After several years of establishing himself as one of dubstep's up-and-coming producers, Martyn spent 2009 releasing his first LP, Great Lengths, a handful of singles and EPs, and just generally blowing up. He carries that momentum into his first commercially available DJ mix, the 50th (!) installment of London nightclub Fabric's ongoing series. A beguiling and sometimes difficult mix, Fabric 50 showcases Martyn's increasingly divergent interests, touching on all manners of UK dance subgenres.
Martyn gets tossed in with the dubstep crowd, but as Philip Sherburne noted in his Great Lengths review, Martyn's productions incorporate elements of Detroit techno and house music and feature dance-friendly tempos. Fabric 50 features some of dubstep's current powerhouses, but they are mostly those whose music is already amenable to the floor: Zomby's siren-laden raves and Joy Orbison's soulful spinning. Fabric does serve as a departure for Martyn, though, as it leans heavily on the growing UK Funky movement, a branch of garage music that incorporates contemporary R&B as well as African and Caribbean rhythms. Tracks by UK Funky mainstays Altered Natives, Cooly G., and Uncle Bakongo are included.
This makes Fabric 50 a challenging, idiosyncratic blend, especially for the Fabric series, which usually leans heavier on techno (sister series FabricLive is more groove oriented). It also makes for some extremely interesting juxtapositions. Martyn wastes no time on pleasantries, opening with four minutes of Hudson Mohawke and Olivier Daysoul's "Joy Fantastic", which comes out of the gate winking and laughing. It's a risk that Martyn continues to trade on through the first third of Fabric's 65-minute runtime, segueing into the busy, shallow percussion of Nubian Mindz's "Bossa Boogie" and the Soca-flavored bounce of Maddslinky's "Lost on Tenori Street". During one of the album's most impressive stretches, Martyn mixes Zomby's "Little Miss Naughty" into the humid percussion of Uncle Bakongo and then leads us into another Zomby track, the clubby headrush of "Light Cycle".
These early minutes are both fascinating and confounding: Though the mixing is impressive, Martyn offers few footholds, instead subjecting listeners to 20 minutes of clacking percussion. He makes amends in the middle of the mix, offering Joy Orbison's "BRKLN CLLN", Roska's remix of his own "These Words", and Martyn's remix of the Detachments' guitar-led "Circles", the melodicism of which is almost jarring after the percussive opening sequence.
The mix's final third is a blend of choices both inspired-- Actress' "Slowjam", Levon Vincent's "Air Raid"-- and confusing. SpaceApe's Rorschach-ranting on a Ben Klock remix of Martyn's "Is This Insanity?" (SpaceApe's unsurprising answer: yes) seems like a poor fit with Fabric 50's overall tenor, while Jan Driver's hardcore-infused "Rat Alert" and Dorian Concept's shifted house chords on "Trilingual Dance Sexperience" close the mix how it began: surprisingly abrupt uptemo jamming.
Fabric 50 is one of the most intriguing and risky mixes you're likely to hear this year, but it's also a harsh and tricky set. Martyn is a tremendous DJ, sliding between genres and shedding new light on his own work as he casts it amongst the set here. Fabric 50 is a slippery overview of both Martyn's developing skill and of current UK dance trends, one that requires thoughtful attention before it pays off.
