Pascal Gabriel started out in 1977 playing bass and singing backing vocals in a Belgian punk band, The Razors. He moved to London at the end of the decade and worked as a freelance engineer in studios across the city. Earlier, he played in an art-school band, Church of Friendly Valley, which he has described as an English Pere Ubu.
In 1987, Gabriel helped Tim Simenon build “Beat Dis” from a collage of sampled records. It went to number two in the UK charts as the first single from Bomb the Bass. He then co-wrote and co-produced “Theme from S’Express” with Mark Moore, which topped the charts. Released on Rhythm King, which had been launched with an investment from Daniel Miller, it gave the Mute label its first number one.
In the 1990s, he worked with indie guitar bands, including EMF and Inspiral Carpets. Gabriel is credited with pre-production for New Order on “Regret” – a job Stephen Hague eventually took over after Bernard Sumner asserted himself. With Paul Statham, he formed Peach and co-wrote “Here With Me” for Dido’s “No Angel.” Later credits include Kylie Minogue, Ladyhawke, Miss Kittin, and Goldfrapp.
Since 2019, he has recorded as Stubbleman, which he calls his “completely-non-pop” side project. “Mountains and Plains” grew out of a coast-to-coast drive across the US. “1:46:43 – The Ventoux Trilogy” uses data from his own cycle ride up Mont Ventoux to drive its synth sequences. The man who fabricated pop hits from clever cut-ups has eased into sounds adapted from his environment.
10. Erasure – It Doesn’t Have to Be
The second Erasure album, The Circus, was made over with remixes and live tracks. Some versions of Two Ring Circus contained this mix by Gabriel of the act’s top twenty single. It is a Spartan mix that plays with the rhythm and allows Andy Bell’s voice to take centre stage.
9. Bomb the Bass – Beat Dis (Extended Dis)
The original UK twelve-inch “Extended Dis” gives Tim Simenon’s collage its longer form. The DJ and producer described its beginnings as an experiment with records that worked in his sets, assembled with Gabriel’s help.
Discussing the subsequent Into the Dragon album, Simenon credited Gabriel with teaching him about the Akai S900 sampler. His account of “Beat Dis” emphasised the structure of its samples, and acknowledged that other record collectors would recognise the breaks. Recognition was half of the appeal.
8. Claudia Brücken – Surprise
“Surprise” closes the original 1991 album, Love: And a Million Other Things with room for experimentation. Brücken recalled that personnel changes at Island Records had left her and Gabriel anticipating difficulties selling the record, so they became more adventurous on this song. The prospect of losing label support loosened the studio’s restraints.
Their collaborators were the Ensemble, whose sound-making involved fire and huge pipes, according to Brücken. Gabriel’s interest in unconventional sound sources had found a willing accomplice in the German chanteusse.
7. Peach – On My Own
Peach’s “On My Own” first appeared as a single in 1996. The group put Gabriel alongside Paul Statham and vocalist Lisa Lamb. On the Audiopeach album recording, the partnership connects shared writing and production to Lamb’s pop delivery. A later retrospective compared her performance to Belinda Carlisle against an electronic backing, and that seems fair.
The album was recorded at Gabriel’s home, where instrumental layers accumulated until he felt too close to the material to balance it properly. Dave Bascombe took over the principal mixes, giving the arrangements an outside ear. Gabriel’s account is unusually candid about the difficulty of deciding which of his own parts to turn down.
6. Billy Mackenzie – Give Me Time
For the Beyond the Sun album recording, Gabriel’s task was to finish work after Mackenzie’s death. He later spoke of the difficulty of working on the voice of someone who had become a friend.
“Give Me Time” was co-written with Paul Haig. In their earlier sessions, Mackenzie had asked Gabriel for more cinematic sounds. It is clear that the producer understood the visual language the former Associates front man was seeking.
5. Yello – I Love You
The 1983 single from Yello was retooled by Gabriel as a 1989 B-side. It appeared on the flip of the “Blazing Saddles” 12-inch single and as part of a promo release. It was styled as “The Emilio Pasquez Rubber Band Mix,” leveraging the pseudonym Gabriel used with his dance music projects.
4. Miss Kittin – Grace
The BatBox album version pairs claps with discordant guitar sounds, a combination noted in its contemporary reception. Released in 2008, it was co-written and co-produced by Caroline Hervé and Gabriel. The words begin with the possibility of resting against another person, then admit the fear of taking up too much room.
By the final verse, bass has acquired the force of a blow to the face. The shift from an embrace to physical impact makes the title unstable. Grace can be a place of shelter, or something that knocks the singer off balance.
3. Marina and the Diamonds – Shampain
Champagne intended for a wedding becomes a bottle consumed alone. Marina’s lyric makes a private disappointment out of a public celebration.
On the original The Family Jewels recording, Gabriel shares the writing with Marina Diamandis and Liam Howe.
2. Stubbleman – Once the Road
The seven-minute album version opens 2025’s “1:46:43 – The Ventoux Trilogy”, a project built from Gabriel’s cycling ascent of Mont Ventoux. His riding data became four modular-synthesiser sequences, with heart rate among the measurements governing their movement. The body supplies information that a sequencer can use.
Gabriel describes Stubbleman as a return to the experiments he missed during his years writing pop. Here, the opening piece begins an eighteen-part sequence organised around the mountain’s changing terrain, with field recordings added to the data-driven foundation. The climb determines the larger form.
1. S’Express – Theme from S’Express
The original UK twelve-inch A-side was co-written and produced by Moore and Gabriel. Moore arrived with samples assembled on cassette, including a passage from Rose Royce’s “Is It Love You’re After” that he wanted to loop.
The hi-hat sound was constructed from the hiss of a can of hairspray, sampled and bit-crushed. Moore singled out Karen Finley’s sampled voice as his favourite element in the track, but knowing that aerosol was used to keep time adds something to the creative palette beyond the yam-jam.
