It says a lot about the growth of dubstep over the past year that Dutch producer Martyn has been given the illustrious responsibility of mixing the 50th edition of the Fabric compilation series, a disc which up until now has traditionally been the plaything of house and techno DJs. It also says a lot about Martyn’s impact on the electronic music world that, in a way, ‘Fabric 50’ sits more comfortably alongside past mixes from the likes of Magda, Luke Slater and Carl Craig than it would with the more typical dubstep mixes by Tayo and Caspa & Rusko for the ‘Fabriclive’ side of the series.
The key to this – as is always the case when Martyn’s concerned – is innovation. Despite knowing, from his debut album ‘Great Lengths’, that Martyn was a pioneer at fusing together all sorts of musical styles, we were still pretty astounded when we first saw the track list of the mix – songs from all shades of the musical spectrum, somehow all sitting back to back on Martyn’s pallet. If you just look at the first and last tracks, Hudson Mohawke’s ‘Joy Fantastic’ and Dorian Concept’s ‘Trilingual Dance Sexperience’, you’d think this was an instrumental hip-hop mix. A glance at the presence of Roska and Cooly G would identify this as a UK funky/ dancehall set, while scan your eyes down further to Ben Klock and Redshape and this becomes an exhibition of techno. All the while Zomby, Kode9 and Joy Orbison keep the proceedings rooted in dubstep.
So what’s going on? “For the selection, I just wanted to try and make it as varied as possible and get people from all different corners of the globe together on one CD,” explains Martyn. If he was as successful every time he tried this as he is on ‘Fabric 50’, then perhaps the Dutchman should consider swapping DJing for a leading role within the UN – he’d bring the world together with no problem. Some of the transitions on the CD at times aren’t the most fluid, but that really isn’t the point. What we’ve got here is an insight into Martyn’s musical mind, revealing the influences behind his own brand of innovative music production, which also features predominantly on the mix. His remix of ‘Circles’ sounds like the result of an unlikely threesome between dubstep, techno and ska, while gems from ‘Great Lengths’ such as ‘Vancouver’ and ‘Is This Insanity?’ remind us just why Martyn was entrusted with making this mix in the first place. And he shows no signs of slowing down his ascent to the top of the dubstep world, with new track ‘Friedrichstrasse’ proving that this is one producer who continues to go from strength to strength.
Craig Richards set a precedent back in 2001 with the first of the Fabric series, and now, 49 CDs and almost ten years later, Martyn has taken up the mantle and has raised the bar even higher. Here’s hoping that the next 50 will be as good as this.
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