Rapoon - Fallen Gods

Staalplaat/Abstrakce Records: 1994/2021

Jumping all around Rapoon's catalogue has yielded plenty of interesting items now, but man, I just can't help but keep returning to Vernal Crossing the most. Something so primal, so instinctual ...so, dare I say, erotic. I keep wondering is there anything else like it in Mr. Storey's storied career, when the answer is so bluntly obvious, I'm astounded it took me this long to realize it. Or maybe I was subconsciously biding my time for a digital remaster to emerge. Sure, let's go with that, a seductive, subliminal message lurking within Vernal Crossing Revisited suggesting I bide my time before returning to this era of the Rapoon tale.

While there's plenty to be said about most of the early Rapoon records, I feel like Fallen Gods gets a little overlooked. It doesn't have that 'new concept' freshness the debut Dream Circle does (an album that's seen a triple-LP reissue!), which follow-ups Raising Earthly Spirits and especially Vernal Crossing maintained. If anything, because Fallen Gods came out the same year as Vernal Crossing, it couldn't help but get bypassed, the post-ecstatic glow of the former record still permeating upon the public consciousness. Whoa, reign in the hyperbole there! It's a cool album, f'sure, but only a highly niche audience would be aware of it back when, much less today.

Still, I'm a little surprised Fallen Gods didn't get at least a little more attention outside the abstract ambient sphere – say, the tribal techno sect? Obviously it sounds little like what you'd hear out of the PWoG camps, but compared to the pure, loopy nature of his previous works, Rapoon has added something more of a propellant rhythmic pulse to all the sampled drums and primal sounds.

Opener certainly seems to build upon the Vernal Crossing formula, but feels more minimalist and dubby. Meanwhile, second track Iron Path is almost mechanical, its rhythms rather jerky and coerced into its loop – and still, all performed rather spaciously, as though letting the drums be the dictating force. Rapoon had always used rhythmic loops before, but seldom such that they were the dominate feature, preferring to focus on the general atmosphere of his compositions. And as if to put an exclamation mark on this different direction, the titular cut features drum work that is almost thunderous, as though the sky spirits themselves are descending upon the populace below.

If Fallen Gods was primarily of this tone, I could see it having more attention over the years, but it kinda' waffles after. There's pure ambient drone pieces (Breathing Gold), tracks that sound like left-overs from the Vernal Crossing sessions (Sacrement, Valley), and a dalliance into what I assume is a Bulbul tarang solo: one mostly unmanipulated, followed by a more 'traditional' Rapoon loop session. All neat stuff, absolutely, but doesn't leave the album with a dominate aesthetic compared to his other works. Which may explain why Fallen Gods didn't get the 'revisited' remix treatment either. Nothing left to further explore here.

Ka-Sol - Fairytale

Suntrip Records: 2006

Isn't it fun going back to the early years of an established entity? The feeling-out days, where an identity is still being hashed out, so things are just a little askew from what we typically associate with said property. TV shows are the most prominent example: when Kramer wasn't so physically eccentric; when Flanders wasn't so Flanderized; before Riker had a beard (Sisko, too). Music labels are no less susceptible, many tossing their hands into the grab bag of genres as they figure out what super-niche lane they will come to proliferate. Unless you're one of those 'anything goes' type of prints. Then it don't matter if you started out with ear-bleed gabber, so long as you eventually come around to minimal deep-tech.

Suntrip was pretty clear about its original plans when it launched two decades ago: psy trance for the old goa heads, before all the full-on and prog changed the scene around them. And while they were mostly able to meet their manifesto out the gate, there were still a few 'wild' years before they properly purified their product. Seeing Aes Dana on their first ever compilation Apsara was odd enough, but shortly after that came this little outlier of an album, Ka-Sol's Fairytale.

So this is dark psy. Maybe not as demented and twisted as the genre can go, but definitely on that “creepy, mischievous things lurking in the woods at night” tip. Like, you already get that vibe from the cover art - less traditional psychedelic, more ancient European folklore. As I recall, there were quite a few chaps from the Scandinavian lands pumping out forest trance as much as prog-psy, and Mr. Lundström could have found a home on any number of labels supporting the stuff.

