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15 Hours of Party Perfection – Fabric 10th Birthday Review

Tuesday, October 27th, 2009 | Event Reviews

Pictures by Nick Ensing and Nik Torrens from Resident Advisor

The last 10th birthday I attended was about nineteen odd years ago on a Saturday afternoon and it consisted of a bouncy castle, some jelly and ice cream along with a goody bag full of sweets and a slice of cake. Fabric’s 10th birthday however was to say the least a little different. I didn’t really see any jelly and ice cream on offer, although there were bananas and a BBQ for nutritional support. It was lacking a bouncy castle, although you could say the mechanical rodeo bull was a grown up version of it. And the only goody bag you were likely to see would have been the inside of a body bag due to excessive celebration. But what fabric lacked in traditional 10th birthday festivities they totally made up for with their 30 hour marathon and the most impeccable line-up you would ever lay eyes on. The hardest decision was not whether to go but when to go. The guarded set times along with the massive array of talent that were going to play meant you either stayed for the two whole days to catch everyone or picked your time wisely to catch as much as possible.

Despite all the birthday options going off across the capital I ended up plumping for the quite civilised (really? do civilised people do this?) Sunday morning arrival with a quiet Saturday night under my belt. The first taste of fabric came thundering through the floorboards of Smiths, the bar next door to fabric. Popping in to start the day with a fry up, a quick glance across the bar saw a mix of glee and confusion on the faces of the other diners as their plates vibrated across the table to the bass and beats of room 1 pounding through the floor. Quite a surreal experience, especially for those just there for their Sunday paper read and breakfast.

As surreal experiences go that was just the first for the day. On entering the club it was odd to see club casualties crashing out with massive smiles on their faces ready to be replaced by fresh faced party revellers. It was going to be interesting to see how well the sober new comers would mix with the inebriated after partiers, like a designated driver with completely trollied passengers scenario. But it seems that didn’t matter at all, after an hour of hearing those hip shaking grooves it wasn’t important whether you could barely speak or hold a debate on socioeconomic policy. Everyone was happy and on the same wavelength, the room was at a perfect capacity with plenty of atmosphere yet plenty of room to move but most importantly, everyone was just fully involved to party.

Arriving after breakfast and a Bloody Mary I manage to catch the closing parts of Ricardo Villalobos’ first set. He’s already kicking out some crisp beats tinged in an aura of South America as he does so well. It’s Sunday afternoon and it’s a nice day outside, but in Room 1 its dark and the music is gripping the mixed crowd, losing themselves to the syncopated sounds from Fizheur Zieheuer. Doc Martin has the difficult job of following on from Ricardo with a crowd that’s in progress of being replenished. But he holds his own using his extensive repertoire of experience that very few DJs have. He leaves his mark by ingraining, actually probably more imprinting, Afefe Iku’s Mirror Dance on everyone’s memory.

Midway through Doc Martin’s set we’re drawn to Room 3 for Ricardo’s second and eclectic set. There’s just enough time to catch Pete Herbet finishing on the acid house classic Voodoo Ray – another moment of the day as a packed Room 3 pogo to the wailing vocals and hollow riff anticipating the second helping Villalobos. Ricardo jumps on and swan dives into a deep swirling malaise of ambient sounds and luscious melodies. A packed Room 3 with broken air con isn’t quite sure what to do. He pulls out some really interesting sounds, but the temporary Fabric sauna and being in that “I’ve just woken up to come clubbing and really need something a bit more upbeat” vibe means Room 1 reels us back in once more.

Coming back down the often forgotten back stair well from Room 3 we stumble upon the adventure playground that has be erected in Room 2. The lights are up, the room looks a thousand times smaller and there is a mechanical Rodeo Bull on what used to be the dancefloor?!? What used to be the site of heavy weight techno is a playful den of Mario Kart, sofas and giant Operation; a welcome rest bite to the continuing rigours of Room 1.

