Haunted Dancehall

Gets a low 2 cause I don't think it deserves the same space as the other 1s on this list, but still a chore for me to get through, especially at the start. Picked up some and the closing track is definitely the highlight, but I'm comfortable in saying electronic is just not for me lmao Saved: Wilmot, Haunted Dancehall*

Saved Prior: None Off Rip: Bubble and Silde, Wilmot, Tow Truck Cutting Edge: Cutting Edge Overall Notes: I understand that people on this website seem not to click with these beat-driven, electronic instrumental albums (particularly when they're over an hour) but this was really good? I was expecting it to be awful sampling and haphazard bass but instead I'm hearing well engineered atmospheric techno. My only gripe is that it's over an hour long but even that I didn't feel too much. Give this one a chance, throw it on while you're doing something else if you have to. It's worth it.

6/10

Ok bedre end Orbital. Men stadigvæk langt fra rigtigt fedt. Meget lange acid house numre og alt for mange af dem.

Well this was a long one, wasn't it? It certainly had a lot of electronic sounds, and not unpleasant ones. It took a long time to warm up and get going, though I imagine that this was by design. I was very happy to get to the middle section, with "Wilmot," "Tow Truck," and "Theme," where it went to interesting places beyond ambient for a while before heading back. I enjoyed those pieces. Some cool, interesting stuff.

As I started listening to the album, I thought "Cool, a new album to add to my list for listening while working!" Instrumental music with a lite dance beat can work well for me in that setting. As I continued to listen, I became more and more irritated (as did my dog) by metallic tinniness within many of the compositions that felt more like noise than an enhancement to the tune. By the end, I was at a "probably not" with regards to keeping it in my library.

This is fine. Not unpleasant to listen to but nothing particularly stands out.

It was nice to have this album pop up the week before Halloween. True to its title, HAUNTED DANCEHALL would make a great soundtrack to a Halloween cocktail party. Or any shmoozy cocktail party. Or the dim lobby or lounge in a boutique hotel. I enjoyed having this music on. There are some great beats, unique sounds, and interesting melodies. Hard to pick any favorites as all worked well for me. Loved the music and sounds in “Tow Truck” and “Theme” had some cool beats and guitar. The title track “Haunted Dancehall” was well-titled and would make great music for a horror movie. Loved it! The album isn’t something I’d put on as an activity in and of itself, but it makes great background music for doing other things. The music is interesting without being overly distracting. HAUNTED DANCEHALL is long, but that works fine when I’m listening to it in the background. It’s full of tricks and treats, not boring or annoying as it explores some unique musical soundscapes.

A real surprise of an album, enjoyed this from start to finish and really superb in parts. Will definitely revisit

Started strong but with little variety soon turns to tedium.

Brilliant stuff - gets better and better as it goes on

A techno concept album. Worked for me.

Meh

Just another "conceptual" electronic album that means nothing at all

2/5 - this was probably way ahead of its time but now it’s just… old

Meh, I guess it's ok as background music, but it just sounds so generics and boring. Maybe this was interesting when computer-assisted music was less ubiquitous?

I enjoyed this. It's basically a lot of progressive and layered sounds/noises, so not the most compelling music in the world. But it's also pretty chill and enjoyable enough to listen to. It mostly works as background as I sit working, although sometimes the noise/dissonance gets distracting (i.e., "Flight Path Estate," "Jacob Street 7am"). I feel like it would have really benefited from a serious edit. They could have dropped several songs and had a much tighter, more cohesive album. Fave Songs: Wilmot, Ballad of Nicky McGuire, Tow Truck, Theme, Planet D

I don't get it.

First Listen. Really hard to like. There is not much here. A lot of sounds and drums don't make a great album. I'll give it a chance..but I think 2/5 is the best this will ever get.

Being given the accolade of "the 47th best album of 1994" really feels about right, for this.

A few standout songs with industrial sounds, but this is the first album I considered turning off several times. It falls into all the Traps early electronic can fall into, being too long, monotonous, and not having any vocals to break up the monotony.

How is it posible that this was created by humans ? It´s compleatly nonesense, the only interesting thing about it was the cover . 1/5

Reminds me a bit of Fluke. Less melodic than I usually like my electronica but still good.

