Ivan Smagghe: Fabric 23
Fabric
The Fabric juggernaut rolls on with its 23rd installment, or perhaps I should say steamrolls on, given the relentless force with which Parisian DJ Ivan Smagghe (one-half of electro-house duo Black Strobe) moves this 73-minute mix along. The set list alone induces salivation: two Spectral cuts by Audion (Matthew Dear), Kompakt samplings from Michael Mayer and DJ Koze, and even a Booka Shade remix by Areal star Ada, plus nine others. While heavy analog-electro dominates, Smagghe makes room for house and techno too, and even includes a brief smattering of snarling guitar aggro (The Kills' “No Wow” featuring Alison Mosshart's scowling vocal).
Funked-up voice slices in Aswefall's “Ride (Der Schmeisser Lovely Splinter Remix)” open the mix and then segue into dive-bombing acid (Audion's “Your Place or Mine”) and android electro (I-Robots' “Frau (Pandullo Vs Und)”). Ada next drags “Tour de France” beats through a skuzzy filter in “Vertigo Vs Cha!” before the cruising throb of Iñaqui Marin's “You Can't Scape” takes over, joined by gravelly vocals (that veritably ooze stalker sleaze) and the hiccupping stomp of Mayer's “Heiden.” In short order, DJ Koze appears with the bruising entrancer “The Geklöppel Continues” followed by [T]ékël's rumbling “Snake Tartare,” Fabrizio Mammarella's jacking “Tear Up,” and Sergej Auto's bleeping “Carnage, Ok!” before Joakim's Italo overhaul of Poni Hoax's “Budapest” ends the set on a bright if abrupt note. Though it seems only months ago that Akufen's Fabric outing was holding my turntable hostage, there have been, in fact, six releases in the series since Marc Leclair's appeared in July 2004. While such amazing productivity might suggest a dilution in quality, you'll hear little evidence of that on Smagghe's vigorous outing.September 2005