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Âme – Fabric 42 Review

Monday, September 8th, 2008 | Album Review | No Comments

Another month passes by and another Fabric CD arrives once again. Usually we bang on about how great the CD series has been recently, rattling on about the great DJs that have gone before. This month is no different. House duo of the moment Âme follow on from Luciano’s effort, bringing their Innervision’s sound to the hallowed CD series. The duo recently shot to stellar fame back in 2005 with their unexpected crossover anthem Rej, which opened the mainstream doors to the “German minimal” sound. Kristian Beyer and Frank Wiedermann have always maintained that they weren’t “minimal” and just in fact deep house heads. When you look at their pre Rej releases on Sonar Kollectiv you’ll see that they cover an assortment of house flavours which continues through on their own label Innervisions. They explore the deepest darkest depths of house right through to the funk fuelled and soulful. With their label mates and collaborators Dixon and Henrik Schwarz they have carved out a new niche which has seen a lot of the big players follow suit and allowed a whole new set of characters break into the fore. Even Laurent Garnier is getting involved.

On their Fabric release, they do as they do, and that’s play great house music. Âme say, “This is made for a club or at home. It’s a bit more electronic and experimental than some people may expect. People often try to make a stamp on us but this mix shows that our sound is different.” This certainly comes through on the opening half of the CD. Even Tuell’s Untitled B1 is a slow and sleepy track where it pulsates a weighty bass. It’s as if the CD is awaking from a deep and lengthy hibernation. From there it slowly transitions into the Wighnomy Brother’s remix of “That’s A Nice Way to Give Me Feedback”. Its locomotive come tribal rhythm and chant steam ahead into a melee of bongo percussion, adding ever more progression to the opening half of the mix.

The experimentation continues through Jens Zimmerman’s Modmodblubblub layered with spoken word poem Moondog Monologue. The style of the monologue and wind chimes from Modmodblubblub conjures up a Hitchcock-eque horror movie scene. It’s odd but it works well before letting the mix step up a gear into the wobbling basslines of Berlin Dub and the twisted acid lines of Armando’s Don’t Take It.

The mix moves along a theme of dubby house music with a questionable clichéd preachy American Poem and a very raw and tribal Six Ten by 76-79. All this culminates in to the latest Innervision’s release D.P.O.M.B from the big trio Schwarz, Âme and Dixon. Its swirling bassline and funk driven percussion transitions the mix from the dark dub grooves to the more soulful and funk fuelled house of Matthew Styles and the KB Project, before ending on a nice touch of classic 909 techno with LFO Vs Fuse.

A great journey through all the things good about house and techno, Fabric definitely continue to keep the quality high.

Buy Âme Fabric 42 on CD

Tracklisting
01. Linkwood – Hear The Sun
02. Even Tuell – Untitled B1
03. Minilogue & KAB – That’s A Nice Way To Give Me Feedback
[Wighnomy Brothers Quintenzirkel Remikks]
04. Jens Zimmerman – Moddodblubbblub
xx. Moondog – Moondog Monologue
05. Mixworks – Berlin Dub
06. Armando – Don’t Take It [Thomos Edit]
07. STL – Something Is Raw
08. Edward Ft. Justus– Raw Structure
xx. Those Guys Ft Ras Baraka – An American Poem
09. 76-79 – Six Ten
10. Henrik Schwartz/Âme/Dixon – D.P.O.M.B [Version 1]
11. Matthew Styles – We Said Nothing
12. KB Project – The Symphony
13. Gowentgone – M.A.M. (Marcel Dettmann Remix)
xx. Broken Compass – Australiapella 2
14. LFO vs Fuse – Loop [Fuse Mix] – Plus 8

Tags: Ame, Fabric, Fabric 42