Album Review: Beatdown - Various mixed by Scratch Perverts

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].

MP3: Fabric Mixes - Matt Walsh / SOLO

Ahead of their appearances at FabricLive on 3 July we've got a couple of mixes available for download from Matt Walsh (Bugged Out! / Turbo) and SOLO.

Matt Walsh's is a pretty progressive warm up set, keeping the bigger moments for the build at the end of the set. SOLO's mix is very eclectic in comparison, taking in samples from the Godfather, bootlegs of Layo & Bushwacka!'s 'Love Story' and James Brown throughout it's length.

Download Matt Walsh's Fabric Mix / Download SOLO's Fabric Mix (right click, save as).

Tracklists below.

Matt Walsh:

1. Remote - Public Service (Meanwhile)
2. Clouded Vision – Outside (Vox Accapella) (White)
3. Plein Soleil aka Chloe & Krikor - Casus Belli (Brontosaurus mix) (Kill The DJ)
4. Tucillo - Panorama (Kalabrese Mix) (Delusions of Grandeur‏)
5. Juan Maclean – Happy House (Audion Remix) (Dfa Records)
6. Abe Duque feat. Virginia - Following My Heart [DJ Hell Remix] (Process Recordings)
7. Monty Luke – Panik Attack (Mothership)
8. Daniel Steinberg - Cocolips (Heinrichs & Hirtenfellner Remix) (SUPDUB)
9. Tom Flynn - Zinga (UNO)
10. Julian Jewell - Marjo & Linda (Craft)
11. Noob – Da Brusse Test (White)
12. Alvaro - Ultimate Rise feat. Luxx (Seductive Remix) (Samsobeats)
13. Madkid – Bang Bang (Boka Records)
14. Deepgroove – Freya (White)
15. Okain, Thomas Muller - Somewhere Around Tristram (Bpitch Control)
16. Peaches – Lose You (Matt Walsh & Alex Jones Remix) (XL)

SOLO:

1. The Godfather Theme
2. Cypress Hill-"Hits from the Bong"
3. Mfdoom&Dangermouse-"Sofa King"
4. F.Rich,Prok&Fitch-"Naga"
5. Dj Chus,Niki B&Christian E-"Hossa"-C.Soul Rmx
6. DjGregory&GregorSalto-"Con Alegria"-SOLO Rmx
7. Gramophonedzie-"WHy Don't You"
8. James Brown-"Super Bad"
9. S.Samson-"Riverside"-Afrojack Rmx
10. SOLO-"Congaloid"
11. Bastian Schuster-"New Orleans"
12. Dj Jean,Asino-"The Bomb"
13. Afrojack&Diplo-"How I like it"-Kid Kaio/R.sinester Rmx
14. Dopamine-"Spunk"
15. SOLO-"Joga Bola"
16. Dennis / Dj Vasco 
17. Renaissance Man-"Spraycan"
18. Layo&Bushwacka-"Love Story"-SOLO Bootyleg
19. L.Charmes,Kid Kaio-"This sound is"
20. Maskio-"Human Jungle"-Santos Reedit
21. Flash 2.9"-Cdr
22. Tiga-"Shoes"- Noob Rmx
23. SOLO-"Rawmania"
24. Max Romeo-"Play with your pussy"

 BP x

Album Review: Fabric 47 - Various mixed by Jay Haze

Fabric 47 crashes your party like a much cooler than you stranger. It has seen things you haven't seen and has layers you failed to anticipate.

This is a mix that demonstrates a clear disregard for genre, style or pigeon-hole. Jay Haze has created a sound that manages to bring together disparate styles in a fashion that feels totally natural with none of the sense of forced fun of a consciously eclectic mix. Starting with the jazzy opener 'Awakening', from Haze himself, the listener is taken through Lil Dirty Ghetto Bastard's paranoid tech-blues record 'An Hour to Fly' and onto Mike Dunn AKA Mr 69's hip-house 'Phreaky Motherfucker' in quick succession and, at three tracks in, it's unquestionably the most exciting start for a Fabric album in recent memory.

