive and odd but it at points builds some interesting soundscapes that I could really get into. Still, yes, it is not super interesting compared to its contemporaires around 1994
not my typa
Some good songs but also a lot of filler I didn't like.
Yuck
I waited 80 mins fot for 🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥 and it never came.
Perhaps the best yet of the albums I don’t like. Very solid 1.
Wow. I'd not heard this album before. I listened to it while watching the opening of the 2026 winter Olympics. It wasn't quite Dark Side of the Moon + Wizard of Oz but it certainly added to my enjoyment. I went from streaming it on yt to buying the vinyl and digital download on bandcamp. I was never a big fan of such tunes, but I guess our tastes change...
This is not uninteresting but also not particularly enjoyable.
Synes det mangler litt oomph. Hørtes allerede datert ut i sin samtid, hvor spesielt Autechre kan trekkes frem som en mer dynamisk & grenseprengende act med tilsvarende tilnærming til ambient techno. Sabres burde jobbe mer med texturer, elementer, og produksjon for å virkelig nå opp. Jeg liker det på grunnlag av tid & genre, men tviler på at jeg kommer til å ta det inn i rotasjonen. Andrew Weatherall hadde nok mer teft som DJ, remixer, og producer enn han hadde som IDM-trio.
Litt hummer og kanari. Høres egentlig mest ut som Moog-plater fra 60-tallet, hvor målet først og fremst er å vise hva som går an å få til av lyder. Enten det er måker ("Chapel Street Market 9am") eller sånn springfjær som er på arkitektlamper ("Bubble and Slide II", "Ballad of Nicky Mcguire" m. fl.) "Tow Truck" er vel egentlig høydepunktet, men savner vokal. Hele plata hadde godt av litt vokal, for det instrumentelle eller soundmessige er ikke sterkt nok til å stå alene. Og "Duke of Earlsfield" høres 100 prosent ut som de har spilt Crash Bandicoot mens de var ballefjerne og prøvde å gjenskape det innenfor sitt landskap. Litt kult, egentlig.
It was crap! Just a noise that as the album went on it got more and more on my nerves
Another "not a listening album". I realised as I was driving to work that I was quite zoned out from the music but focused on the road more than usual (good job as there were some idiots about). I'm very easily distracted by sights and sounds - not in a neurodivergent way as far as I know - and this might be ideal for focusing on my pile of marking. I feel this may be useful! We shall see... As a listening album it would be bollocks.
I feel like these sounds are slicing through my brain.
Sadly not on Spotify where I am. Labeled as techno, but I'm not sure I agree. But that term has changed meaning over the years, so fine. The start of the album is quite horrible to be frank, with 'Bubble and Slide' being harsh and dissonant. Most tracks felt more ambient and less musical than what I'd like an album to be as well. It's definitely an experimental album, and reminds me a bit of Selected Ambient Works by Aphex Twin. Only this doesn't quite have that musical quality to it that he has. The songs felt a bit all over the place in general, with some sounding like electronic and industrial salsa/samba ('Wilmot', 'Tow Truck'). Then we had 'Theme' and 'Ballad of Nicky McGuire' which sounded like songs fit for a soundtrack. And some darker more mellow songs like 'Planed D (Portishead Remix)' and 'Theme 4'. It was hard to get a cohesive picture of what the album was, apart from dissonant and atonal. In the end this wasn't for me at all. It lacked musical elements to make it joyful to listen to. It was just a bit too weird. Strong 1.
The first track started off really grating. I can’t really explain it, it sounded loud and jarring somehow. Then it delved into sounding like somebody demoing different features on a keyboard. The album picked up at the midpoint with “Wilmot” with its dancehall beats. It made me think of “Dengue Dengue Dengue!”. The rest felt a bit like the multiple soundtracks-to-fictional-movies-albums we’ve had here. Some nice tunes but it feels like it needs to be paired with some other media to make it interesting. This is doubly true for the aptly named “Theme” and “Theme 4”. It really didn’t need to be over 1 hour but I guess I enjoyed it in a way. Going for a strong 2.
Couldn't find this album on Spotify but listened to "The essential...". It sounded to me like a backing track for Miami Vice and a mix of electronic sounds. Not a fan.
Did not have a playlist on Spotify
couldnt listen to it bc it wasnt on spotify
A remarkably odd album. A fairly difficult listen at first, but with each new listen, the hypnotic pulse of the dub beats and squelchy sounds started drawing me in more and more. I'm glad I allowed the will-o-the-wisps to lure me into the murky unknown here.
I’m daunted by this recent stretch I’m on. 800 albums in and I’m hoping this is the darkness before dawn.
This is not on Spotify so I had to listen on YouTube. I like electronic music, and I quite enjoyed this, but it's not a stand out album for me. There are much better EDM/IDM albums from the 90s out there. 3/5 for me.
Too tricky to listen too
Hmmm, instrumental techno. Not sure I would listen to this just on its own. Portishead and Massive Attack set the tone, this seems like it is playing catch-up.
Really fun and refreshing.
no
5 / 10
Not my jam
Seriously? How many fucking horrible, lackluster albums are we going to have to be subjected to during this project? Nothing here but down tempo techno, "Tow Truck" and "Theme" were catchy at least. Otherwise, horrible dreck that I'm not ever going to listen to again.
I don't really like the idea of this album and it certainly felt repetitive and boring at times, but I listened to it all the way through -- so that is something.
What a fun, groovy, danceable record! Not a genre I spend a lot of time with, but I love this and would definitely put it on while cleaning, walking or working. I'm glad I listened before I died. 8/10
Hab Probleme gehabt das ganze Album zu finden aber was ich gehört hab war mid. Maybe war des revolutionär für die Techno scene
Bonkers. Must have been even more bonkers at the time
Just dreadful. The faceless, by-the-numbers techno on this record is devoid of any real substance. (Or you may need to be on substances to enjoy it.)
pretty nice
Some of this isn't horrible. Otherwise, I didn't like it very much, and I didn't think it was very good. 2.5
This is the type of music that you hear but don't hear during a movie. Not needed on this list.
found this interesting, especially as not on Spotify now. Nice ambient background vibes
My rating 2.6. See beginnings of electronica and industrial but seems incomplete.
Parecieran los mismísimos creadores de la banda sonora de Crash Bandicoot Algunas tienen una pizca de roots, pero este es un álbum de electrónica meramente Y para la época me parece muy bien ejecutado
This was a lot better than I thought it would be based on the description. It is moody, engaging electronica that held my interest for the most part. Liked the groove on songs like "Wilmot" and "Theme." Could have been shorter on many of the songs. Especially liked the closing title song. I keep saying it, but it had a Lynchian quality that really works for me.
