Long-time Fabric favourite Luke Slater takes to the decks to complete the thirty-second mix CD in the highly acclaimed Fabric series. At heart a techno mix, Slater carves us a soundscape that succeeds in remaining physical and tough throughout whilst still allowing some of the subtler, minimalist tendencies of modern techno to shine through. Highlights include the driving four-to-the-floor monster “Brain Freeze”, produced by godfathers of the scene Carl Craig and Laurent Garnier (Tres Demented), which is infused with Craig’s irresistible eclecticism and partiality to organic sounds. Switch’s “A Bit Patchy”, which has been rocking dance floors in the mainstream and underground for over a year now, is also a highlight and is one of a handful of more accessible records that keeps the listener who is less accustomed to some of the harder grooves on the mix interested. Informed by sounds from funk to hard-rock, dub-reggae to rap and dabbling in both electro and the weirder side of house, this is a pastiche of twenty first century techno-culture in all its twisted and diverse glory. With a middle-finger up to those who thought techno was for stupid people, Luke Slater orders us to shake our shit and shows us that evil sounding machines have a lot more sex appeal than we first thought.

Five Stars

Sam Leon

Support Varsity

Varsity is the independent newspaper for the University of Cambridge, established in its current form in 1947. In order to maintain our editorial independence, our print newspaper and news website receives no funding from the University of Cambridge or its constituent Colleges.

We are therefore almost entirely reliant on advertising for funding and we expect to have a tough few months and years ahead.

In spite of this situation, we are going to look at inventive ways to look at serving our readership with digital content and of course in print too!

Therefore we are asking our readers, if they wish, to make a donation from as little as £1, to help with our running costs. Many thanks, we hope you can help!