Fabriclive: 43

Fabriclive: 43, shit I’m getting old, is the new release for the Fabriclive mix series. This one is mixed by none other than the guys who are behind Get Familiar, a night in the famous Fabric nightclub, hosted by Dj’s Sinden and Switch. It’s a well selected mash up of most of the big music sounds at the moment. Basically it's just a cd of their night. I’ve got mixed feelings on this mix. At the same time it’s got killer songs from the likes of Joker, Yo! Majesty and Buraka Som Sistema (who I’ve already praised in an earlier blog) it’s also starts off with the cheesiest song which made me cringe and so many tracks that just don’t really inspire me, which is disappointing cause I love some of Sinden’s own songs. All in all this is a mix for those that want to hear some new artists from all sides.
It’s not a bad mix, once you get into the middle I found myself enjoying it immensely. The artwork is, as usual impressive, with a new style again (leaving the bizarre ‘egg with a switch’ cover that Freq Nasty got.) All in all, if you like mad good fun mix albums this is your cd (mp3 collection as it is these days). This album is not for the most serious minded listener and is certainly not something to chill out and get contemplative with. This is definitely a mix that requires a little research before cash is transferred for it. Look up the acts listed and see if you like them, then if you like some, you’ll at least dig most and understand the others.

Sinden is on
http://www.myspace.com/graemesinden


Switch is on
http://www.myspace.com/switchandsolidgroove

Music gets smaller the bigger it gets.

It’s true, the more music you listen to, the less music you hear. Think about it, I remember when I used to have 4 bands I liked, and a new one would crop up every couple of months or so. It was lovely and relaxed and I’d listen to anything. I had no idea that I was being stereotypical and obvious, for me music was just something I listened to. And it didn’t really matter that I was listening to the ‘new’ hip hop scene or the latest britrock Band (some band called Oasis or something), I’d just put it on and do whatever else I was doing. But as I’ve grown older my music taste has change, but not just that, the way I listen to and appreciate music has changed too. There are not many twenty-somethings you listen to the same music they did when they were teenagers, sure they still have the Korn/Eminem album on their ipod (mainly cause they’ve just gone copy/paste to their whole library than any conscious reason.) but most I feel, have changed their perceptions of these bands. They listen to them because they loved them when they were a kid. If the same bands released those albums now, I’d not touch them with a barge pole.

So what do I mean by the title, well now I listen to electronic music. And I’m a big music nerd in that sense, I love reading all the music magazines and finding out about the latest genres/artists that are breaking through. But that’s just it. Despite being quite into the whole scene, I have come to realise that the whole music industry is like an iceberg, you all know the metaphor I’m looking for. You start at the top, with just a few genres and artists, say Dance, Hiphop, Pop (or whatever you’re into) then you go a little deeper. Ooh Dance is Techno, House and Trance. Okay. Then deeper. Okay Techno is minmal, hard, etc. and deeper. Oh look and offshoot. Drum & Bass. Okay. Another off-shoot, Breaks, and again! Dubstep. Before you know it you’re dividing you’re music collection along the lines of some algorithmic table. Okay that’s deep-tech-house, that’s tech-house-breaks, that’s minmal-techbreaks-house-thrashcore-opera-classical-tribal-step. The list goes on and on. And pretty soon you’re classifying yourself as A Drum & Bass fan and detesting the Trance tits and the house heads. So you don’t listen to trance, or house, or techno, or minmal-techbreaks-house-thrashcore-opera-classical-tribal-step. You see what I’m getting at? I listen to less genres of music now than I do or would have done when I was a kid. So I listen to less music, though more of it.

Maybe this all makes sense, maybe I should have stopped at the last one. I hope some of you read this go, “oh yeah, he’s kind of got a point” and do nothing about it. Cause I’m nt saying it’s a bad thing. This is just as we say in the lab, and observation based on in-the-field analysis. Or life. In-the-field analysis sounds better.

Stanton Warriors – Sessions Vol. 3

Stanton Warriors – Sessions Vol. 3
Another great Sessions volume for the Warriors. This Mix just does it for me. Very few mixes make pay attention the whole way through, and I’m glad to say this broke the rule. Reading the track list it was a little confusing, Chemical Brothers, Boyz noise, Digitalism and Yo! Majesty are all cool acts in my book, but hardly what you’d call breaks, even if they are remixes. But these guys pull it off, hats off to them. I was on the train going to work nodding my head and moving my shoulders to the music. Not exactly the sanest thing I do, especially on a Bombay train, people must have thought I was possessed by a demon, or worse on drugs! This is surely the most progressive sound in the breaks scene at the moment, it’s loud it’s bassy, it’s entertaining.
Strange story for me; the last song Saturate (the mix version), I played it just after the attacks in Bombay this year and it was like the most perfect song for the occasion I went away and made a video of it. In actual fact, since being here Saturate is still my fav song to listen to India, it seems to capture it perfectly.

As Heineken say

MUST.HAVE.MUSIC

Buraka Som Sistema

Buraka Som Sistema - Black Diamond

What can I say, what a cool album. Coming from Lisbon’s underground Kuduro scene, which is basically "house music with programming inspired by traditional carnival music from the Caribbean and Angola" You know the sound, MIA is a big fan of this music and has recorded with them (she even features on the album) in Angola. She has stated that "It initially came from kids not having anything to make music on other than cellphones, using samples they'd get from their PCs and mobiles' sound buttons. It's a rave-y, beat oriented sound. Now that it's growing, they've got proper PCs to make music on.". Luanda Lisboa, their opening track throws you into what you can visualise as a mad and completely entertaining live experience. That’s all I’m saying of the tracks, just listen for yourselves. Fans of loud and unashamedly mad music will love this. I somehow doubt this will be on Ricardo Villalobos’ next mix.

www.myspace.com/burakasomsistema