Hailing from North London, 27 year old DJ turned Producer ‘Sabre’
has slowly been risen through the ranks of the global electronic music
fraternity, securing as he goes a reputation as a twisted yet soulful
thinker, bringing a grittier sound to the deeper spectrum of the drum
and bass and experimental electronica.
After having spent his earliest years in the Seychelles, Sabre moved
to the UK in 1989. Reaching his early teens, he found a passion for
Hip-Hop and turntablism, and equipped himself as a bedroom DJ. The
subsequent vinyl addiction was cemented by the arrival of Jungle Era,
and overwhelmed by the richness of the music, Sabre started to purchase
the occasional release, and eventually switched focus away from Hip-Hop
entirely in the late 90’s with the arrival of more futuristic,
industrial sounding drum and bass, from artists like Future Forces,
Photek, Teebee and DJ Trace.
“At that point going to shows and making a home on the dancefloor
were a big part of my life, and my musical focus was creating music
that catered to that arena, it was the Hip-Hoper in me coming through.
But soon with drum and bass, I knew my real target was to get
scientific with my music. That late 90's era was uniquely inspirational
”
By the millennium, pirate and internet radio stations such as UK
Rumble and Rude FM had began supporting the young DJ, and with hopeful
ambitions emerging on a career in music, the inevitable experimentation
with music production had begun, with artists of the day such as Jonny
L, Ed Rush & Optical and Kemal all providing a blueprint to work
to. But parallel to modern techstep influences came the borrowed
‘sampling ethic’ of the Hip-Hop greats such as Premier, Diamond D, RZA
and DJ Muggs .
A course in music technology followed and now armed with a firm
grasp of studio technique; the first releases came in 2002 under the
guise of the collaborative ‘Intimidation Collective’ project, a two
man, self-driven enterprise selling white label music from car boots
straight to the shops. The profile was growing at grass roots level in
the underground, and now approaching 2004, small and mid sized labels
started picking up on the ‘techy/soulful’ mix of dancefloor drum and
bass being produced by the newcomer. The first throws at starting a
brand within music came the year after with the launch of London Zu,
the now retired drum and bass clubnight formerly held at Londons’ La
Scala venue.
“Still perhaps the most exciting era of my life, around 2002-2004
when I started to first find support in this music, mingle with people
who had been my heroes for years, finally knowing that I had a niche
and a following, which is all I really wanted.”
In the years since those first opportunities, Sabre’s grown to
emerge as a global DJ with residencies across Europe, and secured
releases and remix work for labels including Metalheadz, Renegade
Hardware, Critical and Shogun. Spanning many styles, this initially
dancefloor-orientated catalog has since evolved itself towards a more
minimal and experimental outlook, resulting in 2007 with a commission
from Capitol films to contribute toward the film score for the Tony
Kaye feature ‘Black water Transit’. The view looking to the future is
spread across the musical and multimedia spectrum.
” Writing A Wandering Journal has been liberating beyond expression.
Its a project I’ve had developed and hibernating for so long that
looking back, I know that if it’d been left any longer it wouldn’t have
been realised to its true potential. All the unwritten details of the
concept and the loose narrative would have faded in my mind. Creating
it when I did, whilst the concept was still strong in my mind, and my
musical output was amongst the most free-spirited of my career was
perfect timing. And its spurned me on to be even more ambitious with
what I create in the future.
I have to approach a new frontier now that this album is complete,
and the current multimedia landscape is the perfect playground in which
to elaborate on what I stand for creatively.”