Simon Flower - "The Whisper Had It (Mark August Remix)" (Fabric 38)
It'll likely be hard for Fabric 38 to stand out. Techno workhorses M.A.N.D.Y. (Patrick Bodem and Philipp Jung) already have a catalog of long-players heavily skewed towards mixes – from Mixmag commissions to progress reports for their own label, Get Physical. Following a solid run of releases from Ellen Allien (34) to Ewan Pearson (35) to Ricardo Villalobos' labyrinthine hall of warped mirrors (36), Bodmer and Jung are coming online as Fabric is experiencing a bit of a peak. Considering the stakes, Steve Bug (Fabric 37) laid low, keeping to the shadows and half-lit corners.
Fabric 38 is functional. At 24 tracks, it dips rather than delves; its disparate sources can wind up seeming all chipped from the same mammoth block of chrome and titanium. Considering the immediate appeal of most Get Physical slices, this disc takes its time settling in. Through a fuzz of intercom mumbling and faint sirens, glimmers of Yello's goofy komputerwelt exotica ("Bananas to the Beat") breaks apart in the silvery stream of clicks, blips and twitches that courses through the mix. Individual tracks bob and disintegrate in the flow, few luring like the purrs and pops of Booka Shade's "City Tales (Dub)” and the oxygen-deprived vertigo of Simon Flower's treble dizzies in "The Whisper Had It (Mark August Remix)."
Efficient and calm, M.A.N.D.Y. trace a horizontal line where pinnacles have just been pursued.
View all articles by Bernardo Rondeau
