fabric 64: Guy Gerber

The latest Fabric release caught my attention for two reasons; firstly, it's Guy Gerber; secondly, it's ONLY Guy Gerber, or 'Guy Gerber featuring..', one show here. Like Ricardo Villalobos' Fabric mix, Guy presents his own, as of yet unreleased music, with a few collaborations with Clarian North, Lady Falkor and Deniz Kurtel.

I decided this would be well worth the gamble; after all, how often is it that Gerber's records feature on other DJ's mixes and his productions are among the outstanding moments of their sets? Not rarely, that's for sure. So a set of nearly pure Gerber from start to finish could either show just how consistently good he is, or that possibly that he's more hit an miss than his frequent appearence on other tracklists would suggest. The outcome is a pleasing one.. Guy's deep, soulful prog sound is complemented by his eye for constructing a fluid, smooth set by ordering the tracks just right. The set's feel is not at all dissimular to Sasha's groundbreaking Involver series, in particular involver 2.

The tune of the album for me is 'The Golden Sun and The Silver Moon', which has a trully infectious melody accompanied by echoing male vocals, a little reminiscent of UNKLE's productions. Another favourite would be the rhythmic 'One Day in May' which just oozes class. I've opted to give this fabric 4 (or perhaps 4.5) rather than 5 stars because I felt it just lost my interest a little in a patch nearing it's close, and perhaps it needed a touch more variety in it's mid-late stages. Still, I'd definitely recommend this album to any fan of Sasha, Digweed or Nick Warren, or any other true prog-head out there, for Gerber really is in their premier division as a producer and DJ.

Verdict: 4.5 stars.

This is the first time I've ever reviewed a purchase on Amazon, but I was moved to by the scope, beauty and ambition of this amazing album. Forget dance music genres, this album transcends music in all its forms, with amazing transitions, harmonies and arrangements.

Tracks 3 and 7 are the highlights for me, but it does a disservice to the rest of the album to single them out at the expense of the rest. The fact it was written by Guy alone in such a short space of time gives the mix a seamless quality, while bringing you out in an idiotic grin / screwed up "that's cool" face at regular intervals.

Please, please, buy it!

My God....this is simply off the charts - been listening to it continuously. Synthy cosmic techno. A contemporary classic. Just buy it.