The Sabres of Paradise

The Sabres of Paradise were a British experimental group formed in London, England in 1992.^[1] Although their roots were in the acid house scene, they later produced more dub-inspired work. Andrew Weatherall formed the group with engineers Jagz Kooner and Gary Burns and became responsible for the Sabresonic warehouse raves. Keith "Radioactive Man" Tenniswood joined the group after meeting Jagz at Phil Perry's Full Circle club, Sabres dissolved in 1995. Weatherall went on to form Two Lone Swordsmen with Keith Tenniswood while Kooner and Burns carried on working with The Aloof, and Jagz has also kept a consistent remix and production career. His remix "My Beautiful Friend" for The Charlatans was groundbreaking and it inspired Eddie Temple Morris, a DJ at the X FM radio station, to form a show dedicated to remixes. Kooner also worked with Oasis, Garbage, Massive Attack, Kasabian and Primal Scream.

Discography

Singles

• "Smokebelch II" (Warp Records, 1993) - UK #55
• "Smokebelch II Remixes" (Warp Records, 1993) - (Beatless Mix)
• "United" (Sabres of Paradise Records, 1993)
• Björk cut by The Sabres of Paradise: "One Day" (One Little Indian, 1993)
• "Theme" (Sabres of Paradise Records, 1994) - UK #56
• "Theme Remixes" (Sabres of Paradise Records, 1994)
• "Wilmot" (Warp Records, 1994) - UK #36
• "Wilmot II" (Warp Records, 1994)
• James vs The Sabres of Paradise: "Jam J" (Fontana Records, 1994)
• "Duke of Earlsfield" / "Bubble & Slide" (Warp Records, 1995)
• "Haunted Dancehall (as performed by In the Nursery)" (Warp Records, 1995)
• "Tow Truck" (Warp Records, 1995)
• "Ysaebud" (Special Emissions, 1997)^[2]

Albums

• Sabresonic (Warp Records, 1993) - UK #29 (Allmusic rating: )^[3]
• Haunted Dancehall (Warp Records, 1994) - UK #57 (Allmusic rating: )^[4]
• Versus (Warp Records, 1995)^[2]

Compilation albums

• Septic Cuts (Sabres of Paradise, 1994)
• Deep Cuts (Sabres of Paradise, 1994)
• Sabresonic II (Warp Records, 1995)

Production work

In addition to releasing their own material, The Sabres of Paradise also did production work and remixes for numerous artists, with remixes including "Open Up" for Leftfield featuring John Lydon and "Regret" for New Order.

Visual image

A coat of arms produced for the Sabres of Paradise featured the 1990s cult cartoon rabbit Bastard Bunny.^[5]

Controversy

Weatherall has been publicly and directly accused by Lamont Booker aka L.B. Bad of 'stealing' his biggest song - presumably Smokebelch 2 which is a reproduction of Booker's "New Age Of Faith" from 1989. The accusation was made in a 2015 interview movie by Booker,^[6] but it has been identified by Mixmag as a blatant plagiarism. When Smokebelch 2 was released on Warp Records, Booker was officially written and produced by the artist known as L.B. BAD. However, his credentials were left off of most versions of the release and he was omitted from any promotion. The track became popular amongst DJ's and received TV and radio airtime and therefore made numerous magazine charts, but only Weatherall received credit.

References

External links

• The Sabres of Paradise at AllMusic
• The Sabres of Paradise discography at Discogs