Category: Recommended Reading

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Interview: D25 Part Two: Stacey Pullen

Posted in Interviews Recommended Reading on Thursday 29th April, 2010 by Danna Takako

Stacey Pullen is one of those rare artists that manages to remain one step ahead of the curve while maintaining a strong appreciation for what's come before him. Putting his mark on the !K7 'DJ Kicks' mix series in 1996, to this day it's still considered one of the most futuristic mixes in the game (more on that later, with insight from Martyn too). As our leg of the D25 tour lies just around the corner (it's this Sunday y'all), highlighting Detroit's 25 years of innovation and artistry, it seems a fitting time for one of its most seminal players to have a moment of reflection. Read on to discover Stacey's thoughts on the last 25 years, his plans for reviving Black Flag Recordings, the new music he's working on, as well as the best bits of his back catalogue that he’s digitally re-releasing...ride through his wisdom - from past, to present, to future, and back.

What are you up to today?
At this moment now, I’m just getting everything together before I leave on the D25 tour. I’m tidying up everything, listening to music, trying to finish up this mix that I’m doing, trying to make sure everything’s squared away for my new release that I’ve got coming out next week, and making sure all the stores and distributors got the record and all that good stuff.

Speaking of which, we’re really digging your new BFR joint, ‘Get Up,’ in the office.
Yeah, that’s what everybody says. I kinda decided to release it that way because I wanted to build up the anticipation – so come out with the ‘Alive’ track and have ‘Get Up’ be even better than the first.

But I don’t think you can really compare them; ‘Alive’ is such a different vibe.
That’s true. I had the ‘Alive’ track done for a while, and I kinda sat on it for a minute – because music is ever-changing, and I’m always being inspired by things. So I sat on it for a minute, and I gave the original to a couple of friends and they played it out. But when I played it out, I felt like there was something missing. That’s the good thing of doing your own music, being your own boss, is that you get a chance to let the work find itself. So I did that track and I did the Hi Tek Soul mix, which was the perfect compliment because I’ve done the Hi Tek Soul parties with Derrick in the past, and I wanted to put that stamp on it just because I’m kinda affiliated with it.

You just mentioned that music’s ever-changing, and that’s along the lines of something Carl said the other day…if that’s the case, how do you know, or decide, that something’s finished?
You know it when you hear it, but it may take a day – it may take a week. I’ve been in the studio recording, recording, recording…and then I'll get bored of it, and take a break – and I’ll come back to it with a whole different energy. So you really don’t know. At the end of the day, you just gotta stop. (laughs) There is such a thing as overproducing. I remember I was working with Derrick years ago; we did a remix for a track called ‘Wiggin’.’ And he said, ‘You know, I like the track – I like the remix that you did – but you did too much!’ That’s what happens when inspiration’s just flowing like that. So now what I do is – if I go too far, I’ll take a couple of parts out and I’ll set it aside for a totally brand new track. So it’s constantly evolving. It never finishes, because if I doing a track off of a track that I already did, then that’s the continuation of that track. I just have to stop sometimes, but that varies – anywhere from two hours to two days!

Right now, I’m working on a mix for Jamie Anderson and K-Alexi – the track is called ‘Cyclone’ and that’s on a label called Mija Recordings. Actually, how that came about was I charted the track on Beatport, and the owner of the label contacted me about a remix. So I’m finished with production - I had to stop (laughs) - so now I’m just finishing and arranging it, and making it that powerful 7-8 minute DJ track that will definitely keep people on the dancefloor.

After speaking to Carl last week, we’d love to hear your take on D25…
I’m really happy to be involved with the whole 25 years of Detroit techno, because to be honest, when I first started out doing music, I had no idea…well, none of us had any idea that the music was going to take off the way it did. And now it’s 25 years later. I can still remember years ago, when I didn’t even know none of these guys. I was just one of those outside guys trying to get in. So for me now to, be a major player in this - and being personal friends with these guys, most importantly – it’s like more than anything I could’ve imagined. And now it’s all about the history – can’t nobody take that back. No matter how many different genres of music come and go, or how many tracks come out per day, or how many promos I get, you can’t erase that history. And that’s really the most important thing that I’m appreciative about.

