Bad Magic Fabric Ahhh Fabric on a Friday, not as groundbreaking as it used to be thanks to the influx of trendyness that has overwhelmed it, yet it still packs a punch in terms of bringing you line-ups of artists that are truly groundbreaking. And tonight was no exception, with a line-up that promised to be lively: one room hosted by Bad Magic with UK don Blak Twang on mic duties, Big Ted, Vinyl Addiction, Deadly Avenger and Greenpeace. Another room for the dnb afficionados with a Photek showcase (more about that later), and the sounds of Teebee, Fabio, High Contrast and J Majik. Lastly a room for eclectic nutyness with the talents of 2 Many DJs, Erol Aklan, and the one and only DJ Swamp! Now I know this is a review for ukhh.com but Iıd be lying if I said that the hip-hop room was all I aimed to see on this outing. I did spend a good few hours in there warming up to the sounds of the Twanga but when in Rome, do like the Romans, innit? The Hip-Hop room did kick it good, with Big Tedıs set the highlight for me, as the chubby one cut it up and Blak Twang warmed the room up with some luverly lyrics. The rest of the night in the Hip-Hop room was good, with all the DJs coming good but when you have so many other quality acts throughout the night its hard to stick with just one genre, specially when Hip-Hop is relegated to the smallest room in the venue (which can be a bit too hot when it gets to 3am). Nonetheless the Hip-Hop room did represent to the fullest, giving many people a chance to chill out from the more violent and hectic sounds in other parts of the venue. Swamp and 2Many DJs were the acts I was anticipating the most and we weren't left disappointed. Before seeing Swamp, I did a quick detour via the DnB room to get a dose of heavy beats. High Contrast was very good, with his blend of soulful, rolling DnB with a few heavy hitters. Then came the man they call Teebee, straight from Norway. He started with a nice downtempo beat and went all scratchy on us! A nice display of skills and then straight on to some nice breakbeat stuff which took a lot of the 'ravers' by surprise leaving the room nowhere near as packed as it normally is at this time of the night. But after 20 minutes or so of breakbeatish DnB, with a lot of hip-hop vocals layed on top (more on that next) Teebee gave the audience what they came for and hammered a 1 hour set of nasty, dark DnB into the heads of the audience, definitely not for the faint hearted. It was now 12.30 and on to the man of the night, DJ Swamp, with a short 30 minutes set that was just perfect. Having never seen the man himself but heard loads of good and anticipating an entertaining ride, he gave us just that. Now, he looks like a 40 year old rocker who has abused things a little too much, but as soon as he starts his set you realise he is one of the daddyıs of the turntablist scene and not for any old reason. Having been around longer than most people on the scene, Swamp has gone all the way with his music and 'fuck you if you donıt like it' seems to be the message. He cut shit up faster than many, he juggled like a true beat junkie and true to himself he smashed a few records up and tried to cut himself with the sharp bits hanging off. His juggling was truly groundbreaking, using jungle and DnB breaks he cut up a 150bpm loop into a shorter one, into a whole new beat and frankly it was pretty damn impressive. Having obviously gone quite electronic with his breaks and beats has done him no harm at all. He has been working on infinite loop records for a while and he did claim last year that DnB was where he was at and that he would come out with stuff that no one had ever done before. Guess what? He was right all the way. I always told myself juggling DnB breaks is one of the few things turntablists havenıt really got round to doing properly yet (apart from Craze and the Perverts but even they haven't done what Swamp pulled off). So Swamp gave everyone a lesson in juggling, breaking down those breaks faster than you could nod your head to the beat, he did some nifty scratching, he even did a bit of rapping about plastic surgery which was downright disturbing and he attempted a bit of stand up comedy. I think the main points of his showcase will remain the juggling duties as well as his choice of beats (near enough no Hip-Hop, Funk or Soul breaks just electronic and big beat styles) and his use of a laptop as part of his set-up (he is also pioneering the analog/digital DJ revolution that is sweeping some turntablist circles). His set has to be one of the best things I have seen at Fabric, and 30 mins was really