(Fabric/Inertia)

One of the most important aspects of a mix CD is its ability to reproduce the sensation of a live DJ set.  Fabric 27 from Matthew Dear as Audion certainly manages to do that, its 67 and a half minutes capturing the immediacy of a live DJ set (albeit without the technical issues from when I saw Matthew Dear live).  Indeed, at times the tactility and warmth of the music is enough to make it feel like it is being produced right in front of me, even if I happen to be sitting on a bus on the way to work.

Audion is one of a number of aliases that Matthew Dear has recorded and DJed under, in addition to Jabberjaw and False.  This particular pseudonym came from a need Matthew Dear was finding during live shows to “play harder and more aggressive music.”  Less minimalist and subtle than the style he is known for when using his birth name, this compilation shows off this more in your face side to his DJing.

Cutting and splicing sections from twenty-five different tracks, including a number of his own Audion productions, Matthew Dear has attempted to “reflect the diversity of a Saturday night at Fabric.”  He tried “to capture the different corridors a listener can take… sometimes you will hear harder music in one room and walk across the club to another room for deeper, more twisted music.”

Starting with the ugly, distorted voice of Off First, the mix is continually shifting in sound.  From the quirky echoing noises of Lee Curtiss’s Ketamine Christmas to the squelches and acid effects of Ruede Hagelstein’s Keep Us Away to the upbeat melodies of Claude Vonstroke’s Deep Throat, the mix is packed with detail and full of the unexpected.  Starting with a pair of superb Audion tracks (Just A Man and Nothing), the mix begins to gradually increase in intensity towards the end.  Ricardo Villalobos’s distinctively quirky Chromosul is another track that stands out, before the mix comes to a close, enveloping me in the warmth of Off Third.

The more I listen to Fabric 27, the more I love it.  The compilation possesses a depth to it that you rarely come across, meaning that far from tiring of it after repeat listens, I keep on discovering something new within the addictive melodies and beats.  An exemplary mix CD, I already know this will be one of my favourite albums of the year.