I have to be upfront in saying that drum’n'bass hasn’t been a focus of my attention over the last decade. I kind of lost momentum in the late 90s when a great deal of it became overly baroque – too many pretty jazzy chords and twinkling, light-weight skitter rhythms. So I’m a little surprised this one was put into my review pile – it’s probably due to my affection for the odd previous installment of the FabricLive series, but then who hasn’t – it’s always been a series with high quality control, no matter the genre being explored. So I can’t speak from a position of authority on the subject, but I can tell you what I think…
If the work of Noisia is any indication, then a decade further underground has definitely been worthwhile for drum’n'bass. The first half of this mix is incredibly meaty – sonically full and driving, aggressive to a degree, but not alienatingly so. The mixing is sharp and choppy – 29 tracks in just over an hour – yet the seams are mostly invisible as the tracks flow into each other. It’s obvious that dubstep has had an influence, nicely returning the favours of all that d’n'b fed into it in the first place. Wobbly basslines are in effect and, for a few tracks about a quarter of the way in – ‘Claret’s March’ by Spor and Noisia’s own ‘Head Knot (Dub)’ and ‘The Tide’ – proceedings do drop to a half-step. Sabre adds some synth-spookiness in ‘Global (Dub)’ leading into a few tracks of atmospheric beat madness. Then, right on half way, there’s an extended breakdown before the rhythm kicks back in, slowed back to the mid-130bpms range and a train of very up electro and breaks take over for a while. Highlights here include Spor’s ‘Mordez Moi’ with it’s classic early 80s on steroids sounds and Noisia’s own very dry glitch workout in ‘Brown Time’. A Noisia remix of Moby’s ‘Alice’ gets the tempo back into traditional d’n'b territory until the very final track, an almost ambient dubstep piece titled ‘Square Feet’, again by Noisia.
What is probably most notable is the amount of Noisia’s own production work on the disc, with over half the tracks either collaborations, remixes or straight up productions by the Dutch trio. The quality of their work is consistently high, no matter which mutation of the style(s) they tackle. The overall mix has variety across it’s hour so that it works even in the loungeroom or car without the benefit of sub-bins. So while I still can’t claim anything but a passing knowledge of d’n'b, I can definitely claim to have enjoyed this collection throughly.
Adrian Elmer
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