Customer Reviews

Fabric 36

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

The label created by the London's club Fabric, and known for their mix CDs, featuring sounds from some staple names like Carl Craig, Adam Beyer, and even John Digweed, brings you its 36th installment of minimal tech house by Ricardo Villalobos. Born in Santiago, Chile, Villalobos moved to Germany at the age of three. At the age of 24 (1994) he released his first EP on Playhouse, followed by a debut LP almost 9 years later, titled Alcachofa, on the same label. Since then, Villalobos has been enjoying a stream of consistent quality minimal, micro, and tech house releases. Villalobos' three other aliases are Bispeed Black, Richard Wolfsdorf, and Termiten; his most notable collaborations include Social Being with Justin McNulty, and Ric Y Martin with Santiago born Martin Schopf (aka Dandy Jack). Fabric 36 is a continuous mix, compiled of mostly Villalobos' tracks and mixed by himself - it thus can be treated as an album. The rhythms are simple, light and groovy, and I loose myself in the hypnotic sound over and over, as the tracks effortlessly blend into one another, and ride on. This may come off counter-intuitive for some critics of techno, but I often use such minimal sound as a tool: to relax, clear my mind, and on occasion even cure a headache. Recommended if you like Matthew Dear (False), Dominik Eulberg, Marc Houle and Gabriel Ananda.

I cannot believe the detail he puts into his tracks. Yes, track 9 is either love it or hate (I happen to love it), and yes it is all his material so its more or less alike sounding. But get h**h and listen to this. INCREDIBLE. Maybe I just sound like some st*ner idiot, but trust me, this is amazing. I understand why this is called micro-house now.

The Fabric series is disputeably the leader in pumping out minimalist albums. Fabric 36 is yet another with Ricardo Villalobos contributing to this oversaturated genre. All tracks are produced by himself which gives the set its intential feel of one long unmixed track. For my tastes, unimpressive and dull after a few listens.
Another Fabric album to put in the "don't like" pile. I hope this minimalist movement takes a turn for the better with a little more creativitiy. The last 2 years has seen far too many crappy albums. Fabric 36 included.
2/5 stars.

This is a wonderful mix from Villalobos. I am a huge fan. There is one track on it (#9 Andruic & Japan) that is very weird though. It gets annoying because of how upfront it is. It's just very loud and can almost make you feel uncomfortable. You'd just have to sample it. We usually just skip that track. But still one track out of 14 other amazing ones is still worth it to me. I love the other tracks, they are so groove worthy. I definitely recommend this CD to Villalobos fans. When listening to minimal or him you know what to expect with some surprises as well. This is a Win.

This set is pretty amazing, during the begining it is mostly minimal with some tech house but around tracks 9 and on it turns housey and slower jam, but it is great i love it, its beatuiful, so if you into minimal and house, this is a great purchase, the beginning of this set is very different toward the end.

As a fan of both the Fabric series and of Ricardo as both a producer and a DJ, I was eager to get this cd. Overall, I really like this cd. It starts out a little slow, but picks up nicely by track 3("Moongomery") and continues until it reaches the ultimate momentum killer, "Andruic and Japan". This is definitely a love it or hate it track, and I definitely hate it. It is 12 and a half minutes long, and contains the incoherent ramblings of a woman with an incredibly annoying voice over the entire track. This track has a decent groove, and if it were shortened to about 3 minutes and the vocals removed, it would make a nice bridge track. The mix then builds up to the fantastic track "Premier Encuentro Latino-Americano" (the highlgight of the mix) and finsihes nicely with "Chropuspel Zundung."

While the Fabric mixes are generally intended to be a reflection of what the artist would play in the club, this cd is certainly not a club mix. It is much more subdued, and makes for a nice listen at home or at work (so long as you skip the "Andruic and Japan" track).

I give this mix 3.5 stars,and recommend it to those who are familiar with Ricardo Villalobos' work. If you are debating getting it, you can go to the fabric website ([...]) and listen to 30 second clips of the songs, since they are not available for preview through Amazon.