FABRICLIVE 40

By: Various Artists mixed by Noisia
Label: Fabric Records
Written by: mark edwards
Rating: 8/10

I pretty much stopped listening to D'n'B when Shy FX's Shake Your Body came out. Poppy, unimaginative, just horrible; it was everything that drum'n'bass wasn't when I originally got into it. That; and Bodyrock (ugh), represented a selling-out within the scene that seemed to lead to worse things... the 'wobble' sound being the main culprit. But that was quite a few years back - and my, how things have changed. It's with a glad heart that I've welcomed the recent resurgence in techy, glitchy, well produced drum 'n' bass back into my life. Pioneered by Tech Itch a few years back, this hyper new-school darkside sound has evolved from its roots as a somewhat limited, amen-based attempt to blast the faces off the front row in the club, into a sophisticated scene exploring the limits of its sound.

It's interesting to note that this 'Future Tek' style may feel a bit dated in a few years, as it's heavily stylised and pretty reliant on the audio technology of the moment. However, right now, a few years in the future is when it sounds like it was produced. Sinister, creeping soundscapes provide a scary backdrop to super-aggressive bass that fizzes and crackles right in the front of the mix. The beats are heavily detailed, intelligent layers of virtuousic rhythm production that slam out of the speakers with intense gusto. It's worth noting that the lack of amen breaks seems a conscious decision - perhaps a line in the sand drawn in order to distinguish those who rely on the somewhat cliched old break to give their tracks an aggressive finish from those who apply a more in-depth, less lazy, method to their production.
Most of the tracks in the mix are by Noisia themselves, and on the whole they succeed well. Other contributions from Phace, Black Sun Empire, Spor, and Ed Rush and Optical (keeping up with the kids - just) are well selected and sit perfectly with the main body of Noisia tracks. It's a well-mixed set - ebbing and flowing perfectly, it allows the darker periods to retain their intensity and the breathers to feel all the more needed during the breakdowns. The best thing about this mix, however, is that it's not solely limited to D'n'B. Elements of dubstep creep in here and there - big, half-step rhythms and ponderous subs provide an interesting and vibrant counterpoint to the franticness of the rest of the mix.

Then, something wholely unexpected happens: about halfway through, Noisia's Split the Atom, Brown Time, Seven Stitches and Spor's Mordez Moi drop in, providing a kind of high tech drum 'n' bass take on dancefloor electro and breaks. And let me tell you something, it works. Why can't all club stuff be this unbelievably heavy? You can keep your Does it Offend You Yeah?, your Hadouken!, even your (frankly appalling) We Smoke Fags. This is where Shoreditch should be at. Imagine the huge, ripping bass sounds of drum 'n' bass combined with the '80s-chic synth work of Justice or Chromeo, and the no-nonsense, head-noddy rhythm work of the best of the crop of other electro producers out there. It just wipes the floor with them. These four tracks are the album's finest hour. Brown Time is a stuttering, broken monster that would sound totally at home being released on Ed Banger, while Seven Stitches, in particular, defies categorisation in the best possible way. Bizarre, rolling, synchronised kick and bass work leads the track under a chirping little synth line that gets under the skin like heroin withdrawal symptoms. It almost feels like a shame when it returns to the jump-up darkside D'n'B that these tracks obviously evolved from.

fabriclive 40 is a great little mix from some of the most promising producers around today. It's excellent to see Noisia blowing up and signing to big, influential labels, breathing new life into a scene that many (including me) had pretty much left for dead. It seems a shame, therefore, to mention that the best tunes in this set of 29 are the four that eschew the D'n'B sound that has broken their name across the world. Really though, that doesn't matter. The main body of tracks is forward-looking and imaginative enough to feel like a real light at the end of the tunnel for D'n'B. There's life in the old dog yet.