fabric 52 - Optimo (Espacio)

While their Glasgow-based Sunday night institution will soon come to an end, Optimo duo JD Twitch and JG Wilkes will have the spirit of their club engrained into the minds of people who never even went thanks to this mix for fabric.
 
The quirk factor is there from the off, with a raucous hi-NRG track from Fad Gadget about pubic topiary kicking off and smacking you round the face immediately. The same genre isn’t held for long anywhere on this album but like a game of pass the parcel or connect-the-dots or some other such continuous party game, there’s some kind of baton-passing going on that links everything together. Prins Thomas nu-disco somehow blends into dubbed out Basic Channel techno - something to do with the rolling, lazy groove perhaps – The Minister’s rigid beats blending into those of Altz, and so on. 
 
As a whole, it’s kept as a quirky dancefloor affair for the most part, largely devoid of big emotion until we edge towards the end – Oni Ayhun’s sublime OAR003-B providing some early morning euphoria, and Desire’s Don’t Call camping it up in a joyous and cheesy way. Alas some dodgy mixing at the end mars the otherwise enjoyable ride.
 
Much of the album has a retro feel to it, regardless of its present day production – or indeed future retro, with various Italo-disco and proto-house experimentation that still has something futuristic about it but sounds like it was made 25 years ago. It’s somewhat like a bag of disco oddities that you pick up in a second hand record shop without really knowing much about what you’re buying – they might not be records you’d normally buy or listen to, but in the context they make for a fun listen.
 
 
Tracklisting:
 
01 Fad Gadget - Lady Shave - Mute
02 Discodromo - Cosmorama (Prins Thomas Discomiks) - Internasjonal
03 Basic Channel - Q1.1 - Basic Channel
04 Spencer Parker - YOGOTO - Rekids
05 Locussolus - Gunship - International Feel
06 Rebolledo - Amigos Cómeme - Cómeme
07 The Minister - Jack Your Bodey House Your Mind -  Crème Organization
08 Altz - Get It Down! - Altzmusica
09 Thomas Brinkmann - Walk With Me - Curle
10 Rheingold - Dreiklangsdimensionen - Welt Rekord
11 Capablanca & T Keeler - La Konk Fiesta - Gomma
12 Roska - Feeline - Roska Kicks & Snares
13 Cumbia Moderna De Soledad - Shacalao - Sunflower
14 The Tyrell Corporation - Together Alone - Clone
15 Roni Griffith - Spys - Vanguard
16 Levon Vincent - Love Technique - Ovum
17 Oni Ayhun - OAR003-B - Oni Ayhun
18 Desire - Don't Call - Italians Do It Better
19 Crazy Cousinz - Inflation - Defenders Ent Ltd
20 Matias Aguayo - Walter Neff - Kompakt
21 Nakion - Heartbit - Tigersushi
22 Xex - Heartbeat - What's That Music