Speaking of “how many tracks come out per day” - as someone that’s been involved in the game for so long, do you feel as there’s an overwhelming, almost suffocating, surplus of music these days? Sometimes I find myself wondering how many DJ mixes I can listen to in one lifetime, or how on earth I can manage to file all of the tunes I get sent.
Yeah, I was talking to this guy, and we were talking about the whole music world, and releases, and mixes, and everything. Years ago, there was a point where I had a problem with people recording my DJ sets, because it was a copyright infringement – you know, I didn’t want anyone having a mixtape without paying for it. Now it’s no longer about the track of the month, or the track of the year – now it’s like the track of the hour! So that puts a whole new twist on things. But I think, at the end of the day, what we’ve done with D25 is that we’ve made timeless music, so we can play music from 25 years ago and it still sounds as fresh as it did when it first came out. And it still sounds as innovative as a lot of the music that’s being made today, even though there are so many producers, and endless possibilities with making music and different sounds, and being innovative with technology. We’ve kept it that way, and we have that defined sound, just like that Motown sound of the 60s. That sound has been around since the 50s/60s, and you can still listen to a Motown record and instantly know it’s a Motown record.

There’s a lot of really interesting parallels between the two. Actually, wasn’t your dad a Motown singer?
He was a singer in a band called The Capitols, they had a song called ‘Cool Jerk,’ which was a one hit wonder. He sung around in a lot of other local Motown groups, but with that group in particular, he was touring with them as well. Of course, the different path that people take in different lives led to the demise of the group. Have you ever seen a movie called ‘The Five Heartbeats’? That was pretty much the story of my dad and his career: a lot of different personalities together and then all of a sudden, one guy goes this way and another goes that way, and before you know it the group is disbanded. People had families – my dad had me, and now I’m the continuation of that.

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Introducing: MATTY G

Posted in Downloads Introduce Yourself Recommended Reading on Wednesday 28th April, 2010 by Sam Collenette



Matthew Gonsalves, known as Matty G to the world of music, is a pioneer of the US dubstep scene. Since his debut release on the Argon imprint in 2006, Matty has ceaselessly pushed his unique brand of hip hop inspired, 808 bass workouts, that have been destroying clubs the world over. His 2007 release ‘50, 000 Watts’ shook up the scene with its stripped down breaks and punishing subs, finding its way into the bag of just about every DJ worth his salt, becoming something of an instant classic. Its profound influence on the scene is still being felt today, and it has become one of those tracks that people are still searching Discogs to get hold of, at any price. His 2008 LP, ‘Take You Back,’ cemented his placing in the flourishing dubstep scene, exploring his diverse musical influences and amalgamating the sounds of hip hop, funk, soul, reggae and jungle into a 140bpm template. It still remains one of the most accomplished albums to have been made in the scene.

After linking up with Dub Police head honcho Caspa, who remixed his massive ‘West Coast Rocks’ for Argon, he has recently officially joined the Dub Police crew, the fruits of which we will see over the coming months. In the meantime, he will be touching down at fabric on Friday 21st May as part of the label takeover of Room One. He laced us with an exclusive track (up for DL after the jump) so we decided to get some questions at him to gain a bit more of an insight into the world of Matty G…

Hi Matty, how are you doing?
Great! I’m really looking forward to my upcoming trip to London.

To start from the beginning…When did you start producing and what kind of stuff were you making at the time?
I started producing around 2003. I have a pretty diverse taste in music so I was excited to make all different kinds of stuff right off the bat, but mainly did big bass, hip hop style tunes. I was really into early jungle, and drum and bass before that, and especially dug old No U Turn tunes. I really wanted to mesh the dark basslines and low subs of jungle with some raw old school hip hop beats. My computer at the time, which most of my dubstep tunes were made on as well, was pretty old and limited, so sampling was key as far as conserving processing power. A lot of my early tunes consisted of soul and reggae samples, with some 808 sub and breaks over them.

You were one of the first people overseas to pick up on the flourishing dubstep scene at the time. When did you first come into contact with the sound?
Nick Argon's brother has been into grime for quite a while, and so one day Nick came over with all these mixes his brother hooked him up with around 2005 or so. Some were grime and some were dubstep, and I just spent the next week or two listening to them.

What was it about dubstep that you gravitated towards?
The minimalism... specifically in the tunes ‘Horror Show’ by Loefah, and ‘Nomad’ by Distance. When I heard those two tunes, they really stood out to me. The best part of tunes for me, is when you strip away whatever the melody happens to be, and just let the bass and drums ride, before building it back up again. These tunes were pretty much extended versions of just that... bangin' bass with some sparse drums knockin' out a beat. As a listener at the time, it seemed like a competition between some producers to see who could make the most bangin' tune with the least amount of elements.

