Fatima & The Eglo Band in London

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  • It can't be easy programming Fabriclive. While Saturday nights at the London club cover house and techno, Fridays span a seemingly endless range of genres, from breaks and hip-hop through jungle and jump-up electro. This is more true than ever in 2014: Jack Beats, Kode9 and LTJ Bukem have all headlined events in the past month. Catering to a younger, more student-heavy crowd than the Saturday nights, Fabriclive constantly needs to toe the line between bigger acts (Basement Jaxx, Fatboy Slim) and more cutting edge (if less lucrative) artists like Four Tet and the Hessle Audio crew. The penultimate Friday in January leaned towards the latter, as three leading lights of the UK scene—Eglo, Hoya:Hoya and Boxed—took to rooms one, two and three respectively. With 16 acts spread across fabric's shadowy vaults, arriving early was a must. By the time I got in, Fatima & The Eglo Band were midway through their set in Room One, effortlessly moving through soulful cuts off their soon-to-be-released LP. As the young crowd swayed in the warm glow of the lights, it felt more like a Jazz Café gig than a rave at fabric. Up next, Kutmah and J-Rocc played low-slung hip-hop to the slowly swelling floor, starting out with more headsy selections before dropping classics from D'Angelo ("Brown Sugar"), James Blake ("Retrograde") and Dr. Dre ("Xxplosive"). Once such a staple of the Fabriclive canon, it felt good to hear rap in Room One again. Room Two was a very different story. Playing to a packed dance floor, Illum Sphere swiftly and elegantly oscillated between genres, spanning everything from tough-talking techno to growling dubstep. Complemented by Chunky's animated bars, the vibe was raucous and electric. Meanwhile, Karizma was laying down fast house in Room One. Mixing at breakneck speed, the US jock's boisterous, vocal-laden tracks perfectly suited the time of the night, providing the leg-up one so often needs come 4:30 AM. Paranoid London's "Eating Glue" and a remix of Jill Scott's "Golden" drew particularly fervent clamours from the crowd. The sonic diversity continued up in Room Three. London-based party Boxed is at the forefront of the capital's burgeoning nu-grime scene. In the booth, Logos, one of the scene's brightest stars, was throwing down gritty, highly unclassifiable slices of full-frontal beats. Reflecting on the night, it struck me as a magnificent feat of programming. In Eglo, Hoya:Hoya and Boxed, fabric had three outfits as passionate and forward-thinking as themeslves. The club may have only ever been gently busy on the night, but in the context of the wider London scene, that's a small price to pay for such inspired music.
RA