Making our way back to Room 1, Doc Martin has finished up, but Terry Francis is well into carving up the room with his sharp tech house sounds. Terry Francis’ set is so good in fact that he ends up turning what began as a civilised, slightly drunken Sunday outing into a full on debaucherous all day and night session. Francis carries on the continuing build that Doc Martin left with, stepping up another gear pushing the crowd further. And that’s pretty much how the rest of the night panned out. Every DJ that came on stepped up the game and basically had me and most of the crowd glued to Room 1’s dancefloor for the rest of the evening.

Ivan Smagghe switches with Terry Francis to raise the bar even further. He invigorates the room by playing heavy tribal rhythms keeping everyone on an excitable edge. The second part of his set sends the crowd over the brink with some twisted electronic beeps and bleeps. Hearing the dulcet German mutterings on Pandullo Vs Und’s remix of I-Robots Frau was a particularly haunting moment in the darkened depths of Room 1. Smagghe taps out to let Steve Bug take control. Running up to the eight hour mark for me, things start to get a little murky in the detail. What I can tell you is that Bug kept the energy following on from Smagghe’s brilliant set, dropping a ton of house music full of groove and with plenty of colourful riffs and melodies.

Daniel Bell who followed Bug with a live set followed a different tact, yet he still kept energy levels high. Bell laid down plenty of grooves but opted for a more stripped down sound with slowly mutating hypnotic loops to engage the crowd. It got the crowd locked in and worked well as a conduit between Bug and Villalobos who was to follow on.

By this point the club seems to be bouncing more than ever. Room 1 has filled up with a few more bodies and the second wind, potentially third or fourth for some, has kicked in ready for Ricardo Villalobos’ third return to the decks. There’s instant gratification when he jumps on as the Villalobos fanatics’ crowd round the caged DJ booth of Room 1. But it’s easy to see why, this man just sounds like no other when he DJs; his sets sound so fluid, effortlessly breezing through tempo changes, different rhythms and influences. And it’s all executed with an air of nonchalance, with minor mistakes often dropping left right and centre, yet it all adds to the character of Villalobos whilst many other DJs sound so clinical and detached through their digital interfaces.

I would love to tell you exactly how his set panned out, but despite the fact of things being hazy at the time, more often than not I’m never really sure what he’s playing or doing. Either he’s kicking out some fresh cut or remix that no one else has or he’s dug up some decade old house track that sounds so current that you’re thrown off the ball trying to think which producer from the past year could have made it. But you can be assured this fabric birthday set had all of the Villalobos hallmarks. 909 house grooves would bounce and then shatter into broken beat rhythms, dark sinister riffs would slide in over bright joyful melodies, Jazz sounds would happily sit alongside South American influences and of course there is the trademark knocking of the record needle along with a dropping of a massive house classic (Basement Jaxx’s Fly Life is the current in vogue classic). Hardly anyone can match what Villalobos can do, but a man who will definitely keep pace is Craig Richards. When he joins Villalobos for their back to back set, the room practically convulses from audio overdose. Their combined musical knowledge and experience of working a crowd results in one of those sets that will go down in club land legend and a fitting way, for me at least, to end a fifteen hour birthday celebration.

A party as huge and complex as this had so many points where it could have fallen down, with many people feeling apprehensive about those minor gripes that often tend to taint the other big fabric nights. But for this birthday weekend fabric got it completely spot on. The music was amazing, the club was on fine form especially with the lighting adding that little extra to the atmosphere; the staff were also great, but most importantly the crowd and atmosphere were perfect – plenty of room with great people wanting to have an incredible time. With everything working in harmony it created one of the most memorable fabric nights (day?, weekend?) ever. I hope I’m still clubbing when the 20th Birthday rolls around.

Tags: Afefe Iku, Basement Jaxx, Craig Richards, Daniel Bell, Doc Martin, Fabric, I-Robots, ivan smagghe, Mechanical Rodeo Bull, Pete Herbert, Randullo Vs Und, Ricardo Villalobos, Smiths, Steve Bug, Terry Francis, Voodoo Ray

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