Music :: High Contrast

One of my favorite clubs is this gia-normous place in London called Fabric. Hosting very large dance floors on all three levels, it feels like a very hip, very clean, 'roid-raged version of Buzz at Nation on a Friday night.

In addition to being a club, Fabric is one of the few venues of this type that also has a music label and produces CDs (though my understanding is that unlike The Hacienda, which was Factory's 51st project, Fabric the club is Fab 1 and the first CD was Fab 2). When you walk in and get past coat check, there is a machine filled with nothing but various Fabric and Fabric Live CDs.

Better still, if you're a tosser like I am, you can join Fabric First and have their new CD mailed to you every month. The January 2006 CD, Fabric Live 25 features High Contrast, the alter ego of Welsh Drum and Bass DJ Lincoln Barrett.

While I am the first to admit that I will go get my sweat on in the D&B room when the main room is spinning something lame -- (MESSAGE TO ALL ELECTRONICA DJS: Rarely does a loop with some female black artist work. The Afropeans can make it work, The Crystal Method can make it work, Occasionally DJ Irene can pull it off, otherwise stick to a hook we can all get down to, such as "I wanna be your motherfucker") -- I am not really a big Drum and Bass fan. I will stand and listen to it, I will appreciate it, but I don't have any exclusively D&B CDs in my collection.

That is, until I met High Contrast. Now we're BFF, we have charms.

As a graduate of DJ school, and as someone who understands a thimble full of music theory, I realize that by definition that this is Drum and Bass, but often D&B feels rough and like the beat is being pushed, where High Contrast sounds more like hard house/electronica that is just so happy to see you that it's running around in circles until it eventually stops and pees in the middle of the floor.

I'm sure many of you are saying, "alrighty then, not my idea of big fun", but this CD kicks so much ass it just hurts. I want to own it up and down Main Street.

In other exciting Electronic music news, Dance Blogga is passing on news from XM that BT is producing Tiesto's new CD.

FEMA failures after Kartina, Bush's stupid statement about cartoon violence, Cheney shooting a Lawyer, BT producing Tiesto's new CD. This news cycle could not get any better if Fox News burned their own headquarters to the ground.