Fate conspires to make BlackPlastic write about Fabric 13 today.
Having started the usual commute to this most understatedly great Fabric mix it was perhaps sheer coincidence that lead to what occurred when the pages of The Guardian was spread open at lunchtime. Or perhaps it was sheer quality...
The Guardian are currently running a serialised look at 1,000 albums you must hear before you die and guess what lie there today, amongst the Meat Loaf and Cilla Black (BlackPlastic kids you not) albums? Only the very Fabric CD BlackPlastic had been reminiscing over that morning.
Fabric 13 isn't the most obvious choice for an album you must hear before you die. With its subtle yet intricatly composed micro-house it's not even the most obvious choice of Fabric albums you must hear before you die.
What Fabric 13 is however, is truly, truly excellent. The first act boasts the sweeping strings of Richard Davis' needy 'Bring Me Closer' and the plodding yet gorgeously atmospheric Piano Mix of Westbam's 'Oldschool, Baby'.
Later on, whilst there is an underlying pop sensibility behind most of what features here there are also darker moments with Thomas Schaeben & Geiger's seemingly Crash inspired 'Really Real' and Magnet's techno heavy 'Abendstern' for example. At all times the structure and pacing of Fabric 13 is also excellent, and a Jackson mix of M83's 'Run Into Flowers' shakes things up in just the right manner.
Starting and ending with two different mixes of Heiko Voss' 'I Think About You' is a final masterstroke. Most tracks wouldn't be good enough to pull it off... This one is, the Geiger Mix starting the album with a slow building storm of acid rain, spacious drums and wavering vocals whilst the original mix finishes the album off with a sweet, swooning pop song. It's a fitting closure for such a love-able mix CD and a revelation that it actually got the nod from the mainstream press.
BP x
----
Sent using a Sony Ericsson mobile phone
Album Review: Fabriclive 36 - James Murphy and Pat Mahoney
in album review, review
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
Album Review: Virgo, Blaktro & The Movie Disco - Felix Da Housecat
In which our man Felix gets concept once again.
Three years have passed since the last Felix Da Housecat long-player and it's impossible not to think that he's missed a trick a bit. Following the crossover hit of Kittenz & The Glitz and the overtly commercial Devin Dazzle & The Neon Fever such a large hiatus has killed the momentum somewhat.
Which begs the question, "What now?" The answer comes in the form of yet another concept album, this time supposedly influenced by black pop, disco and electro of the late seventies & early eighties. In reality such insipation is just that - nothing more than inspiration. With the exception of funk shakedown 'It's Your Move' nothing on Virgo, Blaktro ever sounds like anything other than Felix churning out another pop album. An enjoyable re-tread of Devo's 'Snowball' anyone? Hardly black is it.
Still, well constructed pop is a glorious thing and for its part, there are moments of sheer joy here. Indeed the aforementioned Devo re-work 'Sweetfrosti' may add nothing to the original and be completely ridiculous yet it still ends up pretty glorious if only for the fact that *that* synth don't get old.
'Radio' envelopes the listener in a giant melody sandwich, a giant pean to the joy of the wireless, whilst 'Like Something 4 Porno' and its utterly ridiculous lyrics will crowbar their way into your subconscious. The purring 'Lookin' My Best' is total glamour-puss Felix but the album highlights come in the form of 'Tweak' and 'Something For The Dawn'.
Both are Felix's most dancefloor focused tracks Devin Dazzle's lead single 'Watching Cars Go By'. 'Tweak' is total acid techno, reminiscent of '...Strobe' off Felix's unreleased album, I Know Elektrikboy (yes, another concept album) and it sounds like it was made to soundtrack nightclub scenes in films and on TV. Closer 'Future Calls The Dawn' is pure Felix and BlackPlastic loves him for it. Similar in style to both Kittenz and Devin Dazzle it is a driving house number with Felix's trademark vocals with an understated breakdown that's just too cool.
But what's wrong with it? It's just too damn short basically. Of the 16 tracks four (two back to back) are little more than skits and another five are under two-and-a-half minutes long. The result is that much of the album instinctively feels unfinished and, suprisingly for a concept album, unfocussed. It's good to be left wanting more but not if it is at the expense of overall quality. The length would have been fine with a few less but more fleshed out tracks.