Oh my....

i was fuming about this album because it doesn't do anything so i went to look at the electronic albums released in 1994 to see why this was the one chosen. it turns out once you skip past portishead- Dummy, prodigy - music for the jilted, massive attack - protection and orbital - dubnobass that 1994 was the year that electronic music was basically all eno inspired ambient chill out stuff. who fucking knew that? good dub track in the middle, wilmot. the rest was all just a load of nothing.

This album came out whilst I was transitioning from a top class English footballer to a run of the mill rent boy. It reminds me of those hedonistic afternoons spent plodding round the football pitch, still kidding myself that I could compete with the likes of Jamie Redknapp and Peter Ndlovu, then doing my make up and preparingmy bum for a poudning. Yes, the only place I could really compete with the likes of Redknapp was in the homes of eccentric millionaires, when we'd go round and suck their balls for pocket money. I wish I had the money the players earn now, but sadly for me it was 90 minutes of pain followed by a further 90 minutes of pain as I got bummed within an inch of my life by a grotesque, fat rich man. Of course Redknapp left that life behind, married a popstar and made obvious observations about Dele Alli on TV. I was not as fortunate. Oh to be young again.

No thanks, Sabres of Paradise. If this was a footballer, it'd be Jason Puncheon.

Never heard of them before, so I googled. I read a review that likened them to Leftfield which left me disappointed further with this album as Leftfield has so much more direction and intent with their tracks, these songs seem a bit aimless, no peaks and troughs. it is actually getting less interesting the more tracks I listen to unfortunately.

I’m okay

This was an interesting electronic/dance album that delivered on the spookiness promised in the title. It strayed more to the side of "interesting" than to the side of "fun" or "enjoyable". It's not super relistenable, so it loses a star.

Had me up and dancing, enjoyed the liquid style.

Seemed to the nail the vibe it was going for

Surprisingly good! Quite eerie but good background music for working to. Some catchy tracks

sounds vvvv intense at first listen. Its got a lot of techno. may not make it through it. has a curious sort of vibing with my anxiety though

Interesting?

Generic techno.

Álbum com boas opções de eletro que proporcionam um clima interessante, especialmente com o remix do Portishead

This album was probably decent when it came out. Give me a couple hours and a laptop and I could probably make something similar today...

While the opening track resembles the sound of a man flushing a thousand toilets at once, I can appreciate the tight production and minimalist beats on the majority of this record. It's a shame the record as a whole has very little substance otherwise, 2/5.

I did not care for this at all.

I would listen to some of these songs again.

Painfully uninteresting

Comes ar you like a ray, like a beam. Loved it.

One of the all time greats.

Why? This isn't even music, it's just beats. How does this get on any list? I'm tired of this. Not interested in dance.

Did not enjoy

Yeah, this was pretty good. Like a cross between holiday music and when you find a really cool bar at a festival.

no

Слушать можно, не раздражает

This sort of music I can really enjoy but I don't know if I 'get it' like other people do because I can enjoy music of this kind that's considered to be bad as much as that thats considered to be good and I might not even be able to tell the difference. But like if I'm listening to it and really focussing I can kind of listen to it with my whole body and its sort of mesmirising and beautiful.

I like 1990s techno and IDM. I like Warp Records. Somehow I never checked out this duo's music. I was pretty excited to find a new gem from this scene. Sadly, that's not what I got. Firstly, it's mostly downtempo with some ambient - so not quite what I thought (I have seen it referred to as a techno record in multiple places). But that's okay. More problematically, I find it completely half-baked. Lots of lovely sounds, but the tracks mostly feel like unfinished sketches. It's more than an hour and fifteen minutes long, and it just feels like a rough draft of ideas that needed more work. I really don't want all my mini-reviews to be "my favourite album is better than this favourite album", but let's put this in perspective. In 1994 alone, Autechre and µ-Ziq released their sophomore albums (but I assume both artists are represented elsewhere on the list, so we'll let that slide). Also in 1994: Robert Hood - Internal Empire (1994) / Plastikman - Musik (1994) / Alter Ego - Alter Ego (1994). Also in 1994, Atom™ released a DOZEN albums, and every one I've heard is more coherent than this one. There's so much to choose from, it just seems bizarre that this record made the cut.

