UK producer/DJ Sinden will probably always be best known for the aggravating/brilliant 2007 speed garage homage "Beeper" (with the Count of Monte Cristal), and as a leading proponent of that new-millennial DJ style that mixes French techno with Baltimore club and anything in between, provided it rocks to an uptempo 4/4 beat. If you're part of Sinden's presumed audience-- young, multicultural, and stimulant-friendly, with omnivorous taste in hook-centric dance music-- you could easily fall in love with his Fabriclive mix.
Despite a few clunkers, mostly in an opening stretch of what can only be described as 21st-century hip-house, Sinden collects great cuts from around the world. Like Caper's "Hybrid", which pairs a grinding, circa-1997 speed garage bassline and a delicate synth-pad breakdown off a classic ambient jungle tune. An easy contrast between dark and dainty, but one that makes for a great dance record. Shiver inducing, even. Fabriclive 43 is littered with similar small gems. And like all Fabric mixes, Sinden blends them quite adroitly, regardless of country of origin, tempo, or release date. But over the long haul, his top-tier DJ's skillfulness actually proves draining.
That's obviously a problem. The disc's momentum is pedal-to-the-floor throughout-- this a very club-centric, peak-time sound. There are few chances catch your breath, just one tightly-wound record slamming into another, and the lack of variation in Sinden's pacing quickly becomes as exhausting in your living room as it would live. Granted, this lack of variation isn't stylistically; Sinden's taste is laudably liberal on paper. But even if you're into furiously-paced dance mixes, you might still wish Sinden had slowed to ask, "Should I really mix these records together?" His inclusive aesthetic occasionally strips each subgenre of its idiosyncracies; dubstep really should conjure a different mood than blistering pop-house, not that you'd know it from Fabriclive 43.
Sinden's commitment to keeping the party flying at top speed, without sacrificing eclecticism, works best when he sticks to records that emulate the ginormous b-lines and clattering snares of turn-of-the-millennium London. (Roisin Murphy chopped up like an old-school UK garage diva? Count me in.) The digital wobble of the dubstep stretch is Fabriclive 43 at its most gripping, for what it's worth, but Sinden still fixes on the most jittery examples of a notoriously torpor-centric sound. Even when he can stick to one mood, his agitator's instincts get the best of him.
Common sense says dance mix is obviously supposed to energize you, the listener/dancer. And Sinden's high-energy antics would obviously keep an adrenaline-charged dancefloor's momentum at a howling peak. But clubbers might stumble for the door after an hour or so, worn down by the relentless channel-surfing between bass-heavy blog favorites. Outside the club, Fabriclive 43 could probably push you through that afterwork gym session or hardcore housecleaning you'd rather avoid. Slogging through it otherwise might be more work than it's worth.
