Various Artists mixed by Commix - FABRICLIVE 44

So we’ve been telling you a lot recently about Cambridge drum & bass duo Commix’s love for house and techno. You’ve heard the podcast and read the interview. Their new FABRICLIVE CD is business as usual however – and it shows that there’s still plenty of superb material off the usually-beaten D&B track.
 
Their own Life We Live kicks us off in delicate, graceful fashion – like something straight out of a classic LTJ Bukem CD, with its exotic percussion, rainforest noises, echoes and soft flute and chime-like melodies. A nod to their junglist upbringing no doubt. Heavier beats soon drop into the mix with Goldie appearing in his Rufige Crew guise on Sometime Sad Day, and D-Bridge craftily tempering grimy bass and taut snares with softer atmospherics and honeyed vocals on Creatures Of Habit. In fact, it’s this clever, delicate balance between subtle dancefloor ferocity and lightness of touch that keeps this album gripping.
 
Logisitics’ Murderation is another fine example, seeping into the brooding, moody rumbles of Commix’s own Justified, and the always on-form Calibre’s haunting Can’t Get Over You steps things up another level with its cool, minor-keyed bassline and spooky vocal. D-Bridge reappears to toughen up their album cut Belleview in a subtle but effective fashion. We then head towards a deeper section after this more intense apex of the mix – ushering us towards more experimental cuts in the final section like the pitter-patter rhythm and mournful, jazzy pianos of Instra:mental’s No Future, and the fragile album closer Photograph, which is barely even D&B, but makes for a beautiful climax.
 
A must-have CD here that, as the Commix guys said, is pretty much a totally separate genre from the usual “mainstream” D&B malarkey.  
 
Tracklisting:

01 Commix - Life We Live – Soul:R
02 Rufige Crew – Sometime Sad Day – Metalheadz
03 D-Bridge – Creatures of Habit – Exit
04 Alix Perez – The Reckoning – Alix Perez
05 Data – The Causeway – Influence
06 Logistics – Murderation – Hospital
07 Commix – Justified – Metalheadz
08 Spectrasoul – Buried – 31 Records
09 Calibre – Can’t Get Over You – Soul:R
10 Lynx & Alix Perez Ft. Kemo – Dangerous – Soul:R
11 Commix – Belleview (D-Bridge’s Belle-reviewed Mix) – Metalheadz
12 Spectrasoul & Ben E – Suppression – Spectrasoul
13 Calibre – In Denial – Soul:R
14 Commix – Bear Music – Hospital
15 OAK – No Sunrise – Brand Nu
16 Jonny L – Common Origin – XL
17 Breakage – Old School Ting – Breakage
18 Instra:mental – No Future – NonPlus+
19 Photek – Yendi – Science
20 Instra:mental – Photograph - Darkestral