2025 reissue - 1994 second album by the trio of Andrew Weatherall, Jagz Kooner and Gary Burns, unavailable on vinyl and CD since original release. A concept album with accompanying text for each track by James Woodbourne, it also includes additional production by Portishead and Mr Scruff. Remastered from the original tapes by Matt Colton, contains 'Theme' for the first time on the 2LP edition.
After releasing Sabresonic, the Sabres of Paradise decided to give their sound a facelift. The trio of Andrew Weatherall, Jagz Kooner, and Gary Burns set aside the surprisingly straight-ahead techno sounds of their previous work and shot off into a variety of directions, adding trip-hop, speaker-rattling dub, spy themes, library music, and lopsided funk to the mix on Haunted Dancehall. It's a gritty, constantly surprising record that displays more of the genre-smashing appeal of Weatherall's remix work and along the way invents noir techno. It started life as something of a concept album with liner notes by Irvine Welsh detailing the outlines of the story. Though the group replaced his work, the idea is still there, and the record feels like a cinematic stumble through the shadow-choked, rain-soaked streets of London late on a desperate night. Unlike Sabresonic, which seemed based more for club listening, this is a record for headphones. These are songs masquerading as techno tracks, with all the ebb and flow one would expect from a thoughtful composition. Even the tracks that unspool over long running times -- like the fantastic electro dub delight "Duke of Earlsfield" -- never feel overly repetitive, with the trio baking enough interest into each excursion to keep things riveting. They also never fail to add nice touches that range from thumping beats, like on "Theme", to very nice live instrumentation ("Tow Truck"), ideal samples ("Wilmot"), and tweaked synth tones ("Jacob Street 7am") in their pursuit of the perfect mix of storytelling and sound. This record is a much more exciting manifestation of Weatherall's take-no-prisoners approach that shows just how far electronic music can stretch, especially when the creators cast aside the rules and follow their hearts. It's impossible not to hear this album as anything other than a call to arms to other producers, letting them know that electronic music can be more than bleeps and bloops: it can tell a story, it can challenge expectations, and it can feel just as important and exhilarating as anything any "real" band could concoct. - Tim Sendra
| A1 | Bubble & Slide |
| A2 | Bubble & Slide II |
| A3 | Duke Of Earlsfield |
| B1 | Flight Path Estate |
| B2 | Planet D (Portishead Remix) |
| B3 | Wilmot |
| B4 | Tow Truck |
| C1 | Theme |
| C2 | Theme 4 |
| C3 | Return To Planet D |
| C4 | Ballad Of Nicky McGuire |
| D1 | Jacob Street 7am |
| D2 | Chapel Street Market 9am |
| D3 | Haunted Dancehall |
