London club review: Fabric

London club review: Fabric

7 February, 2008 | 1.15PM

• Written by: Ryan Keeling
• Filed under: Music News:

How’s this for a foolproof idea; take one of Europe’s, if not the world’s finest house music labels.

Thrust them into the headlining spot in the main room of one of one of the globe’s finest night spots.

Dispatch said disco’s kick-ass residents to musically abuse rooms 2 and 3 and you’ve got yourself an f ‘in party!

OK, so at the risk of cumming in one’s pants before we even begin, lets establish that this is the night Beatportal had in prospect at Innervisions’ [check out the labels tunes in the player below] second showcase event at Fabric, London.

Âme’s (pronounced ‘arm’, kids) Christian is obviously not in the mood for flirting with the already heaving crowd.

As we make our way eagerly to the bar for the first of many, 2000 and Ones’s ‘Work’ serves as an early indication that the usual array of moody deep house and minimal will not be on tonight’s musical agenda.

Accessible, but in the best possible way, his set compromises of percussive work-outs, invigorating vocals and melodies that remind you that smiling in a nightclub is not a criminal offence. 

What comes next could only be described as a good old fashioned lesson in ‘proper’ House music. 

The only thing ‘minimal’ featuring in Room 1 tonight is Dixon’s facial expressions through wave after wave of post-Chicago grooves that flow effortlessly from the room’s untouchable soundsystem.

Any Fabric regular will testify that a Room 2 set from resident Craig Richards is not something to be taken lightly.

We tear ourselves away from the main room throng to catch him throwing industrial-sized slabs of rank techno at the gathered band of sweaty lumberjacks on the floor below. 

As much as Beatportal loves it’s fair share of filth, we eventually retreat to the altogether calmer sounds of Henrik Schwarz who is laying down his back catalogue via a laptop, much to the appreciation of the buzzing main space. 

With the night slinking to its inevitable climax, the other half of Amĕ, Frank, is entrusted to see us through until daylight.

After a slow start, a quality quick-fire round comprising of Villalobos, Carl Craig and Lawrence stirs the now tiring, and slightly uglier ravers who have lasted the duration. 

Being the sociable souls that we are, the night doesn’t end there for Beatportal.

We head back to a friend’s place and pretend to be Luciano for a few hours before hitting the bastion of wrongness that is Public Life in Shoreditch.

This former public toilet is the sort of place that makes your average debauched gathering look like a garden tea party.

We wade around in the chaos for the afternoon, imaging how proud our Moms would be, before crawling into bed at some point after we should have, by all rights been dead. 

So what did we learn? Nothing really.

Except maybe that house music isn’t dead, it just speaks with a German accent these days. 

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• Check out Innervisions on Beatport