For some reason though, he wandered the wilds, only contributing tracks here and there over the years, before landing on Suntrip. A strange pairing, perhaps one made out of convenience: Ka-Sol needed a place to release an album, and Suntrip needed product to get their print established. Having already provided a track to the aforementioned Apsara (and among the best tracks that compilation had to offer), it made sense giving him the green light on a full-length record. Sure, Fairytale would end up sounding unlike little else in Suntrip's catalogue until the wa-a-ay later Carpe Noctum compilation, but how was anyone to know that's how things would shake out for the foreseeable future?

Anyhow, Fairytale is a solid slice of dark psy, though I can't help but feel it stands out more because of its stark contrast with the rest of Suntrip's discography. There's even a concession to the goa brigade here, in that as the album plays out, the psychedelic derangement slowly subsides, such that by the end, we're getting into more traditional forms of trance. Or is this meant to capture that transitional point of an outdoor party, where the night has given way to the first rays of dawn? Given Ka-Sol's rep' for live performances, probably so.

Various - FabricLive 85: Jesse Rose

Fabric: 2016

Okay, throw all that I've said about FabricLive being the series emphasizing broken-beats. This edition completely debunks that proclamation, Jesse Rose a straight up house dude through and through. Maybe a little tech-house for those 'harder' moments in the night. This isn't totally unprecedented, some FabricLive sets dipping its toes into the realms of house and techno. Typically it's with more of a focus on the funk roots of those genres, or at least an inching nod towards something more disco. It's not common though, and certainly nowhere near as faithful to the deep sounds of American house music. That Duke Dumont set, perhaps, or one of the volumes featuring an artist I know little about (Jimmy Edgar? Daniel Avery? Fake Blood??). What I'm getting at is FabricLive 85 sounds like it'd be better suited for the Fabric-Prime series than FabricLive, but I guess Baby Ford had dibs on that one.

Anyhow, Jesse Rose. I feel like I should know him more, but can't help thinking I'm mistaking him for some other tech-house DJ from the '00s with a similarly phonetic name. I've only come across Mr. Rose once before, on the Rub-N-Tug Fabric CD, but was a fairly regular artist on many sets for a solid decade and half. He had his own Berlin label, Front Room Recordings (when it was impossibly cool to have such a thing in your pocket), then moved onto another print in Play It Down. Then he apparently shut most of it down towards the end of the 2010s, and I haven't found much info for him since. Did he decide to hang things up after all that time? Never returned from a sabbatical following the Pandemic Years? Your guess is as good as mine, but far as social media is concerned, the Jesse Rose story ends before the '20s.

Which makes FabricLive 85 even odder, in that it came out only a couple years before his seeming hiatus. Normally folks release a Fabric set when they're on the verge of going onto bigger things. Or maybe Jesse was already showing hints of winding things down, and wanted to pull a Sandwell District instead? Not that Mr. Rose was a prolific mix CD marketer either, this only his third outing in the field (his first being on Get Physical ...ah, perhaps that's where I remember him from?).

These are about the only quirky talking points I have regarding this set, as it's a fairly standard deep house one with only the slightest nods towards tech-house. The funk flows, the soul simmers, the vibes vibe, the mixing keeps things even keel but doesn't really feel like it goes much anywhere. The sort of tunes you wouldn't mind hearing in a second room or some place more loungy, perhaps outdoors near a bar. Again, something I'd expect to hear on the parent Fabric series, not the one more known for its eclecticism. These Fabric On A Budget sessions always seem to end like this.

Various - FabricLive. 83: Logan Sama

Fabric: 2015

It's kinda' sad more FabricLive CDs haven't made their way onto the cheapskate's market. Or maybe it's good, suggesting a level of interest the primary series seems to lack for certain spells. It's more sad from my vantage point, missing out on potentially dynamic sets. FabricLive may have started out more of a broken beat option for the Fabric brand, but as the years wore on, it allowed far more musical diversity, showcasing artists with an 'anything goes' mentality that simply wouldn't fit among the house and techno luminaries. Also, remarkably prescient of what hot new trends in the UK underground were due to blow up. Whether you figured these trends were good or bad boils down to personal preference, but it cannot be denied FabricLive was at least giving them some shine when others weren't quite ready for it.

