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
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