Pinch - FabricLive. 61

Bristol born producer Pinch gives us his rendering of the dubstep scene in the brand new FabricLive edition. Well, I say dubstep, but Pinch delivers something that could only be described as '140BPM music' (which is now apparently called 'UK Bass music', who knew).

Pinch's mix blurs the line between house, dubstep & UK underground, creating a refreshing FabricLive mix and something abit different from the usual one genre editions. Begining with Distal's brooding electro track 'Venom (Pt.2)', the mix quickly takes a lighter turn with F's 'Slow Down', a spacey, almost tech house themed tune. Knowing Pinch though, things once again take a darker turn with his own remix of Henry & Louis ft. Prince Green's 'Love Like'. One of the stand out tracks, Pinch creates an airy, moody refix; incorporating woodwind like growls over the deep vocals. Quickly mixed in is another one of Pinch's own productions, 'Rooms Within a Room' is a colab between himself and Shackleton and was featured on their self titled album. The percussion on this one is about as sharp as it gets, beginning with a light, clean bongo intro the track builds to a dark, precise, sub filled second drop. Easily one of the best tracks in the mix (and infact the Pinch & Shackleton album) 'Rooms Within a Room' demonstrates that less is certainly more, and I imagine this causing absolute carnage on the dancefloor.

The mix then takes a funkier route, with tracks such as Boddika & Joy Orbison's recently released 'Swims' and Roly Porter's 'Hessra' demonstrating that Pinch really knows how to mix it up. Things can't stay too upbeat for too long however and in comes Pinch and Photek's chunky dubstep anthem 'Acid Reign' (Pinch's Dubplate Version [Which i'm not sure to be honest how different this is to the original]). Sure to please dubstep fans everywhere, Acid Reign is easily one of the heaviest tracks in the mix. After this, the dubstep influence is prominent, Loefah & Pinch's 'Broken' is a track filled with space & Emika's 'Double Edge' is a nice techy, distorted stepper. In rolls Roska's '480BC' however and things step up a notch, first noticed in the mix thanks to its noticeable bongo hits, 'Double Edge' fades out and you can hear the bass fueled power this track has, an absolute roller from Roska.

The latter part of the mix takes a more aggressive, electro turn with Jakes' 'Get Serious' and 'A Case Of The Bleeps' making an appearance. The edition ends with a nice warm minimal house type track from Illum Sphere entitled 'Promise A Secret', and fades out how it began, with Distal's somewhat lighter 'Venom (Pt.1)'.
All in all, an extremely well mixed and well mixed up edition to the FabricLive series. Which, despite it's lighter points, is a dark, moody look at the UK underground music scene, which it now seems is a blur between many bass filled genres.