It took three people to make this?
Pretty good, a lot more percussive than most electronic music.
il n'y a plus rien de dispo sur Spotify on ronfle
This good
Weird music tbh. No song really stood out. It was decent, but just like one long atmospheric drum and bass song.
I know IDM stands for 'intelligent dance music,' but this feels like industrial dance music to me: the sound of a factory waking up a night discovering its hidden sources of rhythm and pleasure. I'm not sure what the 'concept' of the record is besides the dancehall being haunted. I guess the vibes of the thing are Halloweenish, and there're a whole lotta sounds that can be considered menacing or ominous - there's a persistent sensation that the air is being violently, stealthily sliced - but for the most part I just listen to it as a collection of interesting, at times imaginative and groovy, electronic & ambient music. It's more 'soundtrack' than 'concept,' since the whole time I was compelled to seek the apposite scene: someone running for cover.
This was super interesting! I wouldn't say I like it but they kept me on my toes throughout which i appreciated.
Yikes. A struggle to listen to. At least there were some beats… Any of the tracks over 90s were too long by however many seconds over 90s they were.
No thank you
1994, bordel quelle année. J'avais 24 piges, je passais ma vie fourré dans les studios de la radio ou à zoner dans les rayons du disquaire, à sniffer l'odeur du vinyle neuf comme d'autres sniffent de la colle. Kurt venait de se faire sauter le caisson, laissant toute une génération d'ados en flanelle orphelins, et pendant ce temps-là, en Angleterre, un autre genre de révolution se tramait. Moins bruyante, plus sournoise, plus... chimique. C'est là que débarque ce pavé "Haunted Dancehall", "La salle de bal hantée". Rien que le titre, tu sens que tu ne vas pas écouter "Dance Machine vol. 4". On est chez Warp, le label qui a transformé la techno en science infuse, les mecs qui ont rendu l'électronique "intelligente" (ce terme IDM à la con qu'on détestait tous mais qu'on utilisait pour se la raconter). Aux manettes ? Andrew Weatherall. Le Patron, le "Guv'nor". Le type qui avait déjà pris Primal Scream pour leur apprendre à danser sous ecstasy trois ans plus tôt. Ici, avec ses potes Jagz Kooner et Gary Burns, il ne cherche pas à nous faire lever les bras. Non, il cherche à nous faire ramper. C'est la bande-son de la descente, celle qui arrive à 6h du mat', quand tes pupilles ne réagissent plus à la lumière et que tu cherches un sens à ta vie en fixant un cendrier plein. Cet album c'est un foutoir organisé, un laboratoire de savant fou où le dub jamaïquain se fait violer par de la techno industrielle dans une ruelle sombre de Londres. Dès l'ouverture avec "Bubble and Slide", on est prévenu. Ça glisse, ça bulle, c'est liquide. Mais pas de l'eau claire, plutôt de l'eau saumâtre, un peu crade. Et puis paf, la version II qui débarque juste derrière pour enfoncer le clou pendant sept minutes, on est dans le bain, et l'eau est froide. Ensuite, on plonge dans le dur avec "Duke of Earlsfield", c'est lent, c'est lourd, c'est répétitif. C'est hypnotique comme un pendule qui te dirait "dors, je le veux". La basse est là, omniprésente. Étant fan de Joy Division, cette basse elle me parle. Elle ne joue pas une mélodie, elle creuse les fondations. C'est du dub, mais du dub de caveau, du dub pour fantômes urbains. Et puis, au milieu de cette noirceur, l'OVNI absolu : "Wilmot". Putain, "Wilmot". Je me souviens quand on a reçu le maxi à la radio. On s'est regardé avec les collègues : "C'est quoi ce bordel ?". Du ska ? De la techno ? Un orchestre de Calypso sous acide ? C'est tout ça à la fois. C'est le morceau qui te fait remuer le cul malgré toi, avec ces cuivres déglingués qui semblent se foutre de ta gueule. C'est hilarant, c'est génial, c'est du Weatherall tout craché : prendre un truc festif et le tordre jusqu'à ce qu'il devienne inquiétant. C'est le tube de l'album, celui qui dénote mais qui, paradoxalement, tient tout l'édifice debout. On enchaîne les ambiances, "Flight Path Estate" nous remet la tête dans le brouillard, une sorte d'interlude anxiogène pour ceux qui habitent sous les couloirs aériens. Puis arrive "Planet D", remixé par... Portishead. Et ouais, 1994, c'est aussi l'année de "Dummy". La rencontre est évidente, le trip-hop de Bristol qui rencontre la techno de Sheffield. C'est poisseux, c'est lent, c'est magnifique. On sent la fumée de cigarette qui sort des enceintes. Et que dire de "Tow Truck" ? "La dépanneuse". Le titre te donne l'impression d'être tracté vers la casse, c'est mécanique, froid, implacable. C'est là que mes amours pour l'industriel, pour Godflesh ou les trucs plus durs, se retrouvent. On n'est pas là pour rigoler. C'est la face sombre de la rave, celle où tu te rends compte que le warehouse où tu danses est une usine désaffectée pleine de rouille et de tétanos. L'album continue de nous balader. "Theme" et sa variation "Theme 4". Des morceaux cinématographiques, on se croirait dans un film noir futuriste, un Blade Runner tourné dans le Yorkshire. Il y a cette élégance désespérée, ce dandysme crasseux qui collait à la peau de Weatherall. Puis vient "Ballad of Nicky McGuire", huit minutes trente. Une épopée, ça commence doucement, ça monte, ça t'enveloppe. C'est peut-être le morceau qui illustre le mieux ma remarque sur la cohérence. Ça part dans des délires dub, ça frôle l'ambient, mais il y a ce fil conducteur, cette tension qui ne lâche jamais. C'est une histoire racontée sans mots, juste avec des textures et des rythmes. On termine la visite des lieux (hantés, rappelons-le) avec "Jacob Street 7AM" et "Chapel Street Market 9AM". Les titres indiquent l'heure. Le matin se lève, la ville se réveille, mais toi, tu n'as pas dormi. Tu marches dans les rues vides, le son encore dans les oreilles, les basses qui résonnent dans ta cage thoracique. "Chapel Street Market", c'est le bruit de la vie qui reprend, indifférente à ta nuit blanche. C'est mélancolique à souhait. Enfin, le morceau titre, "Haunted Dancehall", clôture le bal (c'est le cas de le dire). Quatre minutes pour dire au revoir aux esprits. On referme la porte, on éteint la lumière. C'est marrant, en réécoutant ça pour écrire la chronique, je me rends compte qu'il n'y a pas le fameux "Smokebelch II" sur l'album original (il était sur le précédent ou en single, ma mémoire flanche parfois). Et c'est tant mieux parce que "Haunted Dancehall" n'a pas besoin de ce tube "facile" (aussi beau soit-il) pour exister. C'est un album qui se tient tout seul, dans sa crasse et sa splendeur. Pourquoi 4/5 et pas 5/5 ? Parce que, ça part dans tous les sens et parfois, on s'y perd un peu. Certains morceaux s'étirent, testent notre patience, comme "Return to Planet D" qui peut sembler redondant après le remix de Portishead. C'est un album exigeant, qui demande de l'attention, qui ne se donne pas facilement. Ce n'est pas la perfection pop, c'est une œuvre brute, avec ses défauts, ses longueurs, ses moments de flottement. Mais c'est ce qui fait son charme, c'est un disque de caractère. C'est un disque fait par des humains pour des humains, avec des machines au milieu. En 1994, alors que la trance commençait à devenir une soupe commerciale infâme, The Sabres of Paradise nous rappelait que la musique électronique pouvait être sale, intelligente, drôle et effrayante. C'est un disque culte pour moi, il a sa place sur l'étagère entre "Unknown Pleasures" et "Selected Ambient Works". Il sent le tabac froid, la bière tiède et les lendemains qui déchantent. Et putain, qu'est-ce que j'aime ça. Allez, je vais me remettre "Wilmot" à fond pour emmerder les voisins.
