Album Review: Fabric 64 - Guy Gerber

Guy Gerber eschews expectations and takes Fabric 64 as an opportunity to make a compact, groove-based single artist album. He isn't the first to make his entry into the Fabric CD a single artists affair though - both Ricardo Villalobos and Omar S have produced Fabric albums that only consist of their own music. They are both, in fact, two of my favourite entries to the long-running series.

Gerber has declared Fabric 64 his 'break-up' album. Created in a short, two month period (as Fabric releases apparently have to be) shortly after the end of a relationship it is a snapshot of his emotional state during that period and it has a greater degree of focus than an album created over a longer period of time would be capable of. This is a generous album both emotionally and purely in terms of the music offered, for much of the 16 movements and 72-minutes contained could have been made into a 'proper' album, with all the associated press and attention that usually brings.

It also works well as a mix album though. This may not be a peak-of-the-night DJ set but Fabric 64 is no slouch either, taught electronic kicks propel the album onwards even when the music is introspective and forlorn, as on 'Shady Triangle'. Melancholic music can create a deep, emotional well to drown in but Gerber sidesteps this to create a soundtrack that trips and stumbles between sadness, resignation and apprehensive hope at different turns throughout its course.

The whole album locks together like a jigsaw to make a tight, continuous groove so whilst there are momentary highlights it also forms a cinematic whole. This just could be the progressive house answer to the Drive soundtrack and all that which the movie has touched - the music scrubbed and sanded down in an attempt to remove every touch of humanity, yet the emotion shines through as strong as ever.

It is there in the melodies that punch through the dark synths on 'A Blade Through My Piano' and again on the building opening track 'Store-House Consciousness'. And the vocals and wet synth of the Clarian North featuring 'Running Through The Night' betray nights spent with nowhere to go and no-one to see.

It is on the Deniz Kurtel collaboration that closes this album, 'Just Wanna See You Happy', that Gerber finds (and makes) his peace and yet it still feels like a conflicted moment - not marked out with the same tears that track much of the album but hardly at ease either. Fabric 69 doesn't just use the mix album to create a single artist album - Gerber has used it to make a concept album too (and a good one at that).

It is an album which says a lot about its maker. Put it on a pair of headphones and ride across the city, shutting out your surroundings and it just might say something about you too.

Fabric 64 is released on 28 June, available to pre-order from Amazon.co.uk on CD and MP3 [affiliate links].

EP Review: Aus - Nina Kraviz

Image source: MixmagAnother dance EP for you, hot on the heels of my recent reviews of Vidinovsky's Night Sun and Tanner Ross' Straight To The Moon. This one comes from the much hyped Nina Kraviz, out on Rekids.

I've been a fan of a number of Kraviz's previous releases - she takes the moody elegance of the minimal music that has been pushed by the likes of Crosstown Rebels over the sat few years and adds a bit of welcome femininity, pulling it back towards a house sound. This single, featuring the vocals of King Aus, is a great representation of that sound.

The original version of 'Aus', taken from Kraviz's eponymous debut album, is a deep and dubby house track that bubbles with a firm but sassy intent to party. King Aus' vocals are pure tribute to the movement of electronic music, paying homage to the dance floor and noting that "the dancers are really the ones that push the beat". The rhythms here feel tight and acrobatic whilst warm Rhodes keys provide dense layers of sticky melody. It's a delicious mix.

Remixes come from Rhythm Odyssey, Matt Edwards (of Radio Slave) and DJ Qu. None of these quite hit the same peak for me - they loose the delicately and intangible sexiness buried within those drum tracks of the original - though they are still generally worthy of inclusion, especially as the original is under five-minutes long.

The Rhythm Odyssey mix boils away with an acid bass line as the centre point whilst DJ Qu gives the whole thing a tech-house makeover. Edwards' mix is heavily percussive and probably the most interesting, stretching out the vocals and sliding in layers of paranoia, though it is not helped by Edwards' weird obsession with layering the noise of a Mac using its eye-sight camera throughout the mix. It probably seemed like a good idea at the time I suppose.

Aus is released on 25 June through Rekids.

EP Review: Night Sun - Vidinovski

Night Sun drops later this month on the notoriously choosy and patient Argumento imprint. Since their first pressing in 2010 only a handful of releases have come out over the years - their focus clearly being on quality rather quantity.

That approach is reflected perfectly in this new EP from Vidinovski. Here the focus is truly on house music for the heads - there are no tricks here, just the soundtrack for big room dance floors and heavily vibrating floorboards. For all its subtlety this is big music that captures those fleeting moments of pleasure - losing yourself to the music, a crowd at one and the sense that you never want to come back from this.

