- It's a feature of the fabric experience—and, I know now, of the Zip experience—that the pursuit of anything as straightforward as a blow-by-blow account is, inevitably, a vain endeavour. At least the Panorama Bar shutters allow daylight to creep through. On a good night in the fabric pit, the only giveaway that time is passing is the swelling of the Room 1 crowd as the smaller rooms close; though on a half capacity night like Saturday, even this is barely noticeable.
First, the tracks I recognised can be counted on one hand. Of the four or more Gemini tracks played, two are on an EP so rare that I'd be surprised if anyone other than one of my friends (who owns it) could have identified them. But obscure records are just one of Zip's many means of dissimilation: there's the metronomic beatmatching; the meticulous attention to detail in the levels (facilitated by a rotary mixer); a preternatural ear for stitching basslines together; and, most bewilderingly, his habit of mixing between records in a matter of seconds, entirely without the jarring effect that that implies. The combination of the deftness, rapidity and ease of touch was to leave me flabbergasted at regular intervals during the night. It's the mark of a man who truly knows his records.
If, at the start of his set, Zip seemed to spend a lot of time constructing his initial rhythmic framework, this diligence was purely so that his later forays into breakbeats or electro would punch that bit harder. And I use these genre definitions only in the absence of more precise descriptors, because he played some records the likes of which I've never heard before. For a concrete illustration: it says a lot about the range of the set that Ron Trent's "Piano Track" provided a suitably mundane moment in which to go to the loo. Full credit as always to the Room 1 sound system for reproducing this breadth of sound with its usual finesse.
Zip finished up around 8:30 AM, closing with Horror Inc.'s jazz fantasy "Dans La Nuit" and an unidentified encore. I find it reassuring, in the face of rising door prices, difficult crowds and a surplus of featureless tech house drudgery, that such a complementary meeting of venue and DJ can be engineered. It's obvious that Zip and fabric were made for each other.