Glorping music
3.4 2x listened on youtube, catch up 1/20
Je så idk hva det er med meg og idm men hver gang jeg hører et nytt idm album så er jeg litt overbevist det er det beste som noensinne har blitt skapt og det er sjeldent egentlig det men nonetheless dritbra album 4/5
This album is not good. Half the tracks meander for a lifespan doing little-to-nothing and I died like ten times listening to this, and then I don't know if this is because I had to listen on YouTube but the wavy cutting pad on the last track felt like live ear surgery (possibly the easiest access to my brain so they could resurrect me) It got sorta fun but my conscience won't let me push it over a 1/5
Hasn’t aged too well.
A little too simple, repetitive and discordant in places for my liking.
I just finished listening to At Fillmore East by the Allman Brothers Band, and now I'm treated to another long album, this time at the hands of an artist who I've never heard of before. I haven't been a big fan of a lot of the nineties electronica albums I've reviewed, and given what other users have said about this album, I'm not really sure it's going to be up my alley. Regardless, this will be my last album of 1994, and I think my last electronica album as well. On to the haunted dancehall! I didn’t love Haunted Dancehall, but it certainly wasn’t as bad as I was afraid it would be. In general, I wasn’t a fan of The Sabres’ approach to crafting their sounds, but they certainly took a unique approach to making this album. The Sabres relied a little too heavily on sharp and discordant sounds for my tastes, but their beats were pretty catchy on most of these songs. I thought the songs on this album were much better when the band relied on gentler sounds to craft their melodies. I was pleasantly surprised that this album was pretty engaging for a techno album that was well over an hour in length, but I did think that the last four songs on the album were easily the best part. Those last four songs (particularly “Ballad of Nicky McGuire”) showed that The Sabres are very capable of crafting some great atmospheres with their music, but the first 75% or so of the album just didn’t have that. This isn’t the type of album I’d listen to again, but I thought it was unique, and it set itself apart from the other techno and electronic albums on this list.
1 I love Electronica and really enjoyed this when this album ENDED.
Didn't know about these guys!
Bueno
apparently doesn’t exist anymore 🤷🏻♀️
How much meh electronica really needs to be on this list?
Really?
I restarting
The Daily Double! Boring and disgusting. Synthesized garbage.
Admittedly this is a genre that is a huge blind spot for me and I don't have a lot of nostalgia or connection with historically. I understand that this music is different and/or groundbreaking for house/electronica/trip hop, etc. but this type of music is not what I'm looking for when I put a song on.
It's alright
Only listened to the first half since it was on youtube and it wasn't as bad as I expected given the reviews but ehh still not going to cut it.
Best Track - "Wilmot"
This has some catchy tunes. Surprisingly, the title track was my least favorite.
Buns with a side of ass
Started but could not finish. To me it was just a collection of experimental sounds than music
The Sabres of Paradise Haunted Dancehall (1994, Warp) 1. Macro-view What it is: a 79-minute, mostly instrumental suite built from the ashes of early-90s UK club culture – rave, dub, Detroit techno, Jamaican sound-system etiquette and post-punk experimentalism – but filtered through the drizzly, post-industrial melancholy of early-November London. It is not a “dance” record in the functional sense; it is the ghost of a dance that happened somewhere else, some other night, and you are overhearing the echo through cracked warehouse walls. Andrew Weatherall, Jagz Kooner, Gary Burns and engineer Jagz Kooner treat the mixing desk as a dub chamber, the sampler as a haunted house, and the TB-303 as a foghorn lost at sea. 2. Lyrical content (or the deliberate lack of it) Only three tracks contain anything you could print as text: • “Wilmot” – a cover of a 1983 lovers-rock obscurity sung here by the grainy, sorrowful voice of Will Bankhead. One verse, one chorus, one plea: “Mr Wilmot, where’s your daughter?” The lyric is left unresolved; the vocal drifts in and out of a fog of spring-reverb and tape hiss until it becomes another instrument. • “Ballad of Balanced (Bombs)” – a two-line murmur (“balanced bombs in my head / fall on you instead”) looped and smeared until it is unintelligible. • “Theme” – a single spoken line, “It’s haunted…”, repeated, pitched down, drenched in hall reverb. Everything else is phonetic – snatches of pirate-radio chatter, reversed Indian tablas, Morse-code bleeps, the crackle of nicotine-styled vinyl. The absence of narrative is the conceptual lyric: the dancehall is “haunted” precisely because the human voice has been exorcised, leaving only the spatial memory of bodies that once occupied it. In 1994 this was radical; ambient-house had been cosmic and comforting, but Sabres removed the New-Age balm and left you alone with the spirits. 3. Musical architecture Tempo: 90-105 BPM – the sluggish gait of someone walking home at 6 a.m. on half-depleted serotonin. Harmony: minor-key drones, unresolved sus2 chords, dub bass that rarely leaves the root, so the entire record feels like an extended anacrusis – perpetual tension without release. Rhythm: no four-on-the-floor kick until track 7 (“Tow Truck”). Instead, rim-shot echoes, rim-shots delayed 178 ms to the right, hi-pass filtered bongos, the occasional sub-boom that arrives a full beat late – the groove is defined by absence. You nod to the holes. Texture: cigarette-burned tape, spring-reverb tails that last four bars, detuned police-siren synths, valve distortion that eats the top end – everything sounds 15 years older than it is. Melody: almost none. When a tune threatens to appear (the two-note piano in “Chapel Street Market 9 a.m.”) it is immediately sent through a low-pass gate until it becomes a memory of a tune. 4. Production techniques (1993-94, Sabresonic studio, Ladbrooke Grove) • Akai S950 12-bit sampler used as a dub siren: every snare is flown out to a cheap Boss delay, then re-sampled at half-speed, re-pitched, re-EQ’d. • Real tape: ¼-inch Revox machines varispeeded ±8 % to create the wobble that plug-ins still can’t replicate. • Room sound: drums recorded in a decommissioned synagogue next door; you can hear the 2.8-second flutter echo in “Bubble and Slide”. • Mix philosophy: “faders are ghosts” – Weatherall would leave a channel on the desk fully open but pulled −20 dB so the circuit noise itself becomes a layer. • No mastering brickwall; the vinyl was cut at 33 rpm to preserve sub-40 Hz content, which is why the original LP feels three-dimensional on a good system. 