Audion: Fabric 27
Fabric

Perhaps one shouldn't read too much into the 'Matthew Dear as Audion' detail—one might have expected the Fabric mix to be credited to Audion only in light of the attention Dear justly received for last year's Suckfish—but the detail proves significant, even if only moderately so. Dear's mix, you see, isn't the bruising, acidic hellraiser one might have anticipated from the creator of scalding burners like “Kisses” and “The Pong.” Instead, much of the 68-minute mix is tastefully restrained and therefore more in keeping with the stylish music Dear produces under his given name or, even more accurately, his Minus minimal alias False. But don't get the wrong impression: Dear's grooving mix is anything but faded when it plows through sleek cuts by Mikael Stavöstrand (“Mosquito Morph,” “Body Control,” “Adjunct”) Robag Wruhme (“Worktabular”), and Ricardo Villalobos (“Chromosul”). Groove it does, however, and mightily, especially when dirty tracks like Ruede Hagelstein's writhing grinder “Keep Us Away” and Argy's bass-driven rocker “Rhino in a Glass Shop” drop. Sweetening the deal, Dear unifies the set by scattering a handful of Audion tracks throughout, with organ burble in “Just A Man/Nothing” nicely greasing the flow halfway through.

May 2006