| DJ Sets ::Fabric Club Nights
N0. 2 RATED CLUB IN THE WORLD BY
DJ MAG
Fabric
Details...
Fabric
Nightclub, 77a Charterhouse Street, Clerkenwell, London, EC1M
3HN. UK
Fabric has its main UK Club base in London
where some of the best progressive house & breakbeat in
the country can be heard. The club also has its own lable
where it has produced several Fabric Live albums. Fabric does
not yet have its own festival.
DJ Mag
Club Review...
It was shortly after 10:30 when we arrived
in the Farringdon area of London , which just happens to be
where my two favourite clubs are: Turnmills and Fabric. Tonight
we are off to Fabric, to see the one and only Sasha.
Even at this hour, the customary Fabric queue was already
in place; you know the one, down the road, round the corner
and growing longer by the minute Lucky we were on the guestlist!
(He, He).
Warming up for Sasha in room 1 from 10-2, was Paolo Mojo,
and up and coming star from the UK. Yet another DJ playing
only CDs, Mojo treated an already packed dancefloor to a magnificent
display, encompassing house, funk, techno, breaks, electro
and acid, plus probably a few more that I've forgotten!
While awaiting Sasha, we spent some time in the less busy
room 2, which we also thought was quite superb. Terry Francis
was ripping it up with some driving tech house, to the backdrop
of a bamboozling green laser that I wanted to take home with
me! Oh, I really loved that laser.
As 2 o'clock approached, it seemed like the whole club had
migrated to room 1. It was an unusual looking DJ booth, with
only one redundant turntable, several Pioneer CDJs, and a
massive 17" screen with Sasha's laptop. There was also
another unusual piece of equipment that was Sasha's specially
made controller, enabling him to DJ with his laptop. This
is a glimpse into the future of DJing (or the present if you
are Sasha!), as his whole set was delivered using only his
laptop via a programme called Ableton Live. No vinyl, no CDs,
just a laptop! I wonder when he last used a piece of vinyl
For those who don't know about Ableton Live, it's a piece
of software that's been around for a while now, used mainly
by producers. It is unique as you can load a track into it
of a certain BPM, then load in another track of a totally
different BPM, and Bingo, they will automatically play perfectly
at the same speed! There is a bit of preparation required
beforehand, but you can see where this is leading For a DJ
beatmatching is a thing of the past, the beats will never
go out of time, and you hardly even need your headphones!
For many this is not DJing as it should be, and it is not
visually appealing. On the other hand, it opens up new avenues
for DJs and allows them to be really creative. The DJ can
simply forget about monitoring the beats, and for example,
concentrate solely on adding effects or cutting up tunes and
re-editing them there and then, which was what Sasha was doing.
The end result is a flawless creative set that can only make
the night even more enjoyable for the clubbers.
Sasha's set was excellent to say the least, opening with
his own special intro, as heard on his Radio 1 Essential Mix
broadcast that same night, and dropping tunes such as his
own Wavy Gravy, and the Gorillaz latest offering.
As mentioned above, I don't think I've ever seen a room so
busy in my life, and to say that it was too busy would be
a huge understatement; once you were on the dancefloor you
weren't getting off in a hurry!
The sound at Fabric is spot on. It doesn't seem that loud,
but it is, I'm told it can be cranked up to 123 db, which
is almost the equivalent of an aeroplane taking off, but you
were still able to talk to people without too much of a problem.
At 5 am, the sound man Sanj, decided to give it a "little"
tweak, and the resulting bass coming out of the panels in
the floor rippled right through your body! Very nice.
There is also a third room upstairs that I haven't mentioned,
and some nice little areas for chilling out.
Overall, the Fabric experience is quite special, in a different
league from most clubs, hence the ridiculous queues! However,
it is worth the wait, and you should definitely go sometime.
N0. 2 RATED CLUB IN THE WORLD BY 
