Artist: Alan Fitzpatrick
Album: Fabric 87
Label: Fabric Records
Release date: 15/04/2016
A quick glance at Alan Fitzpatrick's gigs listing in 2016, before he's even axed down the doors to the summer season, is intimidating. But he's been at this game for years, ever since he meteorically broke through in 2009 by signing with Adam Beyer's Drumcode imprint, which led to releases on Cocoon, BPitch Control, Hotflush Recordings and Hypercolour, as well as an explosive Radio 1 Essential Mix. With a relentless work ethic, he stepped up to this assignment with a mission to push a mix that bleeds timelessness and puts unknown tracks on the frontline.
Recorded in one take, Fabric 87 flawlessly mixes special edits with exclusive and unreleased material, which illuminates Fitzpatrick as being cognizant of a clubber's lust for both eyes-shut elation and frenzied raving that Fabric's Room 2 is renowned for. The mix treads in cautiously with an eerie melodic reworking of Charlotte de Witte's, 'Weltschmerz', and briefly enjoys a flirtation with a stirring edit of Radio Slave's remixed Scuba track, 'All I Think About Is Death'. On feeling the thudded drilling of fourth track, Roberto's Triago, we can sense the rain down of bangers is imminent and by Bjarki's feverish 'Windy Cindy', we're thrust into torrential territory.
After a momentary dip in intensity, he advances back into the eye of the storm via his own pounding productions, 'Where Haus?', and the nostalgically diced '1992', which slam in consecutively. 'TrySome' by Monoloc, a release from this year, is a head reclining beauty that gives just a little room to catch your breath before we're chucked back into the murky deep end with 'Forward' - a peak-time heavy hitter from Ilario Alicante.
Bringing his magnetic Fabric 87 series to a close is the techno titan himself. He draws the curtain with his unreleased Light Up remix of 'Bullets' by Drewxhill, and that just about allows time for the worked-up sweat to dry and draws you into a moment of reflection.
Although Fitzpatrick doesn't need to cement his reputation as a dominant tastemaker, this can only do just that. If you're the sort who suffers from obsessive pause and rewind syndrome, then it's going to be a tough job getting through this 76-minute mix in one go. Good luck - you'll be wishing this could be recreated in all it's entirety on the dancefloor.
WORDS | Aimee Lawrence
Tracklist
01 Charlotte de Witte – Weltschmerz (Melodic Theme)
02 Scuba – All I Think About Is Death (Radio Slave Atmos)
03 Marcel Fengler – Zen
04 Roberto – Triage
05 Truncate & Jimmy Edgar – Submission (Truncate Rework)
06 Mike Dehnert – Wokabeat
07 Reset Robot – Lolly Pop (4am Mix)
08 Audion – Mouth to Mouth (Scuba's Orbital 93 Mix)
09 Bjarki – Windy Cindy
10 Markus Suckut – Untitled #3
11 Alan Fitzpatrick – Where Haus?
12 Alan Fitzpatrick – 1992 (Boxia VIP)
13 Mike Dehnert – Meckwiki
14 Monoloc – TrySome
15 Reset Robot – Pressure (Roman Lindau Remix)
16 Psyk – Stigma
17 Alan Fitzpatrick – Eyes Wide Open(Mark Broom Edit)
18 Ilario Alicante – Forward
19 Operator – Flat Rotation Curves
20 2000 and One – Wrangel Calling
21 Session Restore – Speak Out
22 Alan Fitzpatrick – End Theme
23 Drewxhill – Bullets (Alan Fitzpatrick's Lights Up Remix)
