FabricLive 42 Mixed By FreQ Nasty

Tags: fabric, fabriclive, freq nasty

Born in Fiji and raised in New Zealand, breakbeat pioneer FreQ Nasty grew up listening to his father’s stories about his rowdy rock shows (“I remember him saying when he was 14 or 15, he was earning more in a week than his dad was in a month from playing in bands!”) and dreamed of bigger possibilities. He decided at the age of 14, while working his first manual labour job, that he didn’t want to succumb to mundanely being a cog in the machine. That very same boundary breaking sensibility has always transcended through his music, from his scene-shaking classics like ‘Boomin Back Atcha’ and ‘Move Back,’ to his remixes of pop icons like Fatboy Slim, Kelis and KRS One. At the same time, he’s always been very receptive…

Tuesday, August 26th, 2008 at 3:39 pm

Howie B Vs Casino Royale - Not In The Face

Tags: casino royale, fabric, howie b, not in the face

Howie B is arguably one of the most important and prodigious producers in the development of UK electronica, consistently unleashing his staggeringly beautiful creations with a pervasive and profound humbleness that his admirers treasure. Working with artists as far-reaching as Bjork, Tricky, U2, Brian Eno, Sinead O’Connor and Goldie, to name but a very few, Howie’s vast career has made twists and turns down some of the most unexpected, interesting paths. Most recently - between musical collaborations; creating his second fashion brand, Howaii (after 5 years of being Creative Director for Hvana); and working with doART Gallery on music-art exhibitions - Howie B has been teaming up with one of Italy’s best kept secrets, Casino Royale.

In the midst of a U2 tour in 1997, Howie B met the massively popular…

Tuesday, August 19th, 2008 at 10:33 am

Stanton Sessions Volume 3 News

Tags: 2008, breakbeat, breaks, fabric, stanton sessions, stanton warriors

Breaks genre pioneers, swathed with awards including Breakspoll Number One DJs, DJ Magazine’s Number One Breaks DJs, and DJ Magazine’s 50 Best Remixers Of All Time, the Stanton Warriors have had no time to hurry the hustle of the next in line in their low-end dancefloor breaks beatdowns. Their last edition, ‘Stanton Sessions 2’ was immediately voted Album Of The Year on Annie Nightingale’s BBC Radio 1 show which, added to the salutations following their FABRICLIVE 30 mix including Timeout Compilation Of The Year and Breakspoll Compilation Of The Year, meant the collective breakbeat breath was baited for Session number three. And while they’re still in the studio now putting the finishing touches on this highly anticipated release, come October, the wait will be over.

“Coming off the back of…

Thursday, July 17th, 2008 at 12:09 pm

Fabric 42 Mixed By Ame

Tags: ame, fabric

Kristian Beyer and Frank Wiedemann (collectively known as Âme) were born in Karlsruhe, South Germany. Kristian grew up in Mannheim whilst Frank remained in Karlsruhe. Even now despite the electronic music world’s current migration to Berlin, they both agree Karlsruhe is still the city for them to continue their musical journey.

Frank spent his early days exploring the vast worlds of jazz and contemporary classical music, immersed in piano lessons with very encouraging and open-minded music teachers. While he tinkered away in Karlsruhe, Kristian meanwhile in Mannheim was too busy shirking his guitar lessons in order to play football and collect records. The latter hobby paid off when at 25 whilst taking a civil engineering degree; Kristian had the opportunity to open a record shop with a friend. Having moved back…

Monday, July 14th, 2008 at 3:34 pm

Simian Mobile Disco FabricLive 41 Review

Tags: fabric, fabric live, fabriclive 41, simian mobile disco, smd

The FabricLive catalogue encompasses a strange and unique array of artists. It is hardly surprising, then, that Simian Mobile Disco man the helm of FabricLive’s 41st volume. James Ford and Jas Shaw have never erred on the side of conventionality (evidenced by last year’s Attack, Decay, Sustain, Release), and yet FabricLive 41 retains its structure despite traversing bumpy aural terrain. SMD spend the course of 22 tracks mixing up a tantalizing variety of wild electro-house, Balearic italadisco and electronica whose sound can resemble that of an intergalactic Star Wars laser battle played over The Phantom of the Opera. Needless to say, Fabriclive 41 is not for the classicist in each of us.

For all its eclecticism, Simian Mobile Disco manages to weave an articulate tapestry out of ordinarily disorienting building blocks…

Thursday, July 10th, 2008 at 2:00 pm

Simian Mobile Disco - Fabriclive 41

Tags: fabric, fabriclive, simian mobile disco

Life after bands: an idea with the most negative of implications. But there is indeed much vibrant life, brimming with heart and soul, left for James Ford and Jas Shaw, collectively known as Simian Mobile Disco. The name for their production/DJing outfit sings ballads about their musical history, from the very first word - Simian, a psychedelic indie band that had its moment of taking over the world in the early noughties, with Jas on guitar and James keeping time on drums. Simian celebrated two critically acclaimed albums, globeencompassing tours, working with Brian Eno (on their second album, “We Are Your Friends,” in ’02), even songs being featured in international adverts (most notably in a Peugeot 1007 advertisement) but, like all good things, an end was inescapable.

James: “With Simian, we…

Tuesday, June 10th, 2008 at 4:55 pm

Luciano - Fabric 41 Preview

Tags: fabric, luciano

Like symbiosis, like the yin and yang, like your left and right hands, there is something both so free and passionate, yet also so technological, somewhat clinical, even precise and methodical about Luciano’s music which onlookers always suggest is a reaction to him moving from Switzerland to Santiago, Chile when he was about 11 or 12. The suggestion that his music is directly correlated to those worlds colliding is not necessarily obtuse. Some parts minimal, deep techno and scientific electro, some parts southern rhythms and colourful melodies, making the identity of his music especially soulful as it seeps from a more alkaline space.

“My father used to fix juke boxes for a living so we had many, many records. A lot of disco, some French music, a lot of the hits…

Tuesday, June 10th, 2008 at 8:52 am