Cover artwork, original Smokebelch art, care of Richard Sen.

Vibrato chimes and synths that sigh like ethereal angels. Machine melodies whistle like woodwinds. Synthesised strings are symphonic. Snatches of military snares move to the fore as the track reaches its finale. There’s also a house / techno 4 / 4, but it’s rendered kinda insignificant by all the other instrumentation. As I often do with Andrew Weatherall’s earlier productions and remixes, I wonder what on Earth he and his co-conspirators, Gary Burns and Jagz Kooner, his fellow Sabres Of Paradise, were thinking when they came up with Smokebelch. 

The original Smokebelch – I – is grumbling, growling electronica. Almost industrial. A tune that’s very likely named after its B-line, which does, indeed, conjure images of fog-bellowing factory chimneys. This is the scene that Richard Sen, aka UK graffiti legend, COMA, captured with his art for the record’s sleeve. In The Nursery – brothers Klive and Nigel Humberstone – helped with those strings – a collaboration that was first hinted at when Weatherall mentioned a planned project with Klive and Nigel, called Trance Plant, in one of the UK’s music weeklies. Trance Plant, sadly, never materialised / surfaced – or maybe it simply morphed into Smokebelch II. 

This passing comment about ITN, of course, sent me, and possibly, all the other Weatherall obsessives, searching for their vinyl. In The Realm Of The Senses and Incidental Guilt are personal favourites.* 

To be honest, I didn’t know what to make of Smokebelch, and, really, I still don’t. Back then, when I was a full-on Weatherall groupie, and living on a “recreational” rollercoaster of huge highs and lows, I bought everything he touched – remixed, produced, played – on sight, and asked questions later. If I didn’t get it now, perhaps I would eventually. Three decades on, this has frequently been the case. I was / am an enormous fan of the “ecstatic” / E-ed up gear he made with Hugo Nicolson, but with Sabres Of Paradise, at least initially, I had no idea what they were aiming for. I didn’t really have the necessary musical points of reference.** How did they know about ITN, for example. It’s this sort of stuff that fascinates me. If Weatherall turned me on, who turned him on?

If not exactly a cover, then Smokebelch was certainly a re-imagining of L.B. Bad’s The New Age Of Faith. Not only the melodies, but the tones, their twisted textures, are the same. Released on Nu Groove in 1989, the L.B. Bad track, even though it was a b-side, wasn’t that obscure. It was a popular spin at Danny and Jenny Rampling’s club, Shoom, so much so that Danny included it in his all time top 50. He also used it to close his Saturday evening Kiss FM radio show, in around 1990 / 1991. Alternating between that and Mood Swing’s Spiritual High. The Sabres were regulars at Shoom. Was it nostalgia that made them dig it out? Their first release was another flashback, a remix of Throbbing Gristle’s post-punk “disco” classic, United, so…

Those drummer boy snare rolls. The bionic bass-line that mimics a cello. I’m sure on late night radio, Weatherall called Smokebelch a “space blues”, but it’s more a piece of electronic classical music – like a Balanescu Quartet arrangement of Kraftwerk, but in reverse. 

The journalist, Alan Russell, who wrote the house / garage reviews in Black Echoes, also worked at Kiss, and produced / engineered Andrew’s show. In his column he hinted at the hedonism in the studio that night – he was nicknamed “Sir Alan of Greentights” – but also praised Smokebelch as an homage to old school house. It was most definitely designed to be a “moment”, and it was, still is. More so now, with Andrew’s premature passing. Taking on a lot more weight, when it was already an anthem, though, oddly, hardly a dance record at all, until remixed by David Holmes. Ramping up the snares, adding gated rave whistles, and revving up his 303, David effectively dialled everything up to 11. His version becoming a crazy call-to-arms at Weatherall’s own club night, Sabresonic. 

For me, though, I’m not sure if Smokebelch holds that many specific memories – I’m fucked if I can remember, since at the time I was so off my nut – but it they were to ever make a movie of my life then it’ll be one of those montage tunes. Soundtracking / scoring a collage of significant, signpost shots. Jose Padilla comped The Sabres’ beatless mix of the track for Ibiza’s Cafe del Mar, and it’s this take that I find the most moving. It does, indeed, speak, sing, to me of the end of something, and the start of something new. Three years after Weatherall’s death, I can, just about, listen to Smokebelch again. It no longer smashes me with sadness, or brings me to a complete standstill. 

In 1999, orchestral sextet, Instrumental, gave Smokebelch a quality chamber ensemble cover, amplifying / clarifying the track’s classical overtones. More recently, Osaka’s Akio Nagase flipped it in the opposite direction, to produce a dynamite, melodica-led, dubwise version. I’m sure that, over the years, there have been countless unofficial remixes.***

Smokebelch’s influence can also be heard in classic tracks that followed, such Oni Ayhun’s OAR003.

In 2020, Weatherall’s friends, Darren Price and Daniel Avery, both produced brilliant, touching tributes. 

Andrew himself, together with Keith Tenniswood, as Two Lone Swordsmen, had reworked the track in 1996, and dedicated it to another boundary-breaking, tragically taken too soon DJ, Alistair Cooke – co-founder and resident at Leeds’ Back To Basics. A downtempo reprise, its eccentric electro deconstruction still can’t hide Smokebelch’s instantly recognisable hooks. A cello replacing the bass synth, appropriately accentuating, elevating, the tune’s underlying melancholy, those “Blues” that Andrew mentioned. The machines instead echoing Eno’s fragile Sparrowfall.****

NOTES

*Thank you Sister Ray Records. ITN would also go on to re-imagine / re-record Sabres Of Paradise’s Haunted Dancehall, to spine chilling effect. This was also comped by Jose for Cafe del Mar.

**It was listening to Weatherall “Giving It Up” on the radio that would provide the initial clues. 

***Rong Music’s Ben Cook and DJ Spun also remixed the L.B. Bad original.

***Instrumental also covered Sparrowfall. It’s one of the finest things they’ve done.