Fabric/Fabriclive mix cd series S/D

Actually Villalobos would've been a classic if it wasn't for the 12 minute OMG Fabric at 10 AM bore-a-thons towards the end.

xp yeah I dug out the Akufen mix again recently - great stuff. I think I like it more now than I did at the time of first release (when I was probably hoping it would be all My Way style "flipping the radio dial" blipvert house, although there is more of that on there than I remembered!)

RV mix is the exception to the rule that the only good Fabric/Fabriclive mixes are the ones with PRIME NUMBERS [/sweeping generalisation] ;)

Thread kind of inspired by the EDM poll nominations and the way they've been taking me deeper into 2000s house & techno than before (though it was a path I'd already started a little way down).

These are the only ones in the series I own so far -
Fabriclive 54 - David Rodigan
fabric 55 - Shackleton
Fabriclive 56 - Pearson Sound/Ramadanman
fabric 63 - Levon Vincent
& I've also given quite a few listens to friends' copies of fabric 50 - Martyn and Fabriclive 57 - Jackmaster.

From these, the Shackleton one is an all-time fave and the Levon Vincent CD is something that I'm listening to over and over at the moment. The only one I'd maybe give a 'destroy' rating to is the Jackmaster, which is a shame because Jack usually is one of my favorite DJs (think this was discussed in another thread actually).
Browsing through the list inside the Levon case, there's quite a lot of tasty-looking earlier entries, but I'm looking for some expert opinion before I decide what to go for next.
(Apologies if this has already been covered - did a quick search and it seemed to be threads on individual CDs but not the whole series).

Oops, seems there is a thread after all....
Ah well, revive!

Just listened to the Shackleton one for the first time yesterday! Exceptional quality, that one...

ah levon you're fucking spoiling us

shy fx & b traits - sorry, you fail

struggling to get into pinch

still enjoying four tet

oneman looks exciting, hopefully doesn't fuck it up

sorry kasra i skipped you because i saw too many clinical drum and bass names like "phizix", "hybris", "halogenix", "resources", "soundwaves", etc

would like to hear opinions on brodinski and drop the lime

Actually meant to bump this thread myself. Since these are dirt cheap all over london I've been meaning to stock up.

I guess right now I have:

Jackmaster
Shackleton
Villalobos
Omar-s
michael mayer has been ordered
james murphy/pat mahoney

While I intend to get the Four Tet at some point, I'm also debating akufen, ame, pearson sound and others I've seen used.

Ame's quite good, not a life changer. Listened to the Ellen Allien one again recently and that's held up surprisingly well.

Jacques Lu Cont's Fabriclive is ALL TIME imo.

but yeah, also get:

Ewan Pearson
Tyrant
Radio Slave
Metro Area
Swayzak

yeah, also curious about the early ones, which I've sort of not thought about. Craig Richards, for example? I would look out for Ewan, radio slave, and metro area (not to mention Martyn, Surgeon, Optimo, and Carl Craig), but preference is typically going to those I find for alarmingly cheap prices.

Been meaning to get the Metro Area one for ages, just ordered it from Amazon for £1 + p&p. Agree with Dwight that the Ellen Allien and Ewan Pearson ones are great.

Metro Area is great fun. My faves are Mayer, Optimo, Villalobos, Murphy/ Mahoney, Omar-S.

Looking forward to the Oneman mix. Tracklisting looks good (I do miss his epic dubstep / garage blends of yore however)

if you like deep house, the doc martin one is great

The Ewan Pearson Fabric mix is really drab compared to his Sci.Fi.Hi.Fi mix and pretty much ever other mix I've heard by him.

What's the mixing on the Doc Martin like? Practically every mix I've heard of his has been full of clangers.

o really? the mixings p good on the fabric i think

that Drop The Lime one is p naff, although not as bad as his actual productions these days

it has 'Rock Around The Clock' slapped in its middle and feels v forced in general

iirc Craig Richards' one was way more interesting than my idea of him as a DJ at least

I've never heard Craig Richards play anything other than clumpy tech-house and I'm kind of amazed anyone would actually think to check out his own mix.

The Doc Martin one is really nicely mixed IMO.

xpost: yeah, that was my attitude too, but I was just looking at the resident Advisor top mixes of the 00s poll and was kind of surprised to find that at like, 11 or so.

Re: Craig Richards. While he does play his fair bit if clumpy tech-house (lol, love that term). He does play a lot of other styles too and can pull out some great gems, it's pretty common for him to also play electro, italo or classic deep house. For example he put $tinkworx on his last mix, and I've heard him play things like love'n'music in Room 1. Now, if only he could learn to play these with interesting, dramatic mixes rather than smooth, souless blends - that is perhaps his most 'tech-house' trait.

Basically when I've been in Fabric and heard Craig Richards I've mainly been glad it's not Terry Francis playing the same record for 3 hours. ;)

I obviously love a bit of the old clumpy tech house, just looked for a recent mix and I'm currently rushing my tits of, in a manner of speaking, to this: http://soundcloud.com/r_co/craig-richards-kiss-presents

levon's is probably the best one ever

i found agoria's in the trunk of my car today, i think i threw it in there to sell it because i wasn't really feeling it when it came out ... but damn if isn't actually really, really good!