Do you feel an affinity with UK music?
Not all kinds...haha, but I have been a big fan of old school hardcore, jungle, and everything kinda down that thread. Jungle and early drum and bass really did it for me though. Back when it was more sample based, producers would flip hip hop, soul, R&B, reggae... The drums would remind me of hardcore punk at times as well, which I was into. It was the combination of all my favorite kinds of music.


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Goldie - Stairway To Fame Photo Collection

Posted in Art Photography Recommended Reading on Tuesday 27th April, 2010 by Danna Takako

An infinite number of titles and adjectives have been penned to describe the legendary Goldie over the years. Some people are (for good reason) enamoured with his immaculate and consummate contributions to the world of D&B; others choose to speculate on his brush with Hollywood &/or reality TV; others are still catching their breath from his graceful conducting debut on BBC's Maestro; others solely focus on his genius as a visual artist...recently, when Goldie posted some old school photos from the 80s on his Facebook, we were given an inspiring reminder of the latter. Intrigued, we decided to find out more about the stories behind his earliest work - long before the days where Goldie was a household name taking up inches in gossip columns, and a decade before he was sitting on top of the world as one of its most groundbreaking musicians.

We stopped in with Martin Jones (Goldie’s manager and agent from 1984-89), to find out the inside scoop behind the images.

Martin is currently leading a national project to archive photos and video of early UK Hip Hop from the 1980s. If you have any material you think would be of interest, please contact him.

November 1984: Goldie’s graffiti career begins on national TV.



I first met Goldie in around September 1984, just after he’d joined the Wolverhampton B Boys breakdance crew. He was also a graffiti artist and showed me some of his designs -  I was impressed and agreed to try and get him some commissions. In this shot he’s seen painting the backdrop to a breakdance battle between the Wolverhampton B Boys and Coventry’s Future Shock (hence the cartoon figures of both crews). The battle was filmed at Central TV’s rooftop car park for ITV’s 'Saturday Starship' children’s show, hosted by Tommy Boyd and Bonnie Langford. On the left is ‘Lewinski’ (Cliff Malcolm), a member of his crew, the Supreme Graffiti Team.

August 1985: Goldie’s Chinatown commission in Birmingham’s Bull Ring.



This was Goldie’s second public  commission. It took place in Birmingham’s Manzoni Gardens immediately after the ‘Clash of the Titans’ four way graffiti battle  between New York’s Brim and Bio, London’s Chrome Angelz , Goldie and Bristol’s 3D (later of Massive Attack), filmed by Channel Four for the Hip Hop documentary ‘Bombin.'  It was commissioned by West Midlands County Council to cover hoardings around the new development area in central Birmingham containing Chinese-owned businesses.  Disaster was only narrowly avoided when, as a result of some too hasty research, Goldie proudly presented his design to stunned Hong Kong Chinese dignitaries, revealing  the Japanese flag flying triumphantly over Hong Kong harbour.

The Supreme Graffiti Team consisted of Goldie (right) , Cliff ‘Lewinski’ Malcolm (middle)  and Gary ‘Birdie’ Burns (left).

March 1985: Goldie and the B Boys breakdance crew meet Afrika Bambaataa at the GLC’s Rap Attack Festival, Shaw Theatre, London.



I saw Bronx graffiti artist Brim on TV-AM and drove the B Boys down to the Shaw Theatre to meet him. He and Afrika Bambaataa were doing Easter hip hop workshops there with London kids. The B Boys really impressed Dick Fontaine, who was making a documentary about Brim and the spread of hip hop culture from New York to the inner cities of the UK. Dick brought  his camera crew up to Wolverhampton where he filmed Brim with Goldie on his hometown estate – Heathtown.

On a fashion note, Goldie is wearing an Australian brand tracksuit – I got B Boys a few sponsors back then. There was Australian (for their ITV Saturday Starship national TV appearance), Kappa (for their Electro Rock film appearance), and finally Puma for their Electro Rock promotional tour.

The Boys pictured are, left to right, Keith ‘Kiddo’ Anderson, Gary ‘Birdie’ Burns, Hanifa McQueen Hudson, and Goldie.

1986: Goldie with Birdie at the Stairway to Fame in Heathtown, Wolverhampton.



