BnB Review: fabriclive 59 – Four Tet

Written by Manu Ekanayake

2-step -

Another firing mix from the fabriclive series, this time from the masterful and varied Four Tet. Techno, electronica, garage (UK and future) and some of his own best tunes yet. A classic waiting to happen…

Who says fabric and garage don’t mix? Not anyone who’s been there recently, because Fridays have seen some serious future garage tunes dropped in the mix, with even a few nods to the old school hypes out there – and that’s exactly the kind of thing Four Tet’s bringing to this mix. There’s his own remix of Crazy Bald Head’s First Born, a long lost 2-step number that no one else would have known about, let alone slipped into the mix. Or if you want the real deal, check out Pulse X, a classic grime instrumental by Music Mob (aka Youngstar) that’s got the deepest, darkest bassline going – never let anyone tell you grime is only about the MCs.

But this being a Four Tet mix, you know he’ s never going to stick to any one genre. So you’ll find the dub of Sais by Floating Points (operatic in scale) nestling close to old school Caribou tune Webers (again a minimal garage number) and then things are broken up with Four Tet’s own Fabric, which is made up of recordings made while wondering around the club itself. It sounds a bit weird, granted, but it works to break things up a little.

After that things get a bit faster, with tracks like Angie’s Fucked by C++ combining glitchy fx and throbbing bass to sick effect, which is more than followed up by Burial’s absolutely pounding Street Halo. Proper ‘watch your windows’ basslines here, just so you know. And there’s a couple of other killers here; Ricardo Villalobos’ Sieso and Four Tet’s own new track Pyramid, which is the most jacking house track we’ve heard in ages – amazing.

Finally special mention must be made of Locked, another new Four Tet tune from his Text imprint. It’s yet another mix-up affair, this time with heavy dubstep basslines combined with the most melodic strings and synths around. And as such, it’s the perfect ending to a mix that’s as original as it is enjoyable. It's always nice when our high expectations are justified...