just enough (ducking the flying schrapnels of vinyl he was breaking did get tiring). Following Swamp at 1am were 2Many DJs, stalwarts of the Soulwax label. They are a weird bunch them, but musically talented like no-one. If you havenıt already, check their remix of 'Six Days' by Shadow to get an idea of what they are like. Having seen them before, I was hoping for the same thing and was not disappointed. They came in with some Big Beat business tinged with some Happy Hardcore and a slew of bootlegs, pop trash and rock anthems. Itıs not for the fainthearted again but it does do the trick. They were on at the same time as Photek's 'Do or Die' showcase and so I stepped out of there and back into the DnB room. The room was arranged so that there was a stage at the back (anyone whoıs been there will tell you that it can be quite a shock) and the showcase got on. Photek is one of those hard to define producers who has touched a bit of everything from House to RnB, Hip-Hop and DnB and has now settled into his own groove. According to a few interviews I read he has also been working on a lot of film scores (Matrix and the new Italian Job) and TV stuff as well as some bigger pop acts (that should prove interesting). His new label Do or Die, was founded with Jon Rifkind (brother of Loud records head honcho Steve) and their first releases will be 'We got Heat', out in September, with distinctive Hip-Hop flavors. The showcase is a little taster of what is in stores. The MCs for the showcase were Choc Ty and Chiara (a lovely female MC who has a lot of talent) both US rappers Photek met while working in LA. The showcase really was something else, if only just for the fact that they managed to calm down the whole DnB room at 1.30am by playing a 20 minute Hip-Hop set that took a lot of people by surprise. The beats really reminded me of Def Jux stuff, with a lot of down and dirty grooves. The rappers were all good, with the male vocalists also very reminiscent of Def Jux styles (think Murs, El-P etc..). It's hard to describe the set but I really enjoyed it even if a lot of people thought it wasnıt really the right thing to do in between DnB sets. But let the bitchers, bitch. The showcase was entertaining and the Hip-Hop album to come out of it should be really interesting with its definitive electronic influences mixed with more laid back grooves. They finished it off with a DnB version of 'We Got Heat' which seemed to make a lot of the 'ravers' happy again. Apparently Photek is planning quite a few remixes on his DnB label (called Photek Recordings) that will take the vocals from his Hip-Hop projects onto DnB/Breakbeat tracks (which Teebee canned quite a lot of earlier on in the night). This again shows how healthy the UK urban scene is right now, with so many artists crossing genres and working with each other (such as Fallacy and the Full Cycle crew). After the showcase it was back on for dirty, grimey DnB. Photek played for another hour, rocking some pretty heavy tunes. And so it was until the end of the night in the DnB room. Following Photek's set, we had Fabio come in for an hour. True to himself, he played 'mucho' dubplates and kept the vibe rockin, with some heavy little numbers. After Fabio was J Majik, Infrared head honcho. Just before J's set, I went back into the Hip-Hop room, at around 4am, to find the place nicely bubblin with Greenpeace on the ones and twos. But it didnıt really do it for me, as by that point I needed some speedy, heavy delivery and after all that is what Fabric on a Friday is mainly about. Nonetheless the Hip-Hop room did do its job well, not surprising with someone like Tony Rotton on hosting duties all night. J Majik closed the dnb room, packing in more nasty dubplates than thought possible, with an honourable mention for the new Kamanchi tune 'Circus' and Twisted Individual's 'Bandwagon Blues'. All in all, another excellent outing on a Friday night. The guys at Fabric know their business inside out when it comes to putting nights together that pack a punch. All three labels present that night gave the audience an excellent show and its looking to be a good summer for UK urban music. Be sure to check out the new stuff coming out on Bad Magic as well as Photekıs 'Do or Die' project and some new material from Swamp which, as always, should prove more than interesting. Thanks to the guys at Fabric for sorting it out, and look out for a special Scratch @ Fabric night on the 11th of July with the one and only DJ Craze playing in both the Hip-Hop and DnB rooms, should be hot!!! - K-Per  Related Links: fabric © ukhh.com 1999 - 2003