There are three original tracks on offer. 'Night Sun' is made of ripples of warm, bubbling bass and aerial synths that wash over live sounding drum claps to make a surprisingly organic feeling uplifting tech-house track. In comparison 'Charge Point' is a little more tense, retaining a similarly tight and claustrophobic rhythm section complete with a couple of driving scattergun moments whilst the song makes a slow build to an epic break like a cry from the middle of the jungle. 'Period' is a little more functional, without the natural warmth of the title track of the excited of 'Charge Point', but it provides a deeper, more dubby sound should you want it.

A remix of 'Night Sun' from Ethereal Sound label boss Anton Zap is also included within this package. It's a little more intimate than the original, the drums toned down to a more straight forward four-four and a minimal rim shot whilst Zap reigns in the reverb. It doesn't have quite as much flair as the original but is perfect for that back room vibe.

With Night Sun Argumento have served up an undeniably quality release.

Night Sun is released on 22 June on Argumento.

EP Review: Straight To The Moon - Tanner Ross

Image source: Zaber RidersThis new one out on Double Standard is pure gloss and sweat. Tanner's EP recalls smooth electronic R&B from the late eighties and early nineties conjuring an infectious retro set of smooth grooves. It feels like it almost could have been there.

Straight To The Moon opens with the ensemble cast number 'Blame Game', featuring Slow Hands, Pillow Talk and Jesse Rennix - the latter two sparring syrupy vocals that keep the soul flowing. Next up is 'Frequent Flyer' featuring Jules Born - it's a heavier, funkier track that melds 'Billie Jean'-esque wandering bass lines with a more up-to-date production style. The result is thick and infectious, lazy and sun bleached and therefore perfect for days doing nothing in the warm summer sun.

The instrumental title track is more cosmic - basically little more than a locked groove tweaked out over four-minutes that sounds like Com Truise with a Flock Of Seagulls haircut. 'Straight To Mexico' is more laid back - swirling keys and drums stabbed through a honey thick bass. Soul Clap's Lonely C turns up on 'Be Chillin'', a dubby affair with distorted vocals that is the one track here that struggles to justify its position.

Things are rounded out with instrumentals of 'The Blame Game' and 'Frequent Flyer'. Overall Straight To The Moon feels a little like one idea played several times over but it's so perfectly suited to summer pool parties and slow, hot days that it's hard to resist.

Straight To The Moon is released on 18 June through Double Standard.

Album Review: In Our Heads - Hot Chip

Image source: BBC.co.ukI've already commented before that Hot Chip's last album, 2010‘s One Life Stand, left me a little cold... It felt like a band slipping through the cracks, trapped between two sounds, and whilst the result was not bad per se it just came off a little unsatisfying. In retrospect this makes some sense - Hot Chip have now split from major EMI and In Our Heads represents their first album for independent Domino.

More than any other single variable the move from a major feels like a considerable contributing factor to what is undoubtedly a return to form. In Our Heads feels like a band freed up from their own (or the label's?) image of what they should be. These songs are almost all less obviously pop than anything Hot Chip have released before. Whilst there are plenty of hooks and the trademark catchy choruses remain there are less radio friendly trick shots and more grown up songs than ever before.

Opener 'Motion Sickness' sets the pace, it's a soaring eighties ballad wrapped in early house production and it manages to achieve this without even appearing to try too hard. It's a disconcerted tribute to our complex times and music's key role in guiding us through it. And it is also beautiful - Alexis Taylor seemingly overwhelmed by his own capacity to feel, particularly when it comes to music - "Remember when people thought the world was round / everything spins on my head / on my compact disk" he sings.

Emotionally In Our Heads seems most preoccupied with the friction that exists between the heart's desire to take risks and the head's self-preservation instincts. Just listen to 'Don't Deny Your Heart', with its over-eager choruses, for example. The flip side of this feeling is the mind's inability to rid itself of the subject of the heart once it has crawled up inside and lain roots, as felt through the syrupy ballad 'Look At Where We Are' and the raw 'These Chains' - that unwillingness to move on.

This conflict keeps the album moving and culminates in the standout track 'Flutes' (which can be heard here). It's a sombre epic tale of retribution - that moment when you realise that failed relationships or emotional mis-fires take two. It builds over seven-minutes into a climatic emotional house record that calls to mind equal parts Detroit techno and Manchester bands New Order and Electronic.

For all the awkward angst of 'Flutes' the other standout is the even longer 'Let Me Be Him'. It's a wonderfully warm-hearted eighties inspired power ballad reminiscent of The Thompson Twins, the optimistic inevitable emotional rebirth punctuated by a belted out ”oh hey ho” refrain. Just try to resist joining in.

By going with their hearts rather than their heads Hot Chip have made In Our Heads one of their most complete and emotionally significant albums to date.

In Our Heads is released on Domino tomorrow, available for pre-order from Amazon.co.uk on CD, LP and MP3 [affiliate links].

Stream In Our Heads on Spotify below (Spotify account required):