Jay Haze is known as a DJ, label owner (TuningSpork, Contexterrior and Future Dub) and artist (as himself and under the Fuckpony moniker) and BlackPlastic has to admit that until now none of his work had particularly resonated. It can be troubling when a label owner and prolific artist makes a mix - there is a danger they will focus too much on their own work and labels, creating a mix without variety. No danger of that here however - Haze's own tracks are all dramatically different in themselves and there is plenty of work from others here. This is a mix not intent to stay still - taking in techno, house, hip-hop, dub, blues and jazz in a wholly modern and exciting way.

It's without doubt one of the most creative Fabric albums in ages, the slow burning dub, hip-hop and jazz moments providing real flow and being handled sympathetically. Catrat's reggae tinged 'Freedom', remixed by Haze, slots into the mix wonderfully despite a dramatically lower BPM count. Similarly, The Last Poet's 'When The Revolution Comes' provides an angry counterweight for the album, riding on top the clicks and bleeps of Pheek's 'Soundscape'. Closing on the emotional, jazzy hip-hop of the exclusive cut 'Something To Say' by Rockey puts a beautiful full stop on the set - an honest explanation of what it is to love music and what it does and means to people.

Fabric 47 is so fresh it inevitably makes the rest of your record collection feel a little stale.

Fabric 47 is released on July 13 in the UK and August 11 in the US.  You can subscribe to the Fabric CD series at the FabricFirst website. It is worth noting that Haze is donating the fee from this mix to a charity currently working in the Democratic Republic of Congo - Merlin Health Services.

BP x

Album Review: FabricLive 46 - Various mixed by LTJ Bukem

Some background info: it has been some time since BlackPlastic last enjoyed any drum 'n' bass. A long time in fact. After the popularity of the Movement scene and a period of stellar tracks and artists around 2002 nothing quite felt right.

There just didn't seem to be anything new. Sure, there will be those that disagree but the truth is: DnB died in 2004.

LTJ Bukem's FabricLive mix doesn't really do anything new. So, in principle at least, there is nothing to see here. But... Golly, it is hard to turn your back on this disc. Flowing in through your speakers like the one that got away FabricLive 46 isn't just good - it's wonderful and undeniable. It's a reminder of what was so interesting about drum 'n' bass in the first time.

FabricLive 46 is summer barbecues, beers in the garden, dancing in the sunshine, killing time in the park and staying up all night to watch the sunrise. Maybe it helps that BlackPlastic is reminded of empty summers as a student when hearing this style of music but there are some wonderful feelings in the first half of this mix.

The sound itself is what you would expect if you are familiar with Bukem's work. His trademark 'intelligent' sound is combined with the some slightly harder, rolling bass lines (on the Madcap mix of Villem's 'Inflated Tear' for example) and there has been a lovely, warm development into a slightly more liquid DnB sound.

Admittedly things tail off a little in the latter third before coming back again for a nice climax in the filtered 'So In Need' by Syncopix. The album isn't perfect by any stretch and it still fails to match the heights of the early Movement mix albums or the superb Soulful Behaviour mix from Defunct. One thing is for sure however - this is the best drum n bass mix Fabric have released in years... Bring on the summer.

FabricLive 46: LTJ Bukem is released to Fabric First members on 1 June and goes on general release on 15 June.  Subscribe to Fabric First at the Fabric London website.

BP x

MP3: Mix - David E. Sugar

Unfortunately BlackPlastic ran out of time to post this before the Kill 'Em All FabricLive night mentioned in a recent post but it's good enough that it seemed worth posting anyway...

David E. Sugar's mix of pop vocals and slightly dirty tech-house hooks have made his work one of the highlights of the two most recent Kitsuné Maison compilations and he performed a live set at FabricLive on Friday. As a sample of what you probably heard if you were there (or what you will hear if you get the chance to see him live) he has put together a mix of all his own tracks. The result sounds like what Calvin Harris probably thinks he sounds like in his head and it is rather enjoyable.

Tracklisting (all his own tracks, remember):

1. House Mate
2. Travel Light
3. Milan
4. Although you may Laugh
5. Part One
6. Math Rock
7. Party Killer (Provokes a remix)
8. I see love

Check it out (right click, save as).

BP x