Still, what BlackPlastic really wants to know is when Girl's Aloud are going to wake-up and hire Felix as their producer. Now THERE is a concept. As the girl says on one of the skits: Pretty girls don't dance, they just pose to techno.
Paris Is Burning.
BP x
----
Sent using a Sony Ericsson mobile phone
MP3 Link: Eraser (XXXChange Remix) - Thom Yorke
in mp3
Yeah, yeah, so every other blog has an opinion on In Rainbows, Radiohead's possibly free, were it not for the guilt, new album. BlackPlastic says "Hell, do what you want, you always do anyway!" but politely reminds you of all the drunken arguments you've had that revolved around the fact that if you could by DRM free downloads straight from the artist you'd at least give them a a bit of money.
Anyway. The cool kids are still wigging out to Thom Yorke's solo effort 'The Eraser' (we mean the extremely awesome song more than the good album) and what would you know, XXXChange, of Spank Rock fame (what do you mean, who?) turns out a mix of Yorke's most beautifully paranoid effort in years. This is on Panda Toes, although Discobelle may have had it first. A commenter on Discobelle likens this to the DFA and they are bang right. Somehow XXXChange has stopped thinking about fine ass for a minute and turned in an understated cut (not that BlackPlastic doesn't love the sick bass on 'Backyard Betty') with some very nice drums. Imagine 'Eraser' meets the DFA mix of Goldfrapp's 'Slide In' and you are half-way there.
Word is there is no release. Grab it whilst it's there. Yes, BlackPlastic knows storage is expensive. This comes with a 'worth 6mb or more' guarantee.
Album Review: Eskimo Volume V - Selected & Mixed by The Glimmers
Anyone familiar with anything from Eskimo or The Glimmers will know that a straight up mix CD is the last thing you should ever expect, with the compilations reflecting less the DJ mixes that surround them in the CD rack of your local megastore and more a trip into the rabbit whole of an obscure flea-pit jukebox. Kicking off with the absolutely-classic-and-virtually-universally-liked 'Loaded' by Primal Scream (one of the only tracks many a listener is likely to know) Volume V instantly shows it colours as a journey through percussion with the bongo-infected rhythm smoothly swallowed up by The Glimmers' own dub of Shirley Bassey's 'Slave To The Rhythm'. It is a testament to The Glimmers' production abilities that when Bassey's ballsy vocals kick in she never sounds anything other than effortlessly cool.
Harvey's take on LCD Soundsystem's awesomely good 'All My Friends' could easily be accused of throwing the baby out with the bath water, maintaining nothing discernible from the original yet still conjuring a nice laid back jazzy groove before the percussive 'Bullish', by Herb Alpert, kicks in. 'Bullish' itself gives way to Mac Attack's hip-house on 'The Art Of Drums'.
The beauty of a good Glimmers mix is always the variety at play and the curveballs - demonstrated here by the complete left turn into the heavily Asian influenced (whisper it) Bhangra Dissidenten's 'Fata Morgana'. It should be irritating, yet somehow it comes off as infectious.
Virtually every track adds something to the mix but clear highlights come in the form of Runaway's Wurst Edit of 'I Don't Mind' by Eugene Record and, interestingly, The Glimmers own 'Kiss Me'. 'I Don't Mind' is a slinky disco-house number that builds to a climatic finale as soft acid lines path the way for a very disco vocal whilst 'Kiss Me', The Glimmers' first truly convincing artist track, is a simple yet effective acidic groover which builds over the course of five minutes into something that Eddie Van Halen would make if you let him loose on a 303. Patrick Coutin's 'J'Aime Regarder Les Filles' also deserves a mention for it's timeless feel together with the fact that it simply oozes film-noire cool. As Coutin shouts out 'J'aime! J'aime!' it is difficult not to imagine this soundtracking either Tarantino's or Soderbergh's next pic.
Eskimo Volume V is yet another classic Glimmers mix, quite possibly their best yet. Seek it out.