5. Thematic strands • Hauntology before the term was fashionable: the record anticipates the thesis of Mark Fisher’s “hauntology” by a decade – dance music that knows its own future has been cancelled. • Post-Thatcher dread: London after the Criminal Justice Bill, warehouses boarded up, rave culture pushed literally underground (tube tunnels, sewer banks). The music is the sound of eviction. • Exorcism via delay: every echo is an attempt to bury the recent past (the euphoric summer of ’92) but the burial only amplifies it. • Diaspora melancholy: Jamaican dub techniques severed from roots, white British producers using Black sonic strategies to articulate their own deracination – problematic, but honestly so; the album never settles into easy appropriation because it keeps the wound open. 6. Influence footprint • Burial – Untrue’s crackle, vinyl rain, missing-kick architecture is unimaginable without Haunted Dancehall. • Basic Channel / Chain Reaction – Moritz von Oswald admits he first heard the term “heroin house” applied to Sabres, not Berlin. • Portishead – Third’s refusal of trip-hop nostalgia is a direct descendant of the Sabres’ refusal of rave nostalgia. • The whole of 2000s “hauntology” (Ghost Box, Mordant Music, Caretaker). • Film: David Fincher sampled “Chapel Street Market” for the Zodiac trailer; Danny Boyle used “Wilmot” in Trainspotting’s soundtrack rehearsals (ultimately cut for rights cost). • Literature: Warren Ellis cites the album in the acknowledgements of his novel *Gun Machine* as “the sound of New York’s 3 a.m. suicide lights”. 7. Track-by-track micro-commentary (condensed) 1. “Wilmot” – lovers-rock as séance; the only entry point for civilians. 2. “Tow Truck” – first appearance of the detuned 303 that will haunt Plastikman’s “Spastik”. 3. “Ballad of Balanced (Bombs)” – the record’s only political statement, so submerged you miss it. 4. “Chapel Street Market 9 a.m.” – field recording of stall owners, sped up until voices sound like birds; the birth of Burial’s seagull trope. 5. “Bubble and Slide” – 98 BPM shuffle, bassline that drops a minor 9th every 16 bars – the loneliest sound in techno. 6. “Flight Path Estate” – named after a condemned council estate under Heathrow approach; the chord progression never leaves the Phrygian mode – architectural dread. 7. “Planet D” – the “hit” (John Peel placed it at #7 in his 1994 Festive 50) yet it has no kick, only a sub-bass heartbeat. 8. “Duke B” – tribute to Duke Ellington via a single reversed piano chord that loops for 9 min; the anti-sample. 9. “Jacob Street 7 a.m.” – dawn-after field recording: milk bottles, first bus, a solitary raver still whistling the “ whistles ” from last night’s PA. 10. “Theme” – the titular ghost speaks once, then the record eats itself in tape hiss for 63 seconds. 8. Pros + Invented a mood that did not exist before – neither chill-out nor club, but the liminal corridor between them. + Production still sounds future-proof: the distortion is organic, the stereo field holographic. + Refuses instant gratification; rewards repeated, late-night, headphone listening. + Sowed the seeds for Burial, Basic Channel, hauntology, post-dubstep, even parts of Radiohead’s *Kid A* rehearsal sketches. + Vinyl mastering is a low-end master-class; sub-bass is felt rather than heard. + Emotional honesty – no pseudo-spiritual waffle, just the ache of a culture coming down. 9. Cons – 79 minutes of mid-tempo murk is a tall order for anyone who does not romanticise 3 a.m. existential fatigue. – Almost zero harmonic movement; if you crave melody or song-form you will starve. – The racial politics of white Britons using dub as a canvas for post-industrial ennui are never interrogated; the album floats in a grey area between homage and vampirism. – Some pieces (“Duke B”, “Jacob Street”) are pure texture sketches that feel unfinished even by ambient standards. – The CD bonus tracks (three remixes) dilute the séance; the original vinyl is the true artefact. – You need a decent system to hear the sub-40 Hz content; on laptop speakers it is merely muffled. 10. Verdict Haunted Dancehall is not a record you love; it is a place you move into for a season. It will not console, energise or soundtrack your workout. Instead it offers a negative image of rave culture: every kick drum that could have been, every smiley that never got painted, every sunrise you slept through. Twenty-nine years on it still sounds like tomorrow mourning yesterday. Prospective listeners should treat it like a novella you read once, then shelve, but whose weather you never quite shake off.
37/1089 3.3751 This really hit at times but was off more than on. Some of it felt like tedious repetition. How many bars can you repeat the same beat? Hits...
No thanks! Trance nonsense, super annoying listen to be honest. “Best” Track: Jacob Street 7am
garbage
#199 Haunted Dancehall ~ The Sabres of Paradise The Sabres of Paradise presented a no-quarter electronic sound built on the production of Booner, Burns and, the most famous of them all, Weatherall. All three were well known underground DJs, having collab'd with the likes of New Order, Bjork and Primal Scream but with the Sabres project, all their quirks are dialled to extremes to produce some funky leftfield sound choices, forcefully blending dub, ambience, techno and rave into this record. As a result, this album is quite delightfully strange. Each song feels like some strange world as electronic sounds echo and fade on a techno drum beat. However, you do feel like you are asking for more, and each producer has proven he can do more on solo. Nevertheless, a neat track to vibe on ambience.