It's not light goth microhouse like you are loathe to listen to? :)
I don't know that I've listened to the Agoria fabric mix, but I enjoyed his At the Controls mix, although it was more of a 2 CD thematic affair.

I don't think, beyond a few token releases I've picked up, that I've really followed the fabric mixes in the last few years. I thought the Pinch one was very accessible, though, and the Surgeon one was good although fairly by the numbers and didn't deviate into the noisier/darker reaches he goes for.

I picked up a whole load of these at HMV Replay the other day - £2 each. So far I have Optimo, Sneak, Derrick Carter and Surgeon. Haven't had a chance to scratch the surface on them all though - which should I start with?

The Optimo one of those is the only one I know, but it's excellent.

yeah i gave that one a quick blitz on friday night before going out. it seemed to take a while to get going, but it was really well put together and mixed.

The Optimo and Surgeon are both really good. You'll probably find Carter and Sneak fairly interchangable - doing the high energy Chicago house thing they've always done. I find it a bit relentlessly and strangely joyless these days.

the agoria one is not gothy at all, it's kind of a jazzy detroit techno meets continental maximal house thing

DOG LATIN

i've bought more or less every fabric / fabric live mix, here are the ones i've kept

jams murphy, surgeon, optimo, rub n tug, levon vincent, luke slater, jay haze, bent, deadly avenger, death in vegas, swayzak, autonomic, spank rock, martyn, toddla t, metro area, john tejada, pearson sound, jackmaster, four tet, pinch, shackleton, ame, omar s, aim, dj spinbad, tyler stadius, jacques lu cont, carl craig, global communication, james lavelle, filthy dukes

oh and claude von stroke

i'm very excited for ONEMAN

that's already out and it's not very good

Still going through the blitz of fabric CDs I picked up a month or so ago. Actually, I'm listening to the radio slave one for the first time as I write. 5.5 tracks in it's pretty lifeless and dull in the same way pretty much all of RS' productions are, but that's perfect because I need music like this to write essays too, so it's serving well. I could also see this serving exceptionally well as inoffensive, dinner party background music.

I think I have the Ivan Smagghe one in the car

So I guess here's my (seemingly quite favourable) breakdown of what I have

Michael Mayer: ALL TIME CLASSIC, PERRRRRRRRRFECT!
Ricardo Villalobos: Exceptionally solid
Metro Area: Also very good. Very 'fun'
Omar-S.: Also very good.
Radio Slave: see above
Optimo: Still need to listen to it
James Murphy and Pat Mahoney: One of the most fun mixes I've heard. Luvv this.
Shackleton: Really amazing.
Pearson Sound: Very good, perhaps plays it too safe to be exceptional.
Jackmaster: Pretty good, I guess, but nothing all that special, really.
Four Tet: Great, loads of 'character'

Still would like, but the fact I haven't pounced on them might be telling:
Martyn, Surgeon, Instramental + D Bridge,

Wow, that radioslave mix actually really sucked. The fact that it just ham-fistedly faded out at the end, without any attempt to bring things down first or find closure is just injury + insult.

MARTYN is amazingly dope

i was so disappointed with radio slave! it's just shit boring tribal house. he could've just mixed the best 15-20 rekids tracks and been done with it! but i also note that his own dj mixes and the mixes he's made to promote rekids are in general quite underwhelming

another one i forgot that i would heartily recommend to dog latin would be the new digital soundboy soundsystem one

in particular i think DL would really enjoy that one

i do like the michael mayer one but i have no idea what happened to my copy! i have a bunch of random fabric mixes in storage that *aren't* on that list, maybe i'll dig some of them out ...

cheers - will def check some of those out, particularly DSB.

Listened to Sneak followed by Carter back to back while doing some weed clearance in the garden yesterday. Both were okay - the Sneak one maybe less interesting / more functional than Derrick Carter's mix, but I'm not sure either are 'my style of music'. Still, I guess a lot of these comps work as primers and insights into a particular style, and that's cool.

One of my alltime favourite Fabric ones goes back to its early days - the Radioactiveman mix is a lot of fun. Other than that I've got a handful - Global Communications, Swayzak, Michael Meyer etc... My one complaint with a lot of these is that they often play it very strait and safe - think this may be down to the "I am serious DJ, this big serious Fabric mix" factor. That said they don't all lack humour (Metro Area for example).

The Villalobos one is really good, and a good place to listen to a large chunk of his stuff, similar in that respect to the Omar-S one. Mayer is all time. I have a soft spot for the Glimmers one too, but then I like every mix of theirs I've heard.

I like the Carter one.

My one complaint with a lot of these is that they often play it very strait and safe - think this may be down to the "I am serious DJ, this big serious Fabric mix" factor.

The Ewan Pearson and Ame mixes both struck me as examples of this dynamic.

That reminds me, I forgot to include my summary of:

Ewan Pearson: good-ish. A little too 2007 minimal house. Too clean, and yes, too by the book. Sounds more like a theoretical ideal of a well made mix than something I`d return to over and over.

Pearson's Sci.Fi.Hi.Fi mix from 2005 is fantastic though. Played it in the car this weekend and the last 40 minutes are such a huge rush

Aw man, 'Broken Dream' by Da Fresh! That Summetime Cowboy remix! YESSS!

Yes part of the problem his Fabric mix had was coming off the back of that one.

Oh man, this Surgeon mix is just wonderful!