Fabric 52 delivers. Optimo have long been heralded as innovators and legends and their mix albums have always been good. But good isn't always enough.

This is better. From the angry Soft Cell-esque 'Lady Shave' Fabric 52 feels like it falls through the door without so much as a glance in your direction. A drunken adolescence of a record, it is quite happy being self-obsessed and arrogantly unaware of your thoughts or feelings. It sounds like it would go on playing itself even if you tried to stop it.

Optimo have made a thrilling, wobbly, bubbling, acid-washed, squelchy set full of reverb and trouble and doubt. Whilst previous Optimo efforts may have been distracted and deliberately eclectic (How To Kill The DJ Part Two, anyone?) Fabric 52 proves they can work a groove.

This is an album that progresses through several themes and styles but knits things together closely enough that the joins aren't even visible. Even the anthemic 'Don't Call' from Desire is disguised beneath bleeps, rhythmic stabs and shouts - letting the track ride into town on Oni Ayhun's 'OAR003-B' is a stroke of genius and successfully transforms the track. It's one of those rare moments where a mix between a couple of tracks makes something completely new and manages to improve on the original. It's really that good.

Fabric 52 really feels like an important album. Sometimes mix albums are able to point to the future far better than an album from one individual act can. The dark, spiralling acid trip of Optimo's set feels like just such an article. As on the tripped out mish-mash of Nakion's 'Heartbit' and Xex's 'Heartbeat' that closes the album, this is a fantastic collaboration between the past and the future.

BP x

Fabric 52 is out now, available from Amazon.co.uk on CD and MP3 [affiliate links].

Perhaps ironic given his pseudonym but out of the heavy hitters within the Get Physical stable DJ T seems to have been the least prolific within the medium of the mix CD. Both Booka Shade and M.A.N.D.Y. have released mixes in the past (in the latter's case seemingly at the expense of ever getting an album out) but this is, to BlackPlastic's knowledge, DJ T's first.

Even more surprising, given DJ T's tendancy for producing club tracks rather than the introspective albums of some of his label mates (Bronnt Industries Kapital or Booka Shade and particularly their The Sun and The Neon Light album) Fabric 51 is surprisingly deep. Refreshingly so.

It is an album that is much slower and thoughtful than BlackPlastic would have anticipated. Michael J Collins eases the listener in with the minimal and atmospheric 'I Just Wanna Be Your Disco Bitch' and with that the pacing is set - nice and slow - for what follows. And what follows is pretty fabulous. The Salax Peep Show Remix of 'A Million Secrets' by Stuffa sounds like some whining indie boys taken straight from the cover of NME yet rapidly thrust into a dubby, emotive minimal workout - and shockingly it works.

This slow, twisted vibe runs throughout the rest of Fabric 51 to create something that really feels different. Danton Eeprom's 'Give Me Pain' sounds like Metronomy meets Hot Chip in a race to the cool indie kid dance floor and the kick, when it hits, is pure joy. And the level of experimental liberalism never fails to land well - even the bohemian 'Jesus Was A B-Boy' from Ben Mono featuring Jemeni hits with well aimed humour. Hell - BlackPlastic recently said that we never wanted to hear DJ Mujava's 'Township Funk' again and yet DJ T even makes us take that back for the Crazy P mix, applied here, is a thing of melancholic joy.

DJ T has undeniably managed to exceed expectations here. Whilst he may be not have the catalogue of mix albums of M.A.N.D.Y. he has just delivered a mix level with some of their best and the finest Fabric album in a good few months.

BP x

Fabric 51 is released on Monday - order now from Amazon.co.uk on CD or MP3 [affiliate links].

dBridge & Instra:mental's Autonomic mix for FabricLive eschews expectations for a drum 'n' bass mix by slowing things down. Right down.

After collaborating on a track together, dBridge and Instra:mental collaborated to form Autonomatic - ultimately a club night with spin-offs, the most significant of which is, as the press release say, ultimately a style of music.

