FABRICLIVE.50
Autonomic
Despite the genre's future-forward and experimental beginnings in the early 90s, drum & bass' rigid uniformity over the last decade has made it a stifling environment for many producers. For dBridge, with his background as a former member of the drum & bass heavyweight champions Bad Company, the pressure of dancefloor expectations and DJs' desire for club smashers has been experienced and rejected once in his career already. Since going solo he has been busy developing a more cultured sound that has carved him a niche in a music scene from which he was feeling increasingly removed from. Instra:mental meanwhile, having had a successful stint in drum & bass some years earlier, returned to D&B production in the mid 00s with a uniquely fresh approach. Inspired by 80s synth music, the Detroit sound and the Warp back catalogue, and with a studio fully loaded with vintage hardware equipment, they set about writing drum & bass unlike anyone else; a method that struck a chord with a like-minded soul in dBridge.
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DJ T.
The life of a true music lover is a divine mixture of beauty and obsession, dedication and impulse; and there are very few who can be fairly categorised as a true music lover more than Thomas Koch, aka DJ T. His list of accolades and contributions to electronic music are irrefutable, indelible and seemingly endless. There?s his editing and publishing work in the periodical world: founding Groove Magazine in 1989 and remaining its publisher and author for 15 years (Groove remains one of the longest running ? 20 years and counting ? and most respected dance music periodicals in the world). There were his projects with other likeminded souls: co-founding the legendary Monza club night in 1999 (now an Ibiza landmark) with close friend Patrik Dechent; and co-founding the triumphant Get Physical imprint with M.A.N.D.Y. and Booka Shade in 2002, which has grown to be one of the most forward-thinking, consistent and flourishing labels on the electronic map. And that?s not forgetting his artistic contributions to the hungry music world; from his imagination-travelling productions (especially last year?s critically cheered album, ?The Inner Jukebox?) to his smooth DJ sets that shimmy around the globe with an incessant run of tour dates.
I Beat My Robot / Marmite (Original Sin Remix)
Caspa
What a 12-months its been for Caspa. It was almost a year to the day when we first announced his debut album through fabric, the LP that took him from the underground hero he was to the household name he is today. Although we say that, but Caspa never left the underground, in fact he's managed to successfully stay true to his original fanbase by never changing his approach, style or sound, it's just everyone else in the world is a lot more interested than they used to be.
In the UK in 2010, you can safely say that anyone with an interest in popular music between the ages of 16-25 will know what dubstep is - it's everywhere. Sometimes things just fall into place and for Caspa, what started out as him going to UK Garage and Drum'n'Bass nights, dancing to new sounds and being inspired by the DJs has now evolved into him travelling the World as a global star.