As the years roll by, birthdays become less about just presents and parties, and more about careful reflection on how we have grown since the birthday before. On every birthday a new year in your life begins, and you stand between what has gone before and what is to come in the future.
Of course, that’s not to say that we can’t still celebrate in style. Fabric Promotions is turning four this month, and it’s just the beginning for this innovative production team. Mal Chia and Kit Cheong, along with a dedicated team of electro music junkies, have built Fabric into a brand that is recognised as standing for quality, consistency and musical integrity.
Brought together by a raging passion for progressive house music, and with years of collective experience in the scene, the Fabric boys are masters in the art of debauchery and celebration. As James Holden remarked upon completion of his set in late 2003, “this is how clubbing should be!”
Fabric is responsible for putting on many of the most forward thinking music events and club nights on the Adelaide calendar. Focussing primarily on progressive and breaks, they began life as a weekly Saturday club night running out of the now defunct The Loft Nightclub in July 2001, before moving onto monthly special events in different venues around the CBD.
May 2002 saw Fabric find a new venue to call home, moving upstairs to Skylab top floor of Minke. This would prove to be a renaissance period in Adelaide progressive and breaks, with guaranteed high quality monthly events. However, all good things must come to an end, and in March 2004, Fabric opened a new chapter in their history, relocating to the über chic Garage, their monthly night still regularly drawing capacity crowds.
For the past three years, not a month has gone by without at least one Fabric event. Even when without a permanent venue, Fabric has branched out and has worked with many other clubs and promoters around Adelaide, including Traffic, Sugar, Mojo West, Soda Room, Stardust and Two Tribes.
When asked about how he thinks Fabric has changed since its inception, main man Mal Chia responded by saying, “musically, we’ve incorporated many other genres such as breaks and electro along with our staple diet of house and progressive that has been our foundation since day one.”
“Over the years, we have obviously been through a lot of venues, but with the dynamic nature of this industry, we have tried to make a concerted effort to refocus at a grassroots level, developing fresh local talent and easing up on the number of international and interstate guests” he went on.
On the subject of big name guests, there have been quite a few to say the least. Over the last four years, international artists to have graced the Fabric decks include James Holden, Chris Fortier, Gwill Morris (now a permanent member of the Fabric posse), Dave Seaman, Adam Freeland, BT, Hybrid, Lucien Foort, James Zabiela, DJ Hyper, Koma & Bones, PQM, Christopher Lawrence, Steve Gerrard and Misja Helsloot.
From around Australia, masters like Phil K, Kasey Taylor, Sean Quinn, Infusion, Nubreed, Luke Chable, Mark James, Ryan Papa, Jeff Drake, Chris Meehan and Gavin Martin have all played a part in building Fabric up into the empire that it is.
Locally, Fabric has played a big part in building the careers of some very fine Adelaidian talent. Head honcho Mal Chia was recently crowned Best Progressive DJ at the South Australian Dance Music Awards for the second year running. He has rocked clubs and festivals in the UK, Singapore, Canberra and Melbourne, and has played support sets for the likes of Sander Kleinenberg. Grand masters Phil T and Brendon have played a huge role in creating the Fabric sound, as have the loveable (read incorrigible) Andee Houey, prince of breaks Karl Griffin (K2), Nick T, DJ Lachy Pender, Steve Culgan and Fabric’s newest edition, S.Wicks.
Along the way, Fabric has also developed relationships with many other Adelaide promoters. Mal and Kit have worked closely with the now defunct Traffic to promote the Ministry of Sound Breaks, Our House and Renaissance parties, as well as with resident DJ Lachy Pender whose passion for breaks has led to his own promotional ventures as well as creative control of the breaks content of Fabric events.
Despite the innovative approach that Mal and Kit take towards their club nights, in many ways they are careful to ensure that some things will always remain the same. “With the amount of garbage you hear in clubs these days, our commitment to presenting nothing but quality electronic music has remained consistent. More importantly, we have, and will always be, about not taking ourselves too seriously and just going out and having fun.”
Looking to the future, the boys are in no way content to continue without some growth. Fabric has recently entered into a partnership with Brisbane-based Jencorp Agency, exposing up and coming local talent to the rest of Australia and the world. I asked Mal what he has in store for us over the next year. “We are continuing to develop various projects, including a specialist breaks and electro night that we are launching later this year as well as our monthly Fabric/Sorted nights, plus bringing over some particularly special guests like Hybrid towards the latter part of the year” he revealed.As for the next five years, the boys are unwilling to commit to anything too much. “We don’t plan that far ahead” said Mal, “but as long as we are having fun we will still be around. As for a guarantee of some sort, chances are we will probably be drunk somewhere…”
Chances are….