One they did initially miss, however, was grime. To be fair, Fabric was far more focused on nu-skool breaks and d'n'b in those days, so the fact the first wave of that scene passed them by isn't entirely their fault. Nor the fact grime was so quickly subsumed by its dubstep offspring, getting any attention abroad a challenge for much of the '00s. It had its holdouts though, keeping some embers aglow on pirate stations, waiting for its chance to emerge from its underground roots once all the hype surrounding UK bass mutations subsided.

One of the chaps doing so was Logan Sama. In fact, he was so successful in keeping grime alive, he was given a shot at an official BBC program. That... didn't pan out, due to getting... well, not exactly 'me-too'd, but more 'James Gunn'd? Simply put, the internet never forgets whatever edgelord jokes you thought hilarious among your peers.

FabricLive. 83 came out before all that, Mr. Sama still on his way up. As for his set, it's nothing less than a definitive grime throwdown, twenty-four tracks of various *boom-boom, wuub-wub* sounds front to back. The energy remains hype, every track offering something different from the last and never overstaying its welcome before quickly moving onto the next. Far as Lord Discogs can tell, every cut is unique to this set, adding to the music's inner city punkish attitude. That, and the mostly shouty, spittin' multitude of MCs featured.

Oh, there's grime MCs. Lots of grime MCs. I count... three, four... twenty-five, twenty-six... forty-seven, forty-eight... seventy-nine... Yeah, as I said, lots. I even recognize one name in there, Flowdan! A number pop up on multiple tracks (P Money, D Double E, Bossman Birdie, Killa P, Jammz, etc.) but a whole lot more are one-and-done with their verses. I can't help but imagine a huge line-up of every grime rapper in Logan's sphere, itching for a chance to shine, reaching around the block from the studio this was recorded at, like some old-timey amateur talent radio show. Hey, no fair Hitman (25) and Ego (23), cutting back in line! Don't be disrespectin' Discarda like that.

Various - Fabric 74: Move D

Fabric: 2014

Seeing Move D as part of the Fabric legacy feels strange to me. He's as worthy a contributor as anyone, but for so long, I've associated Mr. Moufang with a totally different aspect of electronic music. Music out on more experimental labels like BineMusic and ...txt, collaborations with dudes known for ambient and dub (HIA and Pete Namlook ...holy cow, did those two ever have musical simpatico going for them!) than anything fashionable. That's just a small slice of his entire oeuvre though, the chap appearing on all manner of house and techno labels at any given time, easily fitting in with the trends of the day as resisting and ignoring them. It's a testament to Dave's insane work rate that followers of one corner of his discography can remain entirely ignorant of another. Yes, I'm totally using that as my excuse for being utterly thrown for a loop after playing Fabric 74.

So this is a house set. A throwback house set, the sort of bump 'n grind vibe that defined the eastern American seaboard of the early '90s. One that makes me think of vintage Strictly Rhythm, and not just because it includes one of that label's defining singles in Darkman's Annihilating Rhythm. There's a few tunes from 'back in the day' included, but many more that were released within the early 2010s, doing their damnedest to sound like the early '90s. Was this when some folks were trying to call the latest incarnation of retro revival house music 'future house'? Memory's getting a bit hazy on that, so many retro revivals of house music having come and gone now, it may as well have always been around. Yes, the 'retro revival' is probably older than the original gap between eras!

So Dave doesn't throw a single bone to the ambient techno contingent? Not a single nod to his Deep Space Network roots? Well, a little. Juju & Jordash's Loosey Goosey features spritely synths dancing over a tech-house rhythm, while his own Luvbyrds has more in common with Balearic chill than anything house (so many twittering birds). In between those two cuts, however, is a nod to ol' school speed garage, Roots from Last Magpie. And yes, it's a straight-up homage, the 2013 EP it came out on titled 1995. It's got the UK garage 'wuu-ub wuu-ub wu-wu-woouub' bassline, it's got the time-stretched vocals, and even the sirens. I mean, it's about as tasteful as you could make it as an homage, including some nice pad work that wouldn't sound out of place in most atmospheric jungle of the day. It's just, y'know, I'm hearing it in a set from the same guy that appeared on Fax+ on numerous occasions. Worlds colliding!

Oh, the DJing itself? Functional, Move D clearly another chap more comfortable in the producer's chair than behind the decks. Not that he'd never done one before, frequently doing podcast sets prior to Fabric 74. Hasn't released a commercial set since, though.

