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Album Reviews
Album Review: Various Artists – Fabric Presents Elevator Music: Volume 1 (Fabric Records)
By Paul Vig | Published on Wednesday 13 January 2010
This compilation is described as “140bpm bass music”, so what it’s got to do with elevators, I’m still not quite sure. Doing the ‘140 beats per minute’ thing has always been experimental – many artists from varying backgrounds meddle with the niche, but with altering degrees of success. Here, superclub Fabric have roped in some big names for this morph of a genre – and have done a pretty good job, with a diverse range of influences present, behind the strains of breakbeat, 2-step, house and dubstep.
From the calypso tinges of XXXY, to bashment with Doc Daneeka, it starts well. The highlights are Hackman’s ‘Pistol In Your Pocket’, a real winner with its house-based Italo piano and solid beats,
Skinnz’s ‘Ukraine’, which uses techno as the influence in an adept fashion, and Mosca’s ‘Gold Bricks’, which eloquently goes for the 2-step approach. Lower points are ‘Bad Girls’ by Untold, which is overly mechanoid and comes over a bit brash with its warped b-line, and ‘Elixir’ by Vista, which is just about average techno.
All in all, not amazing, but it’s solid enough to keep you involved, and it will be interesting to see what 2010 holds for the artists featured in this project and this so-called new genre. PV
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