Elevate Difference

Reviews of Fabric Records

Fabric 50

The ever-prolific Fabric series returns with this effort from Dutch producer Martyn.

Fabriclive 49

I recently heard a clip from Fabriclive 49 and wanted to review it. Although I’m not too familiar with techno music (aside from the occasional club visit), I do like it, so off I went. Buraka Som Sistema’s album has a total of twenty-eight short club pieces that are very hard to separate. These songs overlap, interconnect, and pulse. There’s a definite dance vibe to the collection. At the same time, they are rather mellow and spacey in nature.

Fabriclive 48

I was excited to review this album because I'm fascinated by the creative endeavor of mixing existing music together to create something entirely new. I'm a musician, but I know very little about being a DJ—I had heard that no one mixes like the Filthy Dukes, and that their albums were the next best thing to being at one of their events.

Beatdown

In my mind, you either love drum and bass or you hate it—or you have no idea what it is. Pretty much indistinguishable from other Fabric mix albums and the Fabriclive series releases, this is the second d&b-heavy Scratch Perverts addition to the Fabric Records discography.

Fabriclive.47

From what I hear, Sheffield England is not a bumping metropolis.

Fabric 47

For the thumping album Fabric 47, Jay Haze, the Pennsylvania-born and Berlin-based teamed up with the series of compilation albums produced by the legendary London nightclub of the same name. Haze is the quintessential renaissance man with experience in running multiple record labels and starting up the online electronic music magazine Textone in 2003, all while producing both collaborative and solo albums.

Detroit /Fabric 45 and Fabric 46

These two albums are the products of London’s Fabric nightclub’s monthly CD series. Fabric’s musical offerings span the electronic dance spectrum, and while they are super club with three distinct dance spaces, the sounds of Omar S on Detroit/Fabric 45 are refreshingly minimal. Referencing the famed early 1980s Detroit House scene, the album’s beats are loaded with reverb and recall the work of groups from the 1980s such as Liquid Liquid and ESG.

Fabriclive.40

Sound aficionados who venture forth on the Fabric path will discover music that is progressive, exciting, and out of this world. If you’re not a fan of drum n bass, break beats, and electronic music, you have to make the commitment to listen, but if you love sound and the evolution of human creative expression, that commitment is not hard to make. Noisia is the Dutch trio of Nik Roos, Martijn Van Sonderen, and Thijs de Vlieger. They have been involved in the drum n bass music scene since 1998, and own two record labels: Vision and Division.

Fabric 40

Mark Farina, a San Francisco-based DJ, is a mainstay on the electronic scene. What began as an exploration of the house genre has now become Farina’s inimitable musical echo. The globetrotting performer is known for his genre versatility, but also his distinctive cocktail of Chicago urban, jazzy reverberation with San Francisco sound. While he’s also known for his down tempo grooves, Fabric 40 is nothing of the sort.

FabricLive 39

This record is sick. By 'sick' I mean off the charts wicked, all night booty-shaking, dance party-inspiring, screaming while you crash down the rollercoaster of noise sick. Woah. DJ Yoda, the mastermind behind this collaboration, hails from the UK and focuses on hip-hop turntablism, making a name for himself since the late 1990s with his How to Cut and Paste album series. Joining the ranks of Fabric DJs, he’s outdone himself.

Fabric 39

Robert “Noise” Hood is one of the original members of the Detroit collective Underground Resistance (UR) and a solo DJ with an incredible discography. His work is informed by militant politics of music as a tool for social chance, and coming out of Reagan-era inner city Detroit, his radical views are personally informed.

Fabriclive.36

If you want to get the party started, here is the album to get the job done. Fabriclive.36 features James Murphy and Pat Mahoney on this release of electronic disco to minimal disco. The Fabriclive.X repetoire features a new artist release on a regular (if not monthly) basis out of the Fabric night club in London. These works are compliations of artists spun up for the night club dance crowd.

Fabriclive.33

Plenty of famous (and not so famous) DJs have contributed to the FabricLive series: James Lavelle, Jacques Lu Cont, Diplo and even the late John Peel. So Baltimore “dirty rap” superstars Spank Rock had a lot to live up to with their mix, the thirty-third in the series. And while other albums may have been better mixed, or contain more unknown tracks, there is almost no competition when it comes to plain old danceability. Spank Rock are, by their own admission, all about the debauchery that comes with partying, so they know what they’re doing with a mix CD.
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