Various - Fabric 73: Ben Sims

Fabric: 2013

Quite the time skip here, going from 50 to 73. What's remarkable is this is the first item out of Fabric's '70's block I've tackled. I've been close, what with doing Sandwell District's Fabric 69, but I've even done one in the '90's, Daphni's Fabriclive 93. For a time, that was the biggest gap between editions!

Makes sense that more in between will get filled though, volumes finding their way onto the cheap-o markets as time wears on. There's been items here and there throughout all of Fabric's history that I've nabbed on a pauper's budget, and now that the original run's concluded, more from its latter years will emerge. Will they be from heralded names like Sasha or Skream, or less known ones like Call Super or My Nu Leng? Time will only tell, but I can offer this little spoiler: the '80's will also get some coverage in this round of Fabric On A Budget, thus filling in every single numbers block in some form! Well, unless you also include the two '100's. I won't if you won't, though.

Ben Sims getting tapped in late 2013 for a Fabric seems about right. A stalwart of the techno scene since the '90s, he was one of the few chaps that didn't jump on the minimal bandwagon the same way so many others did. In fact, he found something of a comfy home getting in on more of a Latin and tribal take with tech-house, all the while filling in the gaps with the vintage bangin' bosh old school Drumcode resolutely held true to. As the tide of tastes turned with the 2010s, Mr. Sims found himself a perfect companion to the Berghain sound. I'm actually kinda' surprised he never got tapped for a set on Ostgut Ton as well, but seeing as how many of the club's jocks would regularly rinse out Ben's tunes, I guess that's close enough.

Anyhow, this is a pure bangin' techno set through and through. Just relentless, pounding bosh, tracks dropping one after the other in rapid success, never pausing for a single breakdown. Oh, there's periods where the bass will cut out, feigning a brief bit of tension building, but Ben lets the tracks speak for themselves, for as long as he allows them to anyway. What's most fun about this set is Mr. Sims doesn't even portend any pretension of fancy DJing, mixing seldom more complicated than a hard crossfade. And nor does he need to, these tracks uncomplicated and straight to the point, each unique from the other without ever clashing in tone. Man, after so many years of minimal's homogenized aesthetic, how refreshing was it to hear something like this? Oh, probably not that much by 2013. Can't forget that time jump I just did within Fabric's history.

And there isn't much else I can say about this set. It starts more on a tech-house tip, but soon enough, we're in the good shit, riding it out until the end.

Various - Fabric 50: Martyn

Fabric: 2010

Come to think of it, Fabric was being a bit ballsy in handing their half-centennial volumes of both Fabic and Fabriclive to upstart genre heroes like Martyn and D:Bridge. Sure, it'd be safe enough dropping another round of Fabric friendly tech-house or jungle, but no, there's plenty of new sounds making waves in the underground and abroad, and we're gonna' make sure folks know about them in our fiftieth editions.

Why do we place so much prestige on '50', anyway? '10', '100', and '1000', sure - adding another zero demarcating a whole new series of numbers is a pretty big deal. '50' though, is just half way to one-hundred. Is it because many fiat currencies rely on certain amounts for easy distribution, '50' being one of them? Honestly, in my neck of the world, '50' spots aren't terribly common, seemingly rarer than '100' bills. Is it an age thing? Maybe, but still only regarded important in relation to the century mark. Okay, that's enough rambling to confuse the Hell out of whatever A.I. bot is scarping this review.

Choosing Martyn for Fabric 50 isn't that far out of leftfield as it may have seen at first glance. Yeah, he was something of a post-dubstep hero in ye' olde year of 2010, one among a clutch of producers taking it down more interesting roads than whatever the North American bros were vomiting out. Mr. Deijkers was never strictly a dubstep guy though, having come up through the D'n'B scene on Marcus Intalex' Revolve:r print. He just kinda' jumped on a bit of a bandwagon when the UK bass scene was blowing up, had his fill of doing his own thing with it, and was just as quick to move onto other things, mostly house and techno (as many early dubstep heroes did).

While the full transition was still a couple years off from Fabric 50's vantage point, even here you can hear him testing the waters outside the familiar confines of future garage sub-genres. There's a couple Ben Klock remixes, a Redshape remix, and a Levon Vincent acid track (Air Raid). Heck, even his own Vancouver owes more to dub techno than whatever London broken-beat genre he's forcing it into. Small surprise it mixes in from 2562's Flashback, a chap who was already paving the way into such post-dubstep genre fusions that sadly didn't last much into the following decade.

