Idolator

DJ-mix series come and go, but the paired Fabric and FabricLive mixes are closing in on 90 CDs altogether. To see how they stack up as a whole, I’m reviewing them in numerical order, and very loosely: in many cases I will only have played the mixes only two or three times.

FabricLive 05: Howie B (August 2002)
U2 collaborator and fuzzy ambient wonk Howie B always seemed a little too cutesy for me, and while this collection doesn’t sink completely into that realm, it skirts it, especially early on: Dope Smugglaz’s “The Word (PMT Mix)” features some of the cheesiest vocal time-stretching I’ve ever encountered, as well as background repetitions of “the word” (from Frankie Valli’s “Grease”) that are like an E trip gone stupid and depressing. A lot of this is like that, actually. Blame’s “Music Takes You” is by grace of the Blim’s remix moved from proto-jungle classic to funky-breaks state-of-the-art, the menace and glee frozen in place; Bombing F’s “Donuts and Coffee” rides its funk-guitar loop into the ground. Only his own remix of Garbage’s “Cherry Lips”—and on the Prince Far I dub he closes out on, a show of (sorry) roots—has much in the way of head-turning ability.