Because FabricLive 50 doesn't just slow things down. It is considerably slower than even a breakbeat set, with the tempo coming in below a chilled out 100bpm. This is still distinctively dnb though, and both dBridge (formerly part of the fairly legendary Bad Company) and Instra:mental clearly know their craft.

The album opener, Riva's 'Seems Like', glides a soulful vocal over a spacious backing that gently melds into Instra:mental's own 'From The Start' but as soulful as the whole thing feels the beats are deep, percussive and ultimately pure liquid drum 'n' bass.

But slow drum 'n' bass sounds about as much fun as stretching out the Queen's speech to last the whole of Christmas day, Boxing day and maybe even right up to New Year's Eve... Surely the point is that it gets you moving, the rolling basslines, pitched vocals, and the last thing we want is more bloody dubstep.

But as we said, dBridge and Instra:mental clearly know what they are doing. Just as liquid dnb made BlackPlastic's heart go aquiver about eight years ago by giving the genre vocals and, as a result, a tune, FabricLive 50 works because of the space the production gets. There are relatively few vocals here as it happens but the speed gives the album an intelligent, soulful feel more reminiscent of Jazzanova and the Compost label than any dnb or dubstep we ever heard.

FabricLive 50 is actually fairly reminiscent of Global Communication's Fabric album (Fabric 26), robotic yet soulful... Ferocious let subtle. By redefining what drum 'n' bass is dBridge and Instra:mental have just pushed a genre forward that desperately needed innovation. Dubstep be damned - dnb died and Autonomic just brought it back.

BP x

Check out the 30-minute promo mix over at Fabric's MixCloud page.

FabricLive 50 is out on 15 February, available for pre-order from Amazon.co.uk on CD [affiliate link].

Somehow both 2008 and 2009 seem to have been proclaimed "The Year of Dubstep"... Something that quite frankly bores BlackPlastic to tears because, well... It's just slowed down UK Garage really, isn't it? And you can try and big it up to be something more than that but as 'new genres' go it's treading what is already pretty well trodden ground. So Fabric 50, compiled and mixed by Martyn, is yet another bloody dubstep compilation.

Yet, actually, it's pretty darn good. And BlackPlastic can't really agree that this is any more 'dubstep' than it is 'nu skool breaks'. Or any other breaks genre really because in all honesty this shares more with the bass heavy breaks sound of early Stanton Warriors than any dubstep we ever heard.

Semantics aside Fabric 50 may be good, but it actually makes a bad first impression. Hudson Mohawke's opener 'Joy Fantastic' does a serviceable impression of Stankonia-era Outkast - it is fine but hardly as good as the real thing. And whilst Nubian Mindz's 'Bossa Boogie' is actually an enjoyably chunky take on breakbeat things begin to head downhill from there. Altered Native's 'Rass Out' is instantly forgettable and Zomby has two tracks early on in the album that utterly fail to justify the hype heaped upon him.

But things quickly turn around on DJBone's 'We Control The Beat'. It's an absolutely lush, warm slice of sound the introduces a house feel to Martyn's set that is more or less kept through to the end from that point on. Before you know it you're dizzy, staring at the floor to Martyn's dubby-ska mix of Detachments' 'Circles' and Joy Orbison's soulful and snappy 'Brkln Clln' (Broklyn Calling?).

And BlackPlastic can't help but feel that this slowed down garage album specifically just might be worth getting excited about. The twee pitched up samples of Burial come off like Sweet Female Attitude on PMT. But in comparison whilst Joy Orbison and Martyn may not justify a whole new genre tag (it's still just soulful breakbeat) they definitely worth listening to. Roska's mix of Martyn's 'These Words' is thick and paranoid and delicious and, unsurprisingly, it is Martyn's own productions that really shine in this mix - 'Friedrichstrasse' being another prime example.

