- A number of unknown quantities added to the palpable sense of anticipation that preceded Nicolas Jaar's recent appearance at London's fabric. For a start, this was the first time he'd rocked up on our shores with a live band in tow, and what exactly this "live band" element would consist of was the source of some speculation pre-gig. Secondly, I've never been to fabric mid-week—something I'm sure could be said of many of my fellow attendees. Finally, there was Jaar himself, who, although hardly an unknown quantity, still incites a kind of hushed reverence that is a true rarity within the club and electronic music scene.
For the first hour or so after our arrival, Carsten Klemann warmed up the steadily swelling Room 1 crowd (this, and the balcony above it, being the only section of the club that were open) with an edit-happy set that flitted between bouncy house and dance floor-friendly re-rubs of pop tracks. Unfortunately a slightly garish edit of Human League's "Don't You Want Me" sticks in my mind above all else, but in general the set was well-judged and concluded with a few seriously dope house cuts.
By the time Jaar and his band took to the stage the room was ridiculously busy. Opening with a sped up version of "Love You Gotta Lose Again" which dropped into the original sub-100 BPM version at about the halfway mark, Jaar cut a humbly confident figure behind his banks of controllers, synths and keyboards. Any fears that his intimate sound would be lost in the cavernous space were quickly put to rest. True, he stuck to the more upbeat numbers in his catalogue rather than testing the waters with the truly melancholic moments from Space Is Only Noise or his Clown & Sunset imprint, but when faced with making an impact at a venue such as fabric, he can hardly be criticised for doing so.
The live band turned out to be a drummer, saxophonist/keyboard player and a guitarist, with Jaar conducting all three at various times with various gestures to ensure all four knew when each should take centre stage. Apart from a few excellent drum solos however, the attention was rarely diverted from Jaar himself. Although visually you could see what each of the members were contributing, at times the "live" element of the show felt a little arbitrary. The guitar especially was often lost during the rare occasions that the instrument was called upon.
Jaar, though, was phenomenal. From a stunning new piano part on "Too Many Kids in the Dust" to an incredible re-worked version of "There Might Be a Problem With the Sun" to the thunderous "El Bandido" (which received an equally thunderous reaction), the energy was relentless and flowed beautifully from one track to the next. Conventional wisdom would suggest that you simply can't go from 80 to 110 bpm in a 30-second time frame, but Jaar proved otherwise.
Two experiments in the realms of atmospheric bass music followed Jaar's solo encore reappearance, before he was rejoined by the band to close with "Space Is Only Noise If You Can See." It was slightly spoiled by some "main room"-ish synths and an annoying guitar part which jazzed-up the dark and brooding album version. This slightly disappointing finale, however, could in no way tarnish what was a musically exceptional and deeply satisfying night.