Fabriclive.40 Mixed by Noisia (Album Review)
Posted by David | 
May 31, 2008 5:33 AM |
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It goes without saying that Fabric are experts at attracting the biggest and best names to craft excellent mixes for them, we need only look back a month to recall DJ Yoda's masterfully forged compilation of prime cuts for Fabriclive.39. This instalment was to be no different and originally fell at the feet of Parisian electro duo Justice, but after their effort was deemed unworthy, the baton was passed on to Dutch darkstep outfit Noisia, the sinister faces of drum & bass. They, of course, set to work in what I can only imagine to be some sort of poorly lit underground dungeon/studio and concocted a filthy mix comprising largely their own tunes but punctuated with some collaborations and breaks cuts from other notably twisted producers. The resultant spawn was dubbed Fabriclive.40, a devilishly infectious potion of aural corruption.
The Fabriclive mix series' basic premise is to allow a veritable cross section of DJ society the chance to create an album made up of songs they hold dear, songs that inspired, inspire or excite. No surprise then that DMC veteran DJ Craze built Fabriclive.38 on solid foundations of hip-hop, with sprinklings of dance and drum & bass thrown in for good measure.
From France via London, The Teenagers are a lazy-pop trio with a lethargic yet alluring approach to making music. Reality Check marks their LP debut as they continue to ride on the electro wave of 2007, most probably hoping to make the transition from Myspace poster boys to credible long-term outfit. They entered the conscious vein of gossip when the 'hip' kids and early adopters got their hands on their first single, 'Homecoming', early last year, a while before it was officially released on XL subsidiary Merok (home of Klaxons, Crystal Castles etc). Music blogs got the word out pretty quickly and their popularity grew exponentially, with their Myspace appearing everywhere from The Guardian to the video of one of Kate Nash's early tracks, 'Caroline's a Victim'. Countless remixes and a couple of sets at Reading and Leeds later and they've amassed a fairly substantial following; this release, I believe, will satisfy demand.
Magnetic Sideways Pull is the debut album from singer/songwriter/producer Drew Pilgram. I got my hands on a copy as I was walking down Oxford Street, London because someone (it could have been Drew herself) thrust it into my hands from behind. I'm not fond of acoustic rock or 'Alternative/Acoustic/Folk' as it is called on her 
Music doesn’t have a Best Before End Date. Hence and so forth it doesn’t matter that Useless Wooden Toys was released in 2005 and boxmusique is reviewing it in 2007. Jon Kennedy's third album is easy to listen to; there is no aggression, anywhere. The man himself, a drummer at heart, said that each track starts life as a beat, a simple drum beat that every other element is crafted around.
Hailing from Melbourne, Australia, The Seduction is the product of several other local metal dissolutions, with members from bands such as In Name and Blood and Pre-Teen Disco Diaries. Whilst clearly capable of making good music independent of each other, together they are an aural force to be reckoned with, pumping out the same aggressive strain of metal as their noted influences of Norma Jean, The Dillinger Escape Plan and The Chariot, amongst others.
The DJ Kicks series is now 12 years old and this particular mix; compiled by electro- multigenre (computer says I made that word up, whatever) geniuses Hot Chip is the 29th in said series. I’ll admit I have not yet savoured any of the other existing DJ Kicks mix CDs, this Hot Chip spliced edition is only playing right now because the orange case caught my eye in the record shop.
This album is a bridge, a bridge between the two more distinctive and obvious sides to music; the present and the future. Some of the longer serving, more hardcore fans complained that Battles sold out with Mirrored because it is much less progressive and abstract than the few, rare EPs they released during 2004 (consolidated by Warp and released February 2006). The tracks of EP C/B EP were too far into the future for the masses, too hard to relate to and/or enjoy.
Reuben are a bit of a conundrum, their music is nothing short of magnificent and yet they never seem to get any bigger. It’s hard to see why a band that has been making such catchy and beguiling rock music for the past 10 years has never really hit the ‘big time’, if you will. In Nothing We Trust is the Surrey trio’s third studio album, following their excellent debut effort, Racecar is Racecar Backwards and 2005’s equally lauded Very Fast Very Dangerous. It also marks the band’s move to Hideous Records, an independent label they created themselves in order to have more control over their future releases, adding another notable graduate to Xtra Mile’s ever growing list.