textura

Albums
Vieo Abiungo
Ada
Alias
Anklebiter
Sigbjørn Apeland
Arandel
Black Eagle Child
The Caretaker
Collections Colonies Bees
Colour Kane
Displacer
DJ Phono
Every Silver Lining
Jefferson Friedman
Gus Gus
Robin Guthrie
Helvacioglu & Bandt
Robert Hood
Seth Horvitz
Human Greed
Richard A Ingram
Jóhann Jóhannsson
Marsen Jules
Loscil
Myrmyr
Teruyuki Nobuchika
Now Ensemble
Popol Vuh
Pursuit Grooves
Quasi Dub Development
Rant
Jannick Schou
John Tejada
Tobias.
Trickski
Turtleboy
Yamaoka
Winged Victory For Sullen

Compilations / Mixes
116 & Rising
Our Little Prayers
Craig Richards
Henry Saiz

EPs
Absent Without Leave
Abyss
Simon Bainton
BNJMN
Ceremony
Corrugated Tunnel
Dead Leaf Echo
Go Hiyama
Josco
M.A.D.A. & Plankton
Monseré and Youngs
Semtek
Sharma + Krause
Soundpool
Sparkhouse
Vahagn

DVD
Barbara Lüneburg

VA: Craig Richards Presents The Nothing Special
Fabric

Referring to a release as The Nothing Special would seem to be asking for trouble, but there is a reason why this 115th installment in the Fabric series is referred to as such. The name, it turns out, is given to the sets delivered in one of the three rooms at the Fabric home base overseen by long-time resident DJ and curator Craig Richards. Likening himself more a “chef, not a waiter,” Richards emphasizes unfamiliar and obscure choices in his mix selection, just as he does in the acts he invites to appear at Fabric's Saturday sets.

The mix's vibe is largely funky and house-flavoured, and the clubby cuts exude an underground and nightcentric, sometimes decadent spirit (e.g., Marcel Janovsky's “Vamos A Otro Piso”). A rollicking mid-‘90s cut from Two Lone Swordsmen, “Rico's Helly,” jumpstarts the mix with a jubilant, light-footed bounce that will carry on through much of the release. The mix then surreptitiously enters sensual deep house mode in pieces by Carl Finlow (“Reprise”) and Melchior Productions (“Come Closer (Dub)”) before getting funky with Gemini's “The Sound” and Housey Doingz' “Flying Saucers” and heavy with bass-thudding bangers such as G-Man's “El Jem” and Conscious Minds' ultra-deep “Expressions.” Joel Mull's “Leaving Ground” spritzes bubbly techno with dubby chords, while, sprinkled with acid, Loop Hotel's “Room 201” seduces with chugging house thrust. In addition, there's Latin-tinged house swing (L.I.E.S.'s “Comeback Dust”), lockstep machine-techno (Convextion's “Premiata”), slinky house (Neville Watson's remix of Semtek's “Lotos Eaters”), and iridescent future techno ($tinkworx's “Los Gatos Lloros”).

With twenty tracks jammed into a seventy-six-minute set, Richards' set is definitely a full-course meal. Though it's also no game-changer as far as mixes are concerned, it's satisfying enough and, at the very least, gives exposure to a relatively more left-of-center collection of tracks that do, in the final analysis, reward one's attention.

August 2011