Sabres of Paradise: Haunted Dancehall

I can't remember how I came across the Sabres of Paradise, but I think I got it at Christmas 1994, and it's probably my favourite among my Warp albums (here are some others: 1, 2, 3).

It's got lots of ingredients that you don't get a lot on early 1990s dance electronica: a tongue-in-cheek playfulness, plucked bass strings, grit, the sense of drama you used to get with '70s TV theme tunes like The Sweeny or The Professionals, and a sense of place. I love the way its jazzy and full of dub effects without sounding like either jazz or reggae. And even my dad was impressed by the very musical sampling of water that opens the first track.

There's a fractured narrative that accompanies each of the tracks in the CD booklet, about a shady bloke called McGuire getting in and out of scrapes in South London and Soho. Not sure if I'd mentioned that before, but it's a bit like Barry Adamson's pretend soundtracks; or David Holmes.

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