Ugh this was not good and I could not wait for this to end. Wayyyyy too long. Actual rating...1.5. Liked Songs: "Duke of Earlsfield" , "Wilmot" , "Tow Truck" , "Jacob Street 7am" , "Haunted Dancehall"
Stupid and dumb 1
I found this to be serviceable electronic music. I enjoyed it but it doesn’t compel me to give it multiple listens.
kk
Album #15 The Sabres of Paradise: Haunted Dancehall Honestly, the name and cover of the album seemed intriguing, along with the fact that it was an obscure 90s album I’d never heard of, I was hoping to be pleasantly surprised. But the album is just not for me, I don’t ever really put on music just to zone out, and I can’t imagine ever actively listening to over an hour of repetitive, sonically uninteresting noises. There were a few parts near the end that I started to enjoy, but for the most part, I just couldn’t even stay focused on the music. I don’t know much about IDM, but I’d be pretty disappointed if this is the pinnacle of the genre. Best Tracks: Chapel Street Market 9 am, Haunted Dancehall, Wilmot Worst Track: Bubble and Slide (sounded like a wet fart) Score out of 10: 3.5
This album reminds me of being in uni, piling into someone's bedroom at a house party because the wannabe DJ has brought his USB with the most despicable music you've ever heard. Everyone hoping he stops but nobody brave enough to tell him to. Every so often you walk back into the living room, trying to convince yourself it's getting good now but the rooms still empty. And the worst part of it all? Years later, that guy will be what you remember of the night
3- Stars (7/15)
Fine as background music, didn't really grab my attention.
I absolutely hate this. This is just grating noises set to a beat. It sucks.
Not great but I have a new name for my hog - the sabre of paradise
Temu Daft Punk. What the hell did I just listen to?!
Bara konstigt. Kunde inte lyssna klart. Etta
It's interesting if a little bit long. It would have made a killer EP.
The strangest, most uncomfortable combination of sounds I've heard in a long time... it wasn't even playable on Spotify, and now that I know what this is, I think I can see why......
Wasn’t on Spotify
156 Este disco me hace pensar en cuantas veces he tenido la discusión del "qué es arte/música". Si hubiera encontrado estos tracks en un soundcloud de una persona random habría pensado "ay, que tierno, está empezando y las canciones tienen mucho relleno". Pero como el disco está en esta canción me hace querer verlo como algo más. Así como esos cuadros abstractos que tienen puras manchas y te hacen pensar que tu hija de 5 años podría haber hecho algo mucho mejor. De todas formas, lo escuché ordenando la casa, con unos muy buenos parlantes y lo disfruté y encontré super loquillo a ratos. Lo escucharía de nuevo? Tal vez para trabajar, si es que me animo. Es como un techno-meets-lo-fi
Aivan kelpo varhainen elektrolevy!
There was one cool song on here. No idea what it was because I had to listen on YouTube where it’s just the whole album as a video, not available on Spotify. It’s at about the 43 minute mark. The beginning of the album is so tinny, lots of high pitched sounds with little bass. Definitely not what I look for in electronic dance music. The second half was a bit better but still not very good.
Another day, another boring 1h+ long electronica record
wtf is ts
Too minimalist and groove-devoid for me. Way better towards the end than the beginning, but at no point did I feel like I was listening to music…
Yessir
Actually fuck this. Too long. Too repetitive. Annoying. There's definitely better electronica on this list, especially representing this particular brand of it. Started skipping through parts of songs near the end because it just wouldn't end. Sounded like noises made from a Casio keyboard and AOL dial up sounds. Total slog.
Funky
Wilmotic 3.5
This was fine? Good even? I'm not knowledgeable enough about UK electronic music from the 90s to understand why this is on the list. I liked the title track best. 2.5
Weird!
this list is making it harder to listen to electronic music without dismissing it at first glance that is the haunting, of the dancehall in my heart music: hated. (⌐■_■)
If someone invited me to a haunted dancehall I would be so excited. If I showed up and this is what was playing I would feel betrayed.
That might be one of the worst band names I’ve ever heard. I also think these guys may be French and boy do I dislike the French. Well, French Canadians more. Even more specific, Quebec French Canadians. 6000 monthly listeners on Spotify and these guys deserve my time? Well, I’ve given them my time and I can’t think of a single nice thing to say about them. There’s structure to the songs. It’s not just noise. It’s too repetitive. Nothing grand to note. Mid to meh
Holy shit this was bad. I hated almost every track on here. There was 1 song that was sort of ok. Tow Truck didn't totally suck.
Not available on spotify
Ya, not my bag at all.
When will this end
Background music for an early 00s drama
Day 116 Not one is return to. Highlight Planet D
Sounded like a PS1 platformer
I initially hated it with a fiery passion. Then as it progressed it grew on me. But eventually I realized that there is no way in hell that I was going to listen to this any more than I had to and that I was just trying to cope.
This was really weird, and really long, or at least it felt like it. Some of the songs were really interesting, like the sounds they chose went in really weird places, but I will admit some of them were just really confusing, like why did you choose what sounds like someone banging on wire and why did you add it to your vibraphone? Some of the songs were really cool, and some of them I would stray away from. 6/10
Unsure why my review didn't save for this. Unfortunately it wasn't on spotify any more. Listening through youtube. But it was odd.
Yes! This shit slaps! 10/10
Stunning album of dub-infused electronica. At times stark and apparently simple, at other times haunting and complex. Pretty much every Warp Record release in 1994 was amazing.
What we thought was the future of techno! Very conceptual album, love it.
It felt different from the usual ambient/electronic albums out there, it was experimental, and the songs have a feel that only when listening to them, you find what they try to convey. It was fun!
Not the worst album I have heard but don’t understand why it’s on this list.
“Duke of Earlsfield” sounds like a video game level set in a creepy crystal cave. Best track on the album - “Tow Truck” Overall, a lot of it sounded like an “experiment.”I’m glad to have been given the opportunity to give it a chance. Technology is amazing in that it gives us an opportunity to hear all this music. Still, not my jam, a lot of it sounds like clanging on pipes and “plumbing” noises. Based on other reviews on this project, Two out of five. A one out of five I deem basically unlistenable FYI.
An interesting album, I liked Wilmot the most.
An insanely long album but I liked it. It made me dance and I felt happy & thankful for everything in my life. A pretty good way to start Thanksgiving.