Pretty cool. Like early minimalist electronic, but cos of the era u can hear The Prodigy vibes, some similar tempos. Decent, easy to listen to. 3/5

Some decent moments but not my thing.

Couldn’t get into it. Maybe it’s because I was wearing trainers.

Absolutely brutal.

Barely above background computer game music.

Brilliant stuff - gets better and better as it goes on

Spooktacular 👻

Pleasant surprise. Enjoyable listen, not sure it will be a regular listen mind.

Sort of soundtrack for movies style. Not my thing to listen to without images to pair with.

This is why I don't like skipping albums! When listening to 'Bubble and Slide' as the first track I almost wrote this album off as a psychedelic bore. That couldn't be further from the truth. I could imagine that certain substances may enhance the experience of this album but it was enjoyable whilst working away regardless. I found myself head bobbing away slowly when listening to tracks like 'Planet D' and 'Tow Truck' put me in the mindset of James Bond as a lead character in Snatch. This whole album was a chilled out trip that I would never have had the pleasure of riding usually. 3/5 because of the lack of wow factor but this was a lovely listen.

Going in, I had no idea what to expect from Haunted Dancehall, as I had never heard of Sabres of Paradise, and am not generally interested in techno. To my surprise, Haunted Dancehall isn't bad at all. The Sabres position themselves halfway between ambient and dance music. I can easily imagine this playing in a bar or club or sushi restaurant. It's pleasant sonically and has a laid back, cool vibe, but has enough energy to provide a consuming mood, whether that consumption be food, drugs or alcohol. The first few tracks are quite abstract. The sound sources are varied and quite tasteful. No horrid synth patches here. The sonic manipulation is creative and tasteful as well. The rhythms are mostly fairly simple. The interest comes from how the various elements fit together. On these early tracks, the Sabres sometimes deconstruct the tunes a bit to point out the art in what they're doing. It's a savvy strategy because the parts fit together so naturally, the effort and creativity involved would otherwise go unnoticed. About six tracks in, the tunes get less abstract and more songlike. For me, this is a mistake because it calls too much attention to the functional nature of the music. This kind of music should glide over the smooth brains of the listeners, lulling them into the desired emotional state. Even here though, the same virtues of economy, taste, and studio mastery remain. After a few tracks, the Sabres return to a more abstract style for the rest of the album, which I actually prefer. How do I rate this? It's quite well done, but this is functional music, not really meant for close listening. If I put this on a playlist, it would be as a palate cleanser. Is it wrong of me to refuse to give a higher score because of a perceived lack of artistic ambition? Maybe. It feels like snobbery. Oh well. 3.5/5

Pls more Dancehall less Halloween. Only one dancehall track. Lots of minimal spooky business. Not the sonic pallete I'm looking for unless happen to be exploring a tunnel underneath London, looking for reggae-techno-Slimer. C+

Was this the first dub/drum and bass album or something? Did it set the stage for acts like Left Field? Did it inspire the X Files intro? It mostly sounds like the score of a B-Movie set at a carnival. Weird sound effects and rhythm section. Not great, even the album cover is bad. There are some droning synth grooves near the end that aren’t bad. C-

I expected a lot more out of an album titled Haunted Dancehall. Certainly sounds like the most boring place in the world.

Completely unfamiliar with this one. I like it a lot. An innovative techno LP from 1994. Standout tracks: "Duke Of Earsfield", "Wilmot", "Tow Truck", "Theme", "Ballad Of Nicky McGuire"

A totally unusual and unique mindfuck. I think it was absolute genius but I think you gotta be out of it to appreciate it's finer details.

Ummmmm.....sure.

Was this when they had first started to use a computer to make music? I thought at the time of release in 1994 maybe this album was really groundbreaking but I googled and it peaked at 57 in the uk album charts being beaten by albums including “the hit list” by cliff Richard, “Seal II” by Seal and “Alive in hell” by meatloaf.

Portsihead song was the best out of the bunch. Decent background music.

I would listen to this again. It was pretty chill while I prepped dinner.

Pretty mesmerizing by the end

Awful noise

ambient music, needs vocals

Never even heard of these but absolutely loved it. Like listening to one of those albums as a teenager where you just wanted to know more about them and listen to everything. Fantastic.

