- The [a:rpia:r] collective of Rhadoo, Petre Inspirescu and Raresh has been instrumental in making the Romanian house sound popular in London, and fabric was endorsing them before many of us had even heard of them. The original [a:rpia:r] trio are frequent guests at the club, and share fans with some of minimal's most illustrious figures. So for many of us, Rhadoo's recent Room One appearance meant two weekends in a row at fabric, following Ricardo Villalobos's set there the previous Saturday.
The party was not all about one DJ, though. Room Two at fabric is often home to uncompromising techno, so Lucy was in his element in there, giving the crowd plenty to pump their fists to with an excellent peak-time set. Things weren't about to ease up for those who hung around as Luke Slater was up next. Vadim Svoboda's live set upstairs in Room Three lacked energy, especially if you had come straight from Room Two.
You can only delay your migration to Room One for so long at fabric. When I finally made it in there, Copacabannark (AKA Ark and Cabanne) were just finishing their live set. By this time heads had begun impatiently turning towards that cockpit-like DJ booth where Rhadoo was getting ready.
Throughout his inspired four-hour set, what impressed most was his intense focus and consistency—though the records he brought with him weren't half bad either. His selections were typically raw and stripped-back: Vlad Caia's "Eternal Sunshine" and Holdie Gawn's "Graenul" set the tone, and it was a treat to hear several tracks from Petre Inspirescu's fabric 68 on that magnificent soundsytem. But regardless of the individual parts, Rhadoo's exceptional ability in the mix is what distinguishes him from many of his peers. He doesn't just get from A to B, he uses that transition as a moment of opportunity, a chance to explore the chemistry between two or even three tracks. It's something few DJs can pull off so easily, and reveals a genuinely gifted DJ who understands what makes a dance floor tick.