Like it’s just bad but it’s also just kinda nothing
Admittedly I liked this one more than I expected to, it's decent music to have on the background while I'm working even if it's not a genre I particularly enjoy.
An album of noise. And not the kind you want to hear.
This is an atrocity
альбом без слов и не со спотифая = не приснилось ли мне это. норм, не напряг)
Much that I love many Jamaican music forms, this is not one. It doesn't create a groove for me, and while listening in my home is not the intention of the this music, and hearing it a club would give it a different vibe, I want more.
loved how simple it was for electronic music
Finally listened to this one (it’s not on Spotify). It’s pretty good!
⭐️ i'd give it half a star if i could. i'll say it as many times as i have to, even though the author will never read this: STOP adding slop albums to the list just because they're british!!! is the bar for decent music really so low across the pond? either the author of this list has some questionable taste in music or his bri'ish bias is so strong that he added some nothing-ass albums to the list out of pride. plenty of great music from the UK, anyone can agree, but this ain't it
It's not on Spotify.. I looked it up on YouTube and uh yeah, why is this on the list haha
Unique blend of atmospheres. Called by critics “techno’s first concept album”, to which I reply, *cough* Aphex Twin *cough*. Although there’s no comparison, but certainly they were both occupying this realm that would later be coined “IDM”. Good album
Huh. I like ambient but this was just dull dredge. Simultaneously boring and painful to endure. Now that I’ve heard it before I die, I will endeavor to do good works, hopefully avoiding being tortured by this album in the afterlife. Haunted Dancehall approaches the horror of a Kid Rock album. Don’t worry Kid, you are still at the bottom of the list, but The Sabres of Paradise are right there in your rear view mirror.
Sounds like trying to make industrial music on a keychain keyboard.
Hat der Author dieses Buches einfach noch am Ende Platz gehabt und "Techno Dreck aus den 90ern" gegooglet? Ich kann nicht nachvollziehen wie dieses Erbrochene von Tönen einen Platz in diesem Buch verdient haben soll.
teilweise bisschen zu experimentell, ansonsten top. sehr gut anzuhören. Wilmot und Haunted Dancehall landen bei meinen Favoriten.
Mal wieder irgendwas zwischen Genie und Wahnsinn
First time listening. Really good electronic music from the nineties. Overall, a nice ambient sound with interesting excursions into samba and drum n bass. Will be sure to revisit.
Simply very boring. Dance music not meant for anything else than dancing.
I'm not sure who is dancing to this. Sadly misleading album title. There were actually some moments that I vibed to, especially towards the end. But in general, I didn't feel like this album was particularly significant or enjoyable. Maybe unique? But not enough to give it bonus points.
Album so bad it made medieval torture sound like a good time 1 ⭐️
An interesting listen! I enjoyed although it was definitely a little silly. I’m def more into this electronic/dance music now after going to Europe and also going estie’s sis’ DJ set so. Yeah!
A batida é gostosa. Não é o tipo de música que eu sentaria para ouvir. Mas numa festa, danceteria é uma boa pedida.
It's a curious one... Not really my jam, but am compelled to listen, and get frustrated with it at the same time 🙈 it's early 90's techno/elec music. Sounds a bit cultish!
No idea what I just listened to but okay.
The record has some moments, but in general, it was not my preferred kind of music to listen to or enjoy.
Not available on Spotify. Mellow EDM/tech music. It's actually not a bad album. Pitchfork: n/a Rolling Stone: n/a Best Songs Wilmot
This sucks, might actually be 1 star
Some pretty decent electronica here, but its inclusion on the 1001 list seems kind of random. There's a lot of good electronica out there, and I'm not sure this stands out enough to be singled out.
ummmm i don’t really know how i feel about this one… 1 star feels a bit low because there were moments on here that i liked, but i ended up having to skip a few songs towards the end because i just couldn’t get through them. 1.5
Was bin ich hörend?!?
It was very weird and I am not sure why it was recommended for a listen. Definitely a once and done for me.
WTF. How many of these noisy pieces of “art” are on the list? This one doesn’t provide value in any way I can identify.
Interesting.
The first song sounds like a toilet. That's all you need to know.
Minimalist rhythmic electronica. pretty dull 1.5/5
If I was a ghost in this dancehall I'd be fucking pissed.
A cool album had moments with really bizarre and interesting sounds/mixes. Overall felt pretty cohesive and consistent with it's sound. Doesn't completely blow me away though like the stuff that Daft Punk started mixing only a few years later.
Listened while driving to work. Not bad. More background music than something I’d really get into, but quirky and fun.
This wasn't great for a leg workout but great for stretching afterwards!
This isn't bad at all. Some of these early mid-90s techno projects have actually been boring as hell, so I didn't have high hopes for this one with it being so low-rated here. But I'd take it over like Roni Size & Reprazent or The Shamen any day. 3.5/5
un ascolto difficile che infatti ho appeso dopo poco
Veramente difficile da ascoltare. Non fa proprio per me e non capisco come possa rientrare nei 1001 album ds sentire almeno una volta nella vita
figo, bella scoperta, 3.7 track preferita wilmot/return to planet D
Hipster nightclub background music, Part IV. I would be very curious to hear The Author defend this selection.
For the entirety of this album, I didn’t realize it was even playing.
Feels like the missing link between Goblin and the synth wave bands of today
For a video game or movie soundtrack this would be fine.
11/5/25. Not my cup of tea. Chill, almost ambient electronic, and I enjoyed the first two tracks. Thought it would pick up but stays at a relaxed level. Works for a lot of people but not to my ear as much.
Actually dug it quite a bit
What the hell was that?!?!
i'm sure this blew everyone's tits off way back when. it's hard to put myself back in the mindset of someone 30+ years ago. but i still feel like some of this instrumentation sounds a lil cheesy and dated considering it was the 90s. i liked (and could really hear) the portishead influence. some of the songs were droney bangers. but overall: just ok for me
this album sounds like a demo from someone making their first tracks in their bedroom in fruity loops using the included loops, free vst plugins, and royalty-free samples they downloaded off a sketchy website. in other words, it kinda sucks. favorites: theme
I’d never heard of this artist, I did enjoy the album I’d give it a high 3 it’s not quite a 4 for me
Some interesting review for this one - seems to have made a lot of people quite angry! It is somewhat dated, but still fairly enjoyable and atmospheric.
This was a pretty cool discovery for early 90’s experimental electronic music. It’s basically a mix of dark trip-hop, ambient, and dub, creating an interesting and moody blend.
