When the kids all ran up to BlackPlastic last month, excitedly asking "What's the new Fabric album like, the one mixed by James Murphy and Pat Mahoney from LCD Soundsystem?" BP didn't know what to say. Other than "Bloody Royal Mail" that is.
Having digested it several times over it can now be summarised thusly: It is somewhat camp, warm, bubbly in places and fairly unpredictable. Opening and closing with Peter Gordon & the Love of Life Orchestra was a good move, with 'Beginning of the Heartbreak' rapidly evolving from a throbbing, strutting piece of kraut rock to a rocking disco loved-up on pills type 'BlackPlastic, THIS is your life' moment.
No review can do this type of mix justice as, just like The Glimmers' recent Eskimo V, there are too many left hand turns to account for. Still, Baby Oliver's 'Prime Time' is probably about riding on the Back To The Future time-travelling train back to the year 1976 and Donald Byrd offers up warm Dad-friendly hedonistic disco-house to get the feet tapping on 'Love Has Come Around'.
G.Q.'s 'Lies' is like Daft Punk 15 years too early, all twisted basslines and vocal snippets twisting around itself to create a wonderful musical collage. Still Going's 'Still Going Theme' marries lush minimal keyboards to large, echoing bass in one of the (slightly) more modern cuts included.
Fabriclive 36 is very much a product of love... At the times where it doesn't feature an excitedly loved-up vocal or a heart-stopping string riff you can rely on the fact that there'll be some obscure gem no-one you know has ever heard. This is real crate digging stuff and it has all been mixed though the first ever model of DJ mixes, giving the whole outing a very warm and analogue feel as the vinyl crackler and pops its way through the mix.
'I Feel Good Put Your Pants On' instructs the bouncy and damn funky Jackson Jones cut. Fabriclive 36 feels just like that... "Don't, don't... Please don't leave me!" cries closing the track. And you won't want to.
BP x