Sabre

Sabre is Gove Kidao, a producer whose solo drum and bass and work with Ivy Lab have followed different, often overlapping paths. Before the group, his records for Critical Music included A Wandering Journal, an album that made room for atmosphere, jazz influences, and quieter rhythms alongside full-tempo D&B.

Released in 2010, A Wandering Journal was also Critical’s first artist album. Its concept tied the music to photographs and a travel-journal narrative, giving the record a shape beyond a collection of individual tracks. The production moved between detailed drum programming and more spacious passages, with the album format allowing those changes to unfold.

Ivy Lab brought him together with Stray and, originally, Halogenix. As the project developed, halftime and beat music became a substantial part of its catalogue. Kidao’s interests in those rhythms are part of his career, although the group’s records should not all be mistaken for solo Sabre releases.

His Big Cat EP returned to Critical in 2026. The four tracks, Brisket, Big Cat, Ugly, and IBM, marked his first solo release in almost a decade. The label described a deliberately stripped-back production approach, bringing breakbeats, distortion, and jazz-informed rhythm into drum and bass that leaves plenty of rough edges intact.