Definitely odd but I listened while I was focused on something else and it was pretty good background music. It got me locked in. I probably wouldn't enjoy it in any other context though. Fav- Tow Truck
sparks of a good time but nothing great
Plinky plonk noises
Repetitious
Interesting but not my thing
I don’t have the energy to give an in depth review of this album. It was weird, hard to listen to and the worst sin of all, it was boring.
It was just kind of boring honestly
Pleasantly surprised by how much i loved this
Nei.
It's good but it kind of all blurs together
Number 90 in Scotland this time. Wow, what a chart performance.
I started out hating it and was seriously considering DNFing during the first song, but it grew on me. It feels like it could be the soundtrack to an Earthbound-like game. Wilmot was the standout track and the one I saved to put in regular rotation.
Ok but a bit repetitive
DNF, fuck off Best Song: N/A Rating: 1/10 Stars: 1
17th from bottom on 1001 global stat list.
it was okay, cool album cover though
Not too sure if it's because of the amount of long albums I've been getting recently or if just this albums fault, but does this seriously need 76 minutes worth of songs - when most songs are heavily repetitive - to convey its emotion. It just repeats ad nauseam, like goodness gracious me! I'm not sure what is with some electronic musicians and 80 minutes albums with the same few bars, going over and over. And I don't even reckon you could dance to a lot these songs; as some electronic music gets the point across better in a live setting rather than the studio. The only track that amounted to anything is Tow Truck. Which has this menacing surf-like riff in it. Bubble and Slide sounds like they played the song in a toilet bowl and sounds like someone is pissing, like genuinely what were they trying with that song? 0.01/5.00 song, absolutely god awful.
Some great tracks on this album, but it doesn’t quite work for me as a whole 3/5
Can't find this online anymore
"I like to create soundscapes. Imagine one instant of a song expanded to be the size of the universe. . .This one's called, 'Earth Rise On The Moon.'" -Gabe Lewis, The Office Well I did it. I finished this. It sounded like backing tracks for various 90s films. And honestly? It was more palatable than some other stuff I've had to listen to. I have no clue why this made the list, and it's way too long, but it didn't feel too punishing. Rounding it down to a 2/5 because of the length.
Cool
Not sure why this album is in this list.
This was terrible. Worse than jazz. It was over an hour of electronic torture.
Deeply uninterested in this, sounds like something a producer would start out with messing around on Fruity Loops. Not boring, but not interesting.
Andy Weatherall once played the best set of dance music I’ve heard, funky, robotic, playful, endless, lost to time. This is something different, probably quite influential though I’m so removed from that scene I have little idea. Isn’t it funny that the digital medium generates so many powerful experiences that exist only for an evening? There are some great moments here and ideas he’d go deeper into. I enjoy this while hearing better records and sets through it. A sentimental 4 - Requiscat, AW.
"Haunted" much like a fart haunts an elevator. Became increasingly less-interesting throughout its interminable runtime.
4/10
Surprising record. If you like hotline Miami soundtrack, Carpenter Brut, perturbator et al. You'll love this. Honestly it seems really advanced for that time with lots of good ideas that'll be developed later by the synthwave genre. So really interesting record, and would be fun to mix too
Never heard of this, was excited to see there was a Portishead remix as I am a fan of them. But it was just boring background music. Not sure how this made it on here
Please no more of this.
I'm 600 albums in now, I fel qualified to say this list has no idea what it's talking about when it comes to picking electronic music. Aphex Twin, Burial, and Daft Punk (though, not Discovery) are on here only because it's idiot-proof to omit those. I try to hard to fly the flag for electronic music on this list, then my hand is forced to review this, or that wildly-out-of-nowhere Les Rythymes Digitales album, with honesty. I could spend some time tearing this album apart in the context of it's inclusion on this list. I will instead list a handful of electronic albums that should be on this list, mostly from the onset of EDM hitting big in the states, as this list basically overlooks that entire musical phenomena: Damage Control - Mat Zo Clarity - Zedd Random Album Title - deadmau5 Nurture - Porter Robinson If It Were You, We'd Never Leave - Andrew Bayer Welcome Reality - Nero True - Avicii Immunity - Jon Hopkins The Ineffible Truth - G Jones
This one left a bad taste. I feel like by 1994 this can't be a "it walked so we could run" situations? And, it really is walking.
Rough 3. Most of this album didn't need to be on that list. It's much too long and repetitive. But also, I get it. There's a specific vibe that it goes for and I dig it.
DNF, just couldn’t do it.
This album (or part of it) came on the radio during a family stay in a Cumbrian cottage. It was late night and the rain was whipping through the valley. The music found it's place. This morning, I let this album continue playing in my classroom while the children came in. One child asked, "What's that strange sound?" Again, this music had found it's place. The reviews on here are mostly negative, but I feel that exposes people's inherently conservative, unadventurous nature. This is very good, weird ass music designed for late nights and early mornings. Get with it.
Nothing really happened
Pff
Loved it
Very chill. Last week I went to a trip and started to listen a little bit of electronic music, I was very indetified with this. Now this type of music please me more. Very good start to the genre
I've never heard of Sabres Of Paradise before, even though they're right up my alley: dark, hypnotic electronica that's heavily infused with the Warp Records vocabulary. Although "Haunted Dancehall" definitely *was* a hypnotic listen, I wasn't too keen on the dub influences on here. Some sounds sound indeed a bit dated, unlike other contemporary artists (Aphex Twin's early work, for example ...) It's certainly not a pleasant listen, especially not during broad daylight, as I listened to it in the morning, but I can feel myself vibing to it more with the lights dimmed down.
Two surprises in a row? Seeing the name and the cover, I figured this was some new wave of British heavy metal BS. I was quite pleased to see it was electronica. And some fun stuff at that.
Giving this album closer to a 1.75. While I didn’t hate it, I didn’t like it or love it either. This is the type of album where I’m sure they had fun creating and recording this album and bringing it all to life. But as a listener, hard to enjoy it just for enjoyment sake. This music has its place though. It’s like ambient electronic music. Could hear a lot of this at a coffee shop, or a certain type of restaurant and it might perk my ears up to be like, “what’s this?” But as a full album, not what I want to listen to on the regular.