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Interview: D25 Part One: Carl Craig

Posted in Interviews Recommended Reading on Monday 26th April, 2010 by Danna Takako

Carl Craig is a strong, defiant visionary that’s dedicated his entire life to his craft; someone that’s pushed by art, and someone that pushes art back. Continually shape-shifting and reinventing himself under an endless number of monikers (Innerzone Orchestra, 69, Designer Music, BFC, Paperclip People, Trez Demented, to name but a few), Carl has been at the forefront of many important movements over the years. Beyond his obvious contributions to the second wave of Detroit, he’s been largely credited for pioneering Drum & Bass (with Innerzone Orchestra’s ‘Bug In The Bassbin’), he’s presented a link between electronic music and films (creating a soundtrack for Warhol’s provocative ‘Blow Job’ earlier this year at Unsound Festival, for instance) and he’s artfully combined electronic music with orchestral compositions (re-interpreting Ravel and Mussorgsky with Moritz Von Oswald; or their Versus project Francesco Tristano and Les Siècles Orchestra). His latest musical venture, the experimental project ‘No Boundaries,’ fits the name entirely, with productions that are as creative and mind-expanding as it gets. Carl describes the project best himself: "Unexpect the expected!" Certainly a notion that has followed the artist throughout all of his work.

To commemorate the 25th anniversary of Juan Atkins’ seminal Metroplex imprint this year, Carl envisioned the D25 tour - a celebration of Detroit’s history of innovative electronic music. When discussing D25, he commented: “I think the economic devastation that the city has endured over the last 30-odd years helped us to fantasize about a brighter future, it is this fantasy that we put into our music.” Being an arts commissioner for Detroit’s government these days, Carl Craig’s proactively helping to create that brighter future for the Motor City. The rest of the world may dismiss the city as being trapped in dilapidation or dereliction, but bubbling deep in its roots lies an incredibly vast and wonderful heritage of music: from gospel to Motown, from The Electrifying Mojo to a vibrant legacy of jazz musicianship, from Dilla to Jeff Mills. D25 celebrates the D for all of its beauty and creative force, its progression and influence, and its character and indelible legacy. Starting this year with an immense WMC party (with a lineup that defies description: Carl Craig, Juan Atkins, Kenny Dixon Jr., Theo Parrish, Kyle Hall, Kenny Larkin, Kevin Saunderson, Monty Luke, Stacey Pullen), and a variety of events lined up throughout the year, D25 will come to our doors over the course of this weekend’s ‘On & On’ raveathon with Mr Craig, Stacey Pullen and Monty Luke. After that, Carl plans to take on the globe, and incorporate a more visual element to the tour, converging film and art into the concept. Read on to find out more.

How’s everything in Detroit today?
Great. I’m just driving to the car wash right now and it’s a sunny day. To me, Detroit is the most beautiful place in the spring or autumn. We have such beautiful trees, especially in my neighborhood – magnolias…and in my back and front yard, we have a lot of Japanese maples that are a burgundy, purple-ish colour. The city’s full of really rich colours.

We’re honoured to be given a chance to celebrate the city’s richness here…
Thank you. It’ll be great to keep it going because D25 isn’t just about me, Stacey and Monty; D25 is definitely about the other guys that started the whole shebang – Derrick, Kevin and Juan, of course. But it’s also about the guys that you might’ve seen a resurgence from recently, like Shake and Dan Bell. And of course KDJ and Theo Parrish and Mike Clark, Mike Grant, Mike Huckaby, Mike Delano Smith. And I wanna put guys out there that nobody knows – for instance, there’s this guy Al Ester that has been around for eons, you know – the guy has never left Detroit basically. And I can honestly say that he’s one of the best DJs that I’ve ever heard, not just one of the best DJs from Detroit, not just DJs from the US. I’ve known him since we were all going to the Music Institute back in 1988, ’89. So we’re talking serious stuff. That’s the plan with D25: we bring out people from the woodworks that have been some of the best in the aspect of music playing as well as the guys that are the best at music making. It’s to introduce people to all of the talent that comes from here in Detroit. Also, because we started this agency, Detroit Premiere Artists, the opportunity of having this booking agency is finding new raw talent as well from Detroit. Of course a new talent that’s out there already that a lot of folks already know of is Kyle Hall. But there’s the next step of guys that come from backgrounds like Kyle’s, and people from completely different backgrounds, that we have the opportunity to expose.