Pretty solid techno.

4

Theme y wilnot

Techno. Parece banda sonora.

Garbage. Just shitty electronic music like this is the 70s. No music, just random sounds. Imagine paying for this. 1/10.

At first I thought this album was a bit dull, but about halfway through I really enjoyed some of the songs. This is fairly minimalist music and I’m surprised it takes 3 people to create this

Tracks don't show much progression in their ~ 6-minute runtime. Best tracks are Wilmot and Tow Truck. 4/10, not bad but I'm always waiting for something to happen that never does

Me gustó pero no es para todos los públicos

that's a no from me dawg

OMG a 90's album, I didn't think it was going to happen. I have never head this before.... not sure I need to again. Its more interesting than most of the stuff we have been feed so far. The only thing I think when I listen to this is... Beastie boys instrumentals do it better. meh out of 5

I was eager to stop listening to this.

Not my cup of tea really

"Reminds me of stuff we used to make at music tech AS level" Chloe Jacob Wednesday 24 March 16.43 NOT James Cressey

Ближе к 4

Nix für mich

Too weird

I like it. Would be 3.5. But tiebreaker I’ll lean up.

nope

Chill dancehall/ early dub. Alot of the songs sounded like they were about to pick up, or about to end, but just kept going. Okay at best in my opinion.

Bad

On of the best electronic albums I've heard

well ... it’s definitely different. it went from bad to okay to bad again. I wouldn’t choose to listen to this. best track = “Wilmot”

Old school, synthy electronic.

enjoyed it more the more i listened. interesting.

It was fine. I don't know. I liked a couple songs but it was boring. Would never listen again.

Funky. Good background music. I'm bobbing my head along to it as I work.

It's of a time. I bet it sounded rad in 1994

nice songs for coding...

This was like something we'd do in AS Music Tech. It occasionally resembled music but you would expect that from something on this list.

A couple of good ideas on there - but overall this is just someone new to garageband trying out all the features

It was pretty good to work to but a little odd/ jarrring in places.

I tried, really not my thing, plus I was falling way behind!

instrumental. a bit weird. I doubt ill listen again

Vooral heel weird, opzich wel toffaar niet voor vaked

Обычные, но все же приятные ритмы и необычные звуки, но больше ничего. Этот альбом был бы хорош как саундтрек к какому-нибудь платформеру, но в музыкальном плане эта работа не очень

в целом я понимаю смысл нахождения этого альбома в списке. альбом в большой степени состоит из зацикленных ударных, пропущенных через дилэй и прочую гадость: такой саунддизайн был необычен в 1995, и по прежнему остается таковым. структуры в треках этого альбома крайне устарели на наше время, но я уверен, что этот альбом вдохновил многих современных продюсеров на усовершенствование находок самих Сабель, напрмер характерный подгруженный синтезированный бас, ставший столь модным за последние лет 10. интересно, свежо и крайне изобретательно, но не бриллиантово, поэтому 8/10.

Pointless bullshit noise. These aren't songs. The're pieces of songs desperately trying to pass themselves off as complete songs. Useless and angering. Why the hell is this even on the list?!

Eksperimenterende tekno, rytmisk, hypnotiserende, stemningsfyldt

You remember that episode of Friends where Ross made a song by playing all the weird noises on his Casio? This is that, but the noises are a yipping dog and a coffee grinder. Also, it was kind of comical when Ross did it. Best track: Wilmot

some good tracks, but not didn't feel enough to go back to it...

Sympa mais on se fait chier

cover looks like it might be rockabilly, but it's from the 90s. hmm. might also be techno cause dancehall etc. haha ok it's dank 90s techno. lol and of COURSE it's from the uk. classic 1001 albums editor shenanigans. i'll give it a chance, but at 1hr 16min there's no way this isn't gonna be WAY TOO FUCKING LONG. it's pretty... minimalist? granted I'm only on about minute 8 of 75, but I think I have a pretty good idea what to expect the rest of the time. And ok yep an hour later, that was pretty lame! This would have been a 3 if it didn't stay out its welcome, because it wasn't THAT bad for the first couple of songs. But the full thing? uuughhh, fuckin hell. 2/5.