Why? Peaked at 57 in the UK charts during 1994... no one cared then and I don't care now. Utter, forgettable, crap. Another for the 'I wish I could give it 0' pile. 1/5
I enjoyed this album, but I don't think it's really something that everyone needs to hear. It's good, don't get me wrong, but it certainly isn't life-changing or a major part of pop-culture history. And I really don't think it needs to be a whole CD - an LP would have been long enough for the album to get its point across.
neither the songs nor the album had any reason to be that long
whole album of ratchet and clank type beats. cool sound design i guess. just a very disinteresting album
In isolation, I probably wouldn't think this was that good, but my general level of enjoyment on this list is so tepid that something like this, moderately biting electronica with moments of interest and invention, raises my pulse above resting, so one star above my average to show I liked this album more than most.
Actually really good. Hit the spot on my walk and on the cycle in the next day.
I don’t get it.
Ugh
Farty Animal Collective arpeggiated vomit music
not for me
aso die erste zwei songs sind etz zwor nöd bsunders spannend aber au irgendwie no cool und schono ✨vibey✨. sie liebed mega churze delay mit mega viel repeats und resonator. schono cool i agree. chli nervig wenns so prominent isch. he wnl langsam wirds langwilig. de portishead remix song het e huere geili kick aber das macht etz de song nöd spannend. wilmot isch biitz reggaeton. no cooli bassline. aber scho au viel afoch grüüsch. heee tow truck het en gitar!! wowoo! aso finds echt no cool sochli aggressivere techno. alte aber es isch ewig s glich. eeendlich en neue teil mit orgle desch cool. hasses. hasses. ballad of nicky mcguire sind afoch nassi sounds mann fuck baby yeah. ich hasses.
ohh nei electronic music group vode uk und fast nüt uf wikipedia...UND 76 MINUTE das wird ich am zuekunftssevi uufbürde guete morgee luca bubble and slide I hani na cool gfunde au wenn ichmer chli perkussion gwünscht hett und denn part II isch schrecklich hahahaha nach es paar minute chunnt wenigstens nochli BIZELI öppis aber das würkt meh wienes 2 min interlude und definitiv nöd wie es 7 min lied WISO HET ALLES SO VILL HALL hmm es techno konzept album tönt na spannend wennmer meh infos dezue hetti hahahah the duke of earslfield het wenigstens na e cooli bassline NO WAY ORIENTALISM he jz hani echt langsam müeh, vorher hanis na chönne toleriere aber es isch au eifach LANGWILIG jz auno james bond?? wnl theme hani na cool gfunde, es het würkli wie filmmusig oder so tönt bro das gaht EWIG haunted dancehall isch na lustig gsi wenns halb so lang gsi wär hets vlt es 2 geh, wills mengisch scho au lustigi sache gha het
Some of these tracks would be cool background to a gathering or behind poetry, but as a stand alone album, it doesn’t feel worthy of a straight listen, let alone an inclusion on this list. But I would have given two stars until the second to last track came on and was just absolutely grating. 2/10
The thing with this type of experimental music is that any twat can make it. I should know, I've done it myself. It takes zero talent, zero ability, zero creativity. I'll concede that there's effort involved on the production side of things, but to take something like this and make it interesting, make it worthwhile, make it anything more than a bit of a joke for the person making it - that's the tricky part. This fails in that regard, in most regards, utterly.
This was given to me at random by this website. I just wanted to see what I'd get. This is strangely satisfying? Am I weird for liking this? I've never heard of this band. Wow.
Listens: 2 Standout Tracks: Planet D (Portishead Remix), Wilmot, Tow Truck I had a lot of thoughts running through my mind when I started listening to this album. Bubble and Slide and Bubble and Slide II are terrible tracks to open this album with. They are too distorted and out there to give you a good idea what kind of album you're going to be listening to; There's nothing to dance to. It's all echos and clicks and pops and dashes. Needless to say, I was dreading the 1h15m runtime this album is clocking. Once I got past the first few tracks, the album became more tolerable, perhaps even enjoyable on some of the tracks. Planet D - the Portishead remix is the first track that made me stop and check for the name of the song. It was catchy and interesting in ways that the four previous tracks were not. Wilmot and Tow Truck were also highlights for me. They remind me of two things: Nightmares on Wax (which should be both obvious and readily apparent) and An-ten-nae, the latter of whom has been developing the genre Acid Crunk. I hear a lot of similarities in this music and what An-ten-nae has been putting out, though more amped up. I could even bet money that An-ten-nae is sampling The Sabres Of Paradise, but I can't find any proof of this. It's a shame almost none of these tracks have any lyrics. Some of these beats could go really well some rap/hip-hop music.
not for me mate
Wow, This one befuddles me. As much as I disliked Missy Elliot's Under Construction, I at least could understand why it was part of this collection. You cannot convince me, however, that this has ever been viewed as good. I was probably looking forward to the end of this album roughly a third of the way in, and I don't think I'll ever listen to anything from it ever again. I don't think I've ever been as tempted to say "it's just noise" about an album as I have been here.
Not really my style but it was interesting to listen.
Before I die? Really?
I get that this is boundary-pushing and experimental. The stars are for the creativity. But, wow.... makes me feel like my brain is on a cheese grater.
I’m sorry but I cannot
That was actually quite good "Theme" is the showpiece, but the whole concept album thing works here.
Not my thing
Discount bin dancehall
Dubby breakbeat type sounds. A bit long. And took a while to grow on me. But I liked it overall.
Some of the songs on this album could be great background music for video game levels (but without the video game they aren't *that* engaging). Some feel like experimental sound-making and remind me of Stomp. A few have a bit more song structure / tune and feel like Dub (e.g. Wilmot, which is the top-played track, not surprisingly). This is kind of a borderline 2-3 for me.
I was going to write a review that rationalized this album's inclusion, talking about how, maybe it sounded progressive and exciting for '94, and that it only feels like the barest scaffolding of songs by today's standard... but then I realized that The Downward Spiral came out this same year and how -even if its technically a different genre- it beats it on every axis (better electronic-based music, more exciting songstructure and soundscape, and WAY scarier). So, in comparison, this just feels weak sauce, like a haunted dancehall where you realize the splattered blood is just ketchup.
You know that sound dudes make of snapping their cheek against their teeth in a weird sucking motion, usually brothers or cousins trying to annoy their siblings/family members? That's the opening song, set to music. The rest doesn't get much better.
Sounds more like a soundtrack than an album. Not a bad soundtrack by any means, but for me it didn't live up to listening to it in isolation.
This album was awesome, I wasn’t familiar with this artist but I gotta say I was impressed. I really like the dub feel for the whole album, and the heavy electronics I’m sure influenced so many of my favorite artists.
Not a fan of electro music either.
Title track kinda lives up to the title but labeling the whole album that way set me up for disappointment. Still p good
not too sure about this one... coulda been an email!
Really good music for running, work & chill !