Commix - FabricLive 44

Commix step up to the plate to deliver the latest mix in the Fabric series, an intricately thought out collection of dark, trippy drum’n’bass that harks back to the jungle days of yore and often throws forward to some of the more futuristic sounds of the scene today. It’s a bit of a slow burner, the first half of the mix a bit plodding with not much variation in the break; much like background deebee if such a thing exists.

Not until D-Bridge’s remix of their own ‘Belleview’ do things get a bit more spicy, with a tough, growling bassline and future funk bleeps turning the mix in a direction lot more inviting of the listener that weaves between breakbeat science, dubby liquid and the more experimental sounds associated with Commix. Yet as soon as things get going it all unravels, albeit rather elegantly. Breakage’s ‘Old School Ting’ is nothing more than a death throe before two Instra:mental twenty-first century takes on jungle sandwich Photek’s timeless ‘Yendi’.

It’s technically flawless making for a fluid mix but it never quite gets out of the starting blocks or raises its game. The final coupling is probably the highlight of the mix but comes at the end of a relatively uninspiring effort. It’s the perfect soundtrack to a long night time drive with nothing but the open road and open mind to think about, but in the comfort of your own home it fails to illuminate much.