Breakbeat supremo, Marine Parade head-honcho and lead member of Free*land, Adam Freeland, has been invited to compile and mix volume 16 of the outstanding FabricLIVE series. Since the release of Free*land's full length critically acclaimed LP Now & Them, Adam and other artists from Marine Parade have incorporated a distinct rock flavour to their music while keeping their outlook firmly rooted in breakbeats - rock guitars and basslines and rock drum beats hammering away underneath nu-skool synths and techy elements.
Black Rebel Motorcycle Club's Loveburns starts off the CD with acoustic guitar riffs and hollow drum beats and retro Beatle-esque lyrics and sets a precursor to False Prophet's remix of Proper Filthy Naughty's Flow giving the mix more of a progressive breaks flavour - a deep bassline and rocky drum breaks take over from where Loveburns left off while Adam loops the guitar riff from the previous track over it.
Marine Parade's Evil Nine bring out their rock breaks stylings on Hired Goons - a tasty concoction of rumbling basslines, guitar stabs and synth lines while Freeland lays down the acapella from Free*lands Heel 'n' Toe on top. Evil Nine return with Definitive Jux's Aesop Rock on Crooked for a mish mash of heavily percussive nu-skool breaks with abstract hip hop lyrics. The Nines also provide some remixes for the album such as Super Pet by Pet which brings the rock element back to the mix and features a wicked percussive break in the middle, while Adam puts down the acapella of Freeland's We Want Your Soul.
Steamulation by Justice vs Gambit (sounds more like a comic book lovers dream match up) leans toward Daft Punk electro with its synth riffs with b-boy breaks - it provides the first dramatic change in style for the mix and sets the tone for the aural assault of Bassbin Twins' Sqsh - a mash up of piercing industrial effects, bleeps, bloops and wobbly bass and plenty of vocal samples cutting in throughout.
Freeland then drops the tempo down to hip hop beats with Burn The Clock which has become a staple tune of Freeland's live DJ sets before going back to uptempo breaks with his new single F-Groove which sees him collaborating with the likes of the Soul Drummers resulting in a swing steppy 12/8's breaks tune. Freeland then teams up with Evil Nine for a percussive latin flavoured remix of Telemen's In All Nothing which goes back to 4/4 beats before completing the mix with Origin Unknown's drum'n'bass remix of Free*land's Mind Killer and slowing the mix again with deep techno on Radioactive Man's Airlock.
FabcricLIVE 16 is an example of what you'd hear during an Adam Freeland live DJ set, going through motions of upcoming nu-skool breakbeats moving through to drum'n'bass while covering electro and hip hop as well. It's a decent mix of styles, but I've found that I'm skipping though over a quarter of the tunes to get the good tracks. For those who love a little bit of rock in their breaks shouldn't go past this one, but for those expecting to hear something closer to Tectonics and On Tour may want to skip this.
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