Closing on Jan Driver's relative hard 'Rat Alert' followed by the funky and filtered 'Trilingual Dance Sexperience' by Dorian Concept, Fabric 50 is a confusing mix to the end. It's eclectic and confused and it starts badly, yet there it also clearly demonstrates why Martyn is one to watch.

BP x

Fabric 50 is out now, available from Amazon.co.uk on CD and MP3 [affiliate links].

Judging by FabricLive 49 Burakama Som Sistema are a goddamn cussing noisy bunch. Make no mistake, this album feels like being tied to the front of Alton Tower's biggest rollercoaster (is that still the Oblivion?) for an hour or so with an emotionally epic hangover.

To be honest BlackPlastic was ready to slate it but instead we will say this - you will like FabricLive49 if:

• You like the sound that several travelling fair grounds would make if you put then all in the same place at once and told them to SCREAM IF YOU WANNA GO FAAAAAASTTAAAAAA!
• You hate your own head.
• You have some incredibly persistent guilty voice inside your soul constantly reminding you that you butchered your mother.
• You are on more drugs than BlackPlastic has ever tried.

There are a few better moments but, in all honesty, they are not good - they just gave BlackPlastic a bit of a breather because they didn't sound like a baby screaming.

It might be built to sound like a soundclash but to BlackPlastic it just IS a soundclash.

Download the full version of 'Kurum (Roulet Remix)' by Buraka Som Sistema, which appears on FabricLive 49 for a taste [right click, save as].

BP x

FabricLive 49 is out tomorrow, available for pre-order now from Amazon.co.uk on CD [affiliate link].

Fabric 49 technically hits the streets a month late because, goddamit, this is the most Halloween Fabric have ever got. Compiled and mixed by Magda (of Richie Hawtin's legendary Minus label) it's a spooky set of minimal, carved up with weird samples disorientating sounds.

If you haven't heard Magda DJ before then the sheer darkness of this album is reminiscent of The Glimmers' (or Glimmer Twins as they were then known) two Serie Noire compilations released on Eskimo five or six years back. The difference is that Fabric 49 contains much more upfront minimal techno compared to the John Carpenter soundtracks and early no-wave of the Glimmers' discs - this is a set clearly aimed at making you move.

And it still pretty much works - straddling a divide between atmosphere and dancing. Most of the tracks themselves are fairly nondescript but that is kind of the point. In contextualizing them, cutting several records together and never playing just one song at a time Magda has created something which feels like much more than the some of its parts... This is a mix that packs serious atmosphere.

It's true that things occasionally misfire and there are portions of the mix that are just too dry but when it is good, particularly on the closing third, Fabric 49 delivers something pretty special.

BP x

Fabric 49 is out now, available on Amazon.co.uk on CD [affiliate link].

FabricLive 48 is something of a return to form for the series. Of sorts at least.

Following a recent mixture of slightly too fashionable, genre-of-the-moment artists and non-descript mixes FabricLive 48, under the control of the Filthy Dukes, gets back to the bread and butter of what the FabricLive discs can be when they are at their best.

It's eclectic, wonky disco, house and acid drenched tech-house. And it is pretty much all right up BlackPlastc's street. Aeroplane's mix of Sébastien Tellier's 'Kilometer' is still gloriously paced, thick like treacle. 80skidz 'Miss Marz' still sounds timeless, energetic with a hint of melancholy and The Proxy remix of Tiga's 'What Your Need' descends into suitable chaos as the Soulwax mix of Daft Punk's 'Robot Rock' kicks in.

But here is the problem: you probably know all of these tracks. And you probably know most of the other tracks on the album too. There are some great, inventive moments - Mr Oizo's 'Pourriture 7' mixing into Jack Peñate's 'Tonight's Today' is one such stroke of genius. And some tracks are good enough to survive the exposure - we certainly don't resent hearing Lifelike's 'Sequencer' more than is strictly necessary. But, seriously... BlackPlastic does not need to hear Mujava's 'Township Funk' again. Probably ever.

