A-Trak, fresh off the Kanye Express, returns this month with two mixes at (basically) the same time: different labels, very different personnel in the track lists, different emphases, yet essentially the same feel, same splashiness, same shameless intent to entertain by any cost. And yet both mixes are distinct—doubly impressive for a pair of surefire party-starters, in intent and in execution, so close in shape and sound to one another.
Infinity +1 is the one getting the hard push, and it's easy to hear why: It's basically a skillful, savvy version of the type of late-night mix you might find at 2 AM Saturday night on a fairly adventurous "rhythmic" FM-radio station in the States. Despite A-Trak's 2007 mash-up disc, Dirty South Dance, and his Kanye connection, the hip-hop on Infinity +1 is less important than the clubby beats and propulsive movement of the whole. Rap really only comes into the mix after gleaming electro by John Dahlbäck, KIM and Laurent Wolf lead into Lifelike's remix of Farley "Jackmaster" Funk's defining early house anthem "Love Can't Turn Around." A-Trak's own remix of MSTRKRFT's "Bounce," just about defines the feel of the whole CD with its gleeful build-ups and breakdowns and noisy aspects—a bulbous 303 line here, as opposed to the fuzzed-up mid-range filtering of Boys Noize's take on Gonzales' "Working Together" or the grainy bass of Fake Blood's remix of Little Boots' "Stuck on Repeat." If you've heard too many of these songs already, I understand. But they work well in A-Trak's setting.
Not as well as the selections on FabricLive 45, however. This one is all house, all the time, and if anything it's even more populist. But where Infinity +1 surveys recent work, FabricLive 45 jumps across the past decade and a half, beginning with DJ Sneak's mid-'90s filter-disco jump-starter "You Can't Hide From Your Bud" before touching down on Daft Punk's remix of "Mothership Reconnection" and finishing off with DJ Zinc's defining 2-step garage anthem "138 Trek." It also makes room for blog favorites like Aeroplane's Friendly Fires refix and three cuts from the Fool's Gold label, as well as Detroit techno from the Martian and Skepta's "Sweet Mother," which retrofits a Nigerian highlife tune.
Yet for all this eclecticism, most of the Fabric mix feels very, well, jackin'—only A-Trak doesn't use any actual old Chicago jack tracks. Instead, he draws a lot of fairly obvious and very entertaining lines between all those elements, from '90s filter-disco to current nu-disco, with plenty in between, without a whiff of scholarly stuff-shirtedness. He's just throwing a party, as similar—and different—as the last one.
Buy A-Trak - Infinity +1 / FabricLive.45 at
Tracklist: A-Trak - Infinity +1 / FabricLive.45
Infinity +1
01. Intro / John Dahlbäck - Sidewalk
02. KIM - Party Machini
03. Laurent Wolf - The Crow
04. Farley Jackmaster Funk - Love Can’t Turn Around (Lifelike Remix)
05. MSTRKRFT feat. N.O.R.E. - Bounce (A-Trak Remix)
06. Donnis - Party Works
07. Kid Sister - Life On TV
08. Sébastien Tellier - Kilometer (A-Trak Remix)
09. The Golden Filter - Solid Gold
10. Bag Raiders - Nil By Mouth (Knightlife Remix)
11. Holy Ghost! - Hold On
12. DJ Mehdi - Pocket Piano (Joakim Remix)
13. Midnight Juggernauts - Shadows
14. Gonzales - Working Together (Boys Noize Dub Mix)
15. Soundstream - Freakin
16. Little Boots - Stuck On Repeat (Fake Blood Remix)
17. Housemeister - What You Want (Siriusmo Remix)
18. A-Trak - Say Whoa (DJ Spinna Remix)
19. Dam Funk - Galactic Fun
20. Alexander Robotnick - Problèmes d’Amour
21. James Yuill - This Sweet Love (Prins Thomas Sneaky Edit)
FabricLive.45
 01. A-Trak - Say Whoa / DJ Sneak - You Can't Hide From Your Bud
02. Boys Noize - Oh! (A-Trak Remix)
03. Scott Grooves feat Parliament Funkadelic - Mothership Reconnection (Daft Punk Remix)
04. Voodoo Chilli - Get On Down
05. Skepta - Sweet Mother (House Version)
06. DJ Class - I'm The Ish
07. Metronomy - Heartbreaker (Diskjokke Remix)
08. His Majesty Andre - Peep Thong
09. Zombie Nation – Forza (Original)
10. Alex Gopher – Aurora
11. Dance Area - AA 24-7
12. Robbie Rivera - Move Move (DJ Observer & Daniel Heathcliff Remix)
13. Daniele Papini - Church of Nonsense
14. Laidback Luke & A-Trak - Shake It Down
15. Nacho Lovers - Acid Life (Nachos 909 Dub)
16. Rob Threezy - The Chase
17. Friendly Fires - Paris (Aeroplane Remix)
18. Fan Death - Veronica's Veil (Erol Alkan's Extended Re-Edit)
19. Simon Baker - Plastik (Todd Terje's Turkatech Remix)
20. The Martian - Tobacco Ties
21. DJ Gant-Man - Juke Dat Girl From The Back
22. DJ MP4 - The Book Is On The Table
23. Jamie Anderson & Content - Body Jackin'
24. Raffertie - Do Dat
25. DJ Zinc – 138 Trek
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