Martyn – Fabric 50 | Album Review
Tuesday, January 12th, 2010 | Album Review
This month’s latest fabric release is another milestone in their now long and successful career. The other month they were turning ten and this month they’re releasing their fiftieth compilation of the fabric series. And who have they bestowed this great honour of house and techno to? Martyn – a bloody drum n bass turned dub step DJ/producer that’s who. He has come to prominence over the last few years alighting dubstep circles with his well constructed deep productions, most notably his debut album Great Lengths being a lynchpin for 2009. So why have fabric handed over this landmark release to someone who sounds like they should clearly be on FabricLive? Well if you’ve heard Martyn DJ before then you will understand that no genre bounds him. His sets may have an urban feel with a focus on percussion and bass, yet they have this house and techno veneer of deepness and subtlety. It’s this cross pollination of sounds that has caught the eye of the fabric series.
When you look at tracklist for this release you can certainly see why, you’ve got everything that’s vibrant about the urban scene right now along with head nods to the techno, house, dub and dancehall scenes. But one thing that stands out from this genre crossing mix is that it’s not mixed one genre at a time, it’s literally a melting pot where styles intermingle as if they were one flowing style. Take for instance the carnival percussive nature of UK Funky (which in my opinion is African influenced house ala Africanism/DJ Gregory repackaged for the urban scene) from the likes of Maddslinky and Altered Natives, Martyn has that slid in right up against the rumbling dubby basslines of Zomby with such ease. He can then take that dub theme but switch it out to the restrained and hypnotic tumbling techno of Ben Klock’s mix of The Clock and DJ Bone’s We Control The Beat; before easing back into the more laidback dub rhythms like his fantastic remix of Detachment’s Circles and the floaty Brkln Clln from Joy Orbison. It’s done with great subtlety but a definite panache where the changes in rhythms and textures really grab your attention.
There’s even more attention grabbing contrast with the second half of the mix where Martyn accelerates and decelerates between techno and dub step, going from the rather loopy Ben Klock remix of Is This Insanity or Jan Driver’s Rat Altert to Actress’ deceptive Slow Jam or 2562’s Flashback. Mechanical beats, restrained beats, in your face saw tooth synths or deep washes of layers; they’re all disparate elements which come together to create this vibrant ride encompassing so many areas of dance music.
It’s such a testament to dance music that even in this day in age of atomic categorisation and sub-sub genres that above all else it’s just all about bringing good music together. Martyn hits the nail on the head here with his salute to beautiful music, go swap that unwanted Minstry CD you got for Christmas off you nan for this… Now!
Buy Martyn Fabric 50 from Amazon (CD
Tracklist:
01. Hudson Mohawke – Joy Fantastic Feat. Olivier Daysoul
02. Alec Wizz – Drummin’ (Louis Benedetti Drumminpella)
03. Nubian Mindz – Bossa Boogie
04. Maddslinky – Lost On Tenori Street
05. Altered Natives – Rass Out
06. Zomby – Little Miss Naughty
07. Uncle Bakongo – Afar
08. Zomby – Light Cycle
09. Deepgroove & Jamie Anderson – The Clock (Ben Klock’s Timepiece)
10. DJ Bone – We Control the Beat
11. Detachments – Circles (Martyn’s Round & Round Mix)
12. Joy Orbison – Brkln Clln
13. Cooly G – Feeling You
14. Martyn Feat dBridge – These Words (Roska’s Speechless Mix)
15. Kode9 – Oozi
16. Roska – Without It
17. Martyn – Friedrichstrasse
18. Levon Vincent – Air Raid
19. Martyn Feat Spaceape – Is This Insanity? (Ben Klock Mix)
20. Martyn – Seventy Four (Redshape Mix)
21. Actress – Slowjam
22. Zomby – Mercury’s Rainbow
23. 2562 – Flashback
24. Martyn – Vancouver
25. Jan Driver – Rat Alert
26. Dorian Concept – Trilingual Dance Sexperience
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