It's this little tug-n-pull of what I'm sure folks expected of Martyn and what he actually wants to do that creates something of a disjointed set. It's good overall, don't get me wrong, just seems a little muddled in where its destination is. Does it want to showcase all the various facets of UK bass music as it existed in 2010 (the Afro-beat stuff, the bleepy stuff, the funky stuff, the soulful stuff, the dubby stuff), or does it want to steer us away from all that (the techno stuff)? For sure its eclectic, but feels rather rambly in the process.

Various - Fabric 46: Claude VonStroke

Fabric: 2009

Hey, wait a moment...! *oh, one... three, four... six, seven, eight, nine...* Holy cow, I've also nearly completed a 40 set of Fabric CDs! All I'm missing is Âme and Omar S. Wow, this somehow sneaked up on me, not even realizing it until coming to Claude VonStroke's set. I wonder why I haven't lambasted this era of Fabric releases being on the cheap as much as I have the 30s? Maybe because the mixes in this batch have been better? Well, I don't know about that, still in a rather minimal tech-haus era as many mixes were in the late '00s. Mark Farina's was fine, but nothing out of the ordinary from him. Jay Haze was perhaps a little off-kilter to really stick in my head, while Radio Slave was pretty much the same vibe for the duration. That Metro Area outing though, that one took me by surprise in unearthing so many early '80s rarities and b-sides, while Magda's...

Okay, she's the main reason I haven't thought of the 40s as bad as the 30s, though not entirely because I just like Magda sets in general. Nay, it's due to the fact I bought that CD not on a budget, paying whatever regular price it was whenever I got it. Sorta' defeats the concept of strictly nabbing items on the cheap-cheap, don't it? I've a feeling if I ever want to complete the 40s as well, I'll have to spring regular price for at least the Omar S. one. Seem to recall it being quite highly regarded. Does make me wonder if, as time wears on, other blocks of Fabric CDs will come down to budgetary prices in such a fashion (glances at the 70s in foreshadow).

Anyhow, Claude VonStroke. Anyone with even a hint of tech-house knowledge should know who this chap is, and how his Dirtybird print took the festival scene by storm. And why not, offering up a brand of bouncy, almost liquidy dance tunes that made better sense out among fresh air and BBQ grills rather than stuffy, muggy clubs. I don't recall if he'd quite broke out to the massive success the label saw throughout the '10s when this came out, but it's not like he needed much additional help getting there, his run of big singles during minimal's heyday practically cementing him as a made-man early on.

This still being the '00s, however, Fabric 46 hasn't quite shaken off the bloopy-blippy side of tech-house. It's certainly more playful than years past – how can you not boogie to Holger Zilske's Mes Yeux or wiggle about to tracks like Voodeux's Just A Spoonful or wobble to the pianos of Wighnomy Brothers' Guppipepitsche? Unfortunately, there's just as much of the plodding, dry deep-tech scattered about, mostly serving as transitions to the fun stuff, but there just the same. Still, Mr. VonStroke's style is firmly cemented even this early on, making his Fabric set one of the more easily identified ones I've thus heard.

Various - Fabric 44: John Tejada

Fabric: 2008

I've sure come a long way around to finally spot some shine on John Tejada. Dude's been in the game for over two decades (lot's of dudes like that at this point), and have even come across him in a couple random Balance sets over the years. More recently,contributed to the resuscitated Cottage Industries series, but I know I've seen his name plenty from dang near every corner of clubland. So it goes when you're a producer having releases on such Very Important labels like Kompakt, Poker Flat Recordings, 7th City, Touched, and oodles more. The usual assortment of tech-house luminaries have rinsed out his tunes, but Mr. Tejada's works have even found their way into David F'n Guetta's mixes (of course it'd be a track called Sweat (On The Walls) ...that's gotta' be a CB4 reference, right?). You can imagine, then, my slight disconnect associating ol' John with the worst of mid-'00s electro-sleaze while also thinking him more in line of melodic IDM wonks like Plaid.

