Fabric 44/45/46
Fabric's catalogue of monthly releases continues to expand as we enter spring, with three discs of discerning house heads' damn near perfection.
The name adorning this month's release - Fabric44: Detroit (out now) - is the titular city's underground don Omar S, who explains his reasons for featuring nobody else's music but his own on the mix:
"My booking agent and I were talking about doing a mix for fabric over the last year, and for me, over the last year I haven't really been feeling anybody's music, there's been no music that I feel. I'd rather do a mix for Fabric that's all my own stuff, because there are still a lot of people out there that don't know about FXHE records or Omar-S or Oasis.
"I did a few different versions, remixes, of a few of the tracks on the CD, and there are about four tracks on there that haven't been released yet. I know a lot of new people will listen to it, so of course I put my important songs on there, but I wanted to make it varied and mix it the right way.
"That's why I mixed a lot of the songs a different way; but with the famous songs, I didn't touch those because I want the new people to hear the original. I don't need other people's music; I got over 100 songs released".
April sees A-Trak (Alain Macklovitch) take the baton for Fabric45, a whopping 25-track mix that includes classics such as DJ Sneak's You Can't Hide From Your Bud and future hits from the likes of Alex Gopher and Boyz Noize. He says:
"I mixed in some old, classic house records with some newer funk-loop house records that reference the old house records, mixed with some kooky weird Baltimore-ish club edits, mixed with some techno stuff, some slow disco and my own productions. If you see it on paper it looks like a whole mish-mash but the way I put together the mix, it somehow comes together and makes sense.
"I just looked at it really as a DJ mix: the way that I bring the songs in and the way that I try to put my stamp on it, rocking doubles on some of the records and doing scratch routines and adding layers on top of my edits of the songs, that's what defines its identity. I wanted to let the mix itself do the talking".
Into May, and one of this writer's favourite producers brings the quirkiness for Fabric46. San Francisco's Claude VonStroke?- aka Barclay Crenshaw, the main head behind Dirtybird Records - has?produced some outstanding compilations (At The Controls / Heidi's Radio One show) as well his own studio album and singles.
Fabric46 is no different, with his trademark sounds ranging from barking mad to deep and driving evident throughout. Tracks from Detroit Grand Puhbas (remember Sandwiches?) and James Braun sit alongside VonStroke's own offerings for some quality music from outside the box.
At £10 a pop, you could do far worse things with your hard earned than getting your monthly house fix courtesy of the Fabric series.