FabricLive 48 is like a mix album made by a friend featuring a stack of you favourite records from the past year or so. It would be a great mix to hear out but without much inventiveness in the tracklist this is unlikely to keep you coming back.

BP x

Radio Slave's Fabric album has it's moments of pleasure but still ultimately disappoints.

If you read regularly you likely know that BlackPlastic has long championed Eskimo Recordings' compilations - frankly they are the best producer of compilations currently around - and as such maybe it is too much to expect Fabric 48 to live up to Radio Slave's release for that label, entitled Creatures of the Night (check the BlackPlastic review of that album here). It wouldn't be the first time someone has struggled with a compilation for another label having thrived on Eskimo - just check the Glimmers' okay-but-not-fantastic mixes for DJ Kicks and Fabric.

But the problem is that Fabric 48 paints a very dry picture of Radio Slave. Where Creatures of the Night had a variety of styles, from shouty P Diddy through to The Osmonds via The Kills, Fabric 48 has, well... 13 cuts of tech-house. And not even the exciting, edge of your seat acid influenced stuff. There are tribal rhythms andloooooooong tracks and spoken vocals occasionally but at what point exactly are we supposed to get excited?

And the sad thing is that this is probably closer to what a current Radio Slave set sounds like. Where has the subversiveness gone from the early days where a Radio Slave remix would do something totally unexpected and still consistently turn out great? Why do DJs and producers think everyone is content with a safe set of four-four techno? What drugs are we supposed to be chomping on to make this do anything for us?

Maybe we are wrong. This might be very sophisticated and if you like tribal, deep techno and house, that might be enough. As far as we are concerned tou can keep it - BlackPlastic would much rather get rowdy to Creatures of the Night's dark corners and freaky sounds.

BP x

Fabric 48 is out now, available on CD from Amazon.co.uk [affiliate link].

In Flagranti are hitting FabricLive this Friday (4 September) alongside Popof, Aeroplane (oh how we love thee) and Filthy Dukes.  In Flagranti will actually be in room two which is being hosted by Erol Alkan's Durrr.

To get you in the mood check out this never released track from In Flagranti called 'Brash & Vulgar' for download. It's a nice cheeky track with a rough little bassline on it and a little toungue in cheek vocal in the bridge - label this is a nice little DJ tool.

Download [right click, save as].

BP x

BlackPlastic always says that if you own just one hip-hop album then it should be the compilation album Hip-Hop Don't Stop: The Greatest. Across two discs Scratch Perverts member Prime Cuts manages to create an inventive mix of pretty much every vital old school hip-hop record in existence. It features some of the best mixing BlackPlastic has ever heard, let alone heard committed to record.

As such BlackPlastic holds a bit of a soft one for the Scratch Perverts and was pleased to slip Beatdown, inspired by the Perverts hosted night at Fabric, into the CD player.

Beatdown: eclectic, knob on, pedal to the floor. This mix certainly isn't backwards in coming forward - there are 37 tracks throughout this 65 minute mix and as a result some great moments are pretty much guaranteed - the Martyn's Heartbeat Mix of Flying Lotus' 'Roberta Flack', for example.

Sadly they are just too few and far between and there is far too much that feels like it is only here because it is currently en vogue. As a whole it's a full on party style mix and Scratch Perverts have made much of the fact that they still play contemporary, current selections, boasting the fact that the mix is modern and has plenty of dub-step...

...So here is the thing: dub-step is whack music for lame-o middle-aged urban wannabees. That includes Burial. Oh, and whilst we are sacrificing the sacred cows of the late 'noughties': Zomby (who features on Beatdown) is shit too.

So ultimately what BlackPlastic is saying is it doesn't matter if the mixing is fab and the track listing 'current': if the tunes don't stack up, they don't stack up. Just because your genre of choice is British and involves breakbeats it doesn't make it any good.  BlackPlastic would take Hip-Hop Don't Stop any day.

BP x

Available now - order on CD on Amazon.co.uk [affiliate link].