I shouldn't be thinking of his more modern works though (or some of his pre-Poker Flat material, for that matter), at least with regards to what he brings to the Fabric series. I'm sure he was tapped for a DJ spot based on his run of singles throughout the '00s that brought him the most prominence. Based on this set, however, I get the sense John's far more comfortable behind the producer's console rather than the turntables (or whatever software used to construct Fabric 44). I'm sure he's toured some clubs for a little extra scratch, but Lord Discogs lists this as his first real commercial mix CD - the Backstock releases were more compilations of music from his own Palette Recordings print.

Actually, I think Mr. Tejada's most cozy rinsing out his tunes, as Fabric 44 features seven tracks he had a hand in (about half-and-half solo and collab's). John's also quite the fan of Shed here, at least three more cuts featuring Mr. Pawlowitz in some fashion. Also-also, this is the sort of techno set that includes tracks with titles like WAX10001, Equalized001, M Track 1, and Huba (Plaid's 15 Years Lost Remix). Lots of 'faceless underground techno', is what I'm sayin', even if the producers involved are some of the most popular chaps around.

Cool beans, then. A real rinse-out of real techno for the real heads, right? Maybe, kinda'? I was incredibly leery at Fabric 44's start, about as bloopy minimal as this stuff could get in 2008, but things do pick up into more traditional Detroit minimal. Ah, the Berghain sound is on nigh. Overall though, this set has the feeling of Mr. Tejada just playing tracks rather than building any kind of narrative, which only furthers my assumption he's more suited as a producer than a DJ. Still, any set that includes classic Orbital (Fahrenheit 303), contemporary Spooky (Candy), and obscure Pete Namlook (!) can't be all bad.

Various - Fabric 41: Luciano

Fabric: 2008

Ah, the man who flew too close to the sun, crashing down as the trends of clubland shifted into a new decade. Actually, that's unfair, Mr. Nicolet maintaining a solid career to this day. He's simply too entrenched in the minimal tech-haus scene to fall that far, his Cadenza print too long lasting to completely fold, his Ibizan parties too well-regarded to fall out of favour. It cannot be denied though, that when I last talked about him, there was a sense he was shooting for crossover stardom, a lane many were rejecting as hubris personified. No, better to stick things out on the DJ circuit, build your fame on the Party Island, keep winning Ibizan DJ Awards in the field of tech-house over and over and over like he's Dixon at Resident Advisor. No need to indulge in artistic album expression ever again.

But nuts to all that, happening after this particular CD had come out. For sure getting tapped for Fabric 41 helped him along to that promotional period involving Tribute To The Sun, but that was still over a year away. At this point, Luciano was more frequently getting name-dropped along side Ricardo Villalobos as Very Important minimal-tech jocks with Chilean ancestry. It was a very small sample size, so quite easy to stand out in that highly specific field. I suppose releasing a record on Perlon didn't hurt either.

Regardless, we're getting the 'hot talent on the rise' Luciano here, so naturally his set hopes to capture some of the eclecticism he was getting noticed on while retaining the vibe of a live gig. He hadn't done many mix CDs before, a contribution to Soma Quality Records' Sci.Fi.Hi.Fi. series being his most prominent one prior (I'm sure he's content leaving Party New – Electro-House properly memory holed), so still in something of a feeling out process in how to put that all together. Did he pull it off?

If you like stripped but subtly vibrant style of tech-house, sure. Fabric 41 definitely has moments that remind you why this brand of 'ethnic' tech-haus was finding some ground in the latter half of the '00s. The wobbly, sleazy basslines of tunes like Getting Late from Los Updates (Luciano on the rub). The ultra-loopy deep transitional tracks that let you just get lost in the moment (Sety's Mogane, Guido Schneider & André Galluzzi's Albertino). The big obvious anthem that hadn't yet caught on as a big obvious anthem so you can't really hate on its inclusion (Johnny D's Orbitalife... gads, does that rhythm ever remain ridiculously infectious). The play at peak-time opulence, but done in a somewhat clever way (mashing M83's In Church with Julien Jabre's Jungle Beatz). The gamble on ol' school credibility by way of modern remixes (Inner City and Phuture get rubs from him and Tiefschwarz). And ooh, the 'not-trance' melodic closer, just to remind you that even though this is technically a set for the London crowds, Luciano's still an Ibizan DJ through and through.