Flava D - Fabriclive 88

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  • Today we know Flava D as a skilled and colourful DJ, someone who always brings the party with her blend of sugary UKG and tough-nut grime and bassline. A Flava D set is permeated with pop hooks, old favourites and new bass anthems—plus plenty of MC bars to sing along with. But Danielle Gooding really is a producer first and foremost. Before signing to Butterz, she was hard at it, selling instrumentals over Myspace and collaborating with various grime kingpins (Wiley, Ghetts, Merky Ace) and even hip-hop artist Black The Ripper. Gooding started making music at 16 and was a participant in London's RBMA in 2010. By the release of her breakout single, Hold On / Home, she was an accomplished grime producer—albeit a largely uncredited one. Butterz swiveled the spotlight onto Gooding and elbowed her into the DJ booth, which she has since used to air her own music. Pushing Flava D productions has always been on the agenda, which is exactly what she does on her Fabriclive mix. There are only a handful of tunes on Fabriclive 88 that Gooding hasn't had a hand in, including Marco Del Horno and DJ Swerve's funky club-slayer with D Double E, "Dem Tings Dere," and "Like This," another D Double vocal. There are also tracks from Gooding's T Q D partners DJ Q and Royal T, unreleased material from Champion (the grime classicist "Gunshot"), a new vocal edit of Terror Danjah's "Juicy Patty," and some lesser-known names Gooding is championing. The rest is all Flava D favours. We begin in the piña colada-sipping portion of the mix, with some of Gooding's self-released UKG tracks, before the grizzly bassline of Taiki Nulight collab "Conflict." It kicks off a sweet and streetwise relay that persists until TuffCulture's uplifting, Todd Edwards-esque "To My Heart" begins the mix's UKG-centric comedown. In terms of a Flava D set, it mostly ticks all the boxes: female stamps in abundance, pop hooks (like Moski's "What I Like"), MCs and big bass anthems—including My Nu Leng collab "Soul Shake," Swindle's "Mad Ting" (remixed into a killer bassline romp) and "Kill Alla Dem," a new one from Champion and Flava D. The mix could do with a bit more deviation, though. By the time we enter the second half, the garage-grime back and forth has grown tiresome and feels overloaded with Flava D productions. But that ultimately seems irrelevant. Gooding's music has been mounting in the shadows for years, and she's proven to be a major force in the dance, with the mixing skills to match. Fabriclive 88, then, is a personal portrait of Flava D, the uncompromising artist who's dancing to nobody's tune but her own.
  • Tracklist
      01. Flava D - Intro 02. Flava D - Whistler 03. Taiki Nulight & Flava D - Conflict 04. Riddim Commission feat. D Double E - Dem Tings Dere 05. Champion - Gunshot 06. Flava D - Closer feat. Miss Fire 07. Flava D - Bleeding 08. Majestic - Crooks VIP 09. Flava D - Wheels 10. D Double E - Like This 11. DJ Q - Flavor 12. Flava D - Hold On 13. Moksi - What I Like (DJ Q Remix) 14. My Nu Leng & Flava D - Soul Shake 15. Swindle - Mad Ting (Flava D Remix) 16. Flava D & DevelopMENT - Gun Down 17. Royal T & Deadbeat UK - Revenge 18. Flava D - Changed My Way 19. Notion - Glow 20. Flava D & Miss Fire - Happy 21. Flava D & Holy Goof - Section Request 22. Terror Danjah- Dollar Sign feat. Stush & Sticky 23. Flava D - In The Dance VIP 24. Distro - Off The Chain 25. Champion, Flava D & Slick Don - Kill Alla Dem 26. TuffCulture - To My Heart 27. Flava D - Clarity 28. Flava D - Motions 29. T Q D - Only One 30. Flava D - Searching
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