How did D25 all come about?
This year is the 25th anniversary of Metroplex Records. So that’s technically the 25th anniversary of techno. We have plans to do events around the Movement Festival here in Detroit, but also expose the music in a way that is relevant to both 25 years of techno. There’s also the idea that we’re going to show films as well, like some of Jeff Mills’ films that he did his work to. There’s a wonderful film by Jacqueline Cole that’s about the relationship between electronic music and gospel in Detroit. That includes Electrifying Mojo, who was a big influence here on the radio, and it’s just a really fascinating piece of work. And also some other projects – one of them is Versus that I did with the symphony. And a friend of mine has done some animated art – not animated in the sense of manga cartoons, she’s a painter that does some really beautiful and sophisticated work. At some point, it’d be good to integrate that visual aspect of what we’re doing with D25 as well. Hopefully we’ll develop it into a whole multimedia kind of thing. I’d like to see it documented in some way that we can have this as a legacy.

Continue reading "Interview: D25 Part One: Carl Craig" »

In The Company Of: Steve Bug

Posted in In The Company Of... Recommended Reading on Monday 12th April, 2010 by Tom Jones


Steve Bug has long since been a favourite here at Fabric. He has been around since the beginning, watched and played a part in our development and even helped us celebrate a milestone or two along the way. So it seemed fitting that a DJ/producer (not to mention great friend) that has lasted so long at the top should be on board for our tenth birthday party last October. More recently, with his impressive new release, “Flight 111” out on his own Poker Flat imprint, Steve Bug shows no signs of letting up. As he continues to develop his already glittering career, we just get the sense that he’ll be around for more celebrations long into the future.

As his set from the 10th birthday party became available here on our blog last week, and after his incredibly slick set in Room One this past Saturday, we decided to catch up with The General to talk about the epic birthday, longevity in dance music and...his skills as a hairdresser!

How did you enjoy playing at Fabric’s tenth birthday a few months back?
It was definitely one of the best gigs I had last year. The vibe was very special - when I heard the set on a link sent to me by fabric just recently, I felt all that massive energy again.




The party was over thirty hours straight. What are your survival tips for making it through such a long time?
I had another show on Saturday night and flew in to London from there. I had some spare time to catch some sleep before I was playing. And to be honest the only way for me to make it through such long parties is leave in-between for a while have some food, and one or two disco naps at a quiet place. I don't really do parties more than 10 hours straight in one go, especially when I have several gigs on the same weekend and am travelling.

Why do you think fabric is still such an important venue in its 11th year?
fabric always has really interesting and well thought out bookings, fresh and up to date, but they're still true to the roots of electronic music. Some old school and some new school. fabric is still top notch when it comes to sound and technology, and the location is also still amazing.

You have been at the top of your game for even longer. How, in your opinion, have you been able to do this?
I don't really know, but loving music purely because of music (and not because of the success attached to being a DJ), not getting carried away with success, constant work and investing a lot of time and energy into the music and the business are key.

As such an established artist, of such a length, do you feel a responsibility for the scene and its next generation of DJs and producers?
In a way I do, but since becoming a DJ and overnight success has become so easy, I feel like a lot of DJs/artists got into the business for other reasons than what motivated me in my beginning. Luckily there are still enough young and upcoming artists that have a sound of their own, but a lot of the so-called underground DJs and producers are more interested in increasing popularity than anything else.

Incidentally, which new artists would you suggest we keep an eye and ear out for at the moment?
It is always hard to name only a few, but i'd say Matthias Kaden, Andrade, Kink, Geddes are the ones that pop up in my mind, especially out of the new London scene!

Despite dance music’s inherently transient nature, do you feel that at the minute, it has a better chance of embedding itself in history more than it ever has done before?
Not really, as there are too many tasteless followers in my opinion. And since sales take place more and more online (even vinyl sales) it is a lot about top ten, top 100 and chart followers. I don't think that is really helpful for music/sound to develop/evolve. Instead of actually searching for music, most people consume tracks that are big already because some big DJ is playing them...unfortunately I am not only talking about clubbers and buyers, but also other DJs. I know a lot DJs that are only playing promos, from a pile of promos that have been sorted out for them by an assistant - lot of DJs don't even go record shopping online. Success has turned them into comfortable couch potatoes. On the other hand there are alot of really talented people no one really cares about, and for whom it seems like it will  be forever to ever be able to live off of making music or DJing.

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