- It's hard to review Fabriclive 67—Ben Thomson's latest commercial attempt to "contextualise music for people at a time where information is spread pretty chaotically"—without referencing his Rinse:16 mix. 67 is certainly darker, perhaps narrower in its focus. Moments of joyful release are few. It doesn't conclude as boldly as its predecessor did, with a blast of ungodly noise from Andrew Coltrane and How To Dress Well. Instead, the tone here is that of funky dread, night terrors, merciless mechanised brutality.
With Ben UFO, it's all a matter of degrees. If 67 has a more coherent thrust than some of his other mixes, it still goes to places that most DJs would never think of, much less navigate so successfully. Thomson is authoritative, and very intimate with his source material. He understands it. Early on, we move, if not seamlessly then deftly from a typically distorted barrage on L.I.E.S to the bongos 'n' bleeps of Tim "Love" Lee's "The Tortoise." Later, in a passage where time seems to stop for a moment of reverie, "Mukuba Special," Shackleton's African hi-life throwdown with the Kasai Allstars, laps back and forth like water into Mr Finger's "I'm Strong" and then into the acidic grooves of the meditative "Zug Island."
Elsewhere, though, Thomson goes hard. There was a lot of talk last year about how the leading lights of bass music were "going techno." But Ben UFO is doing much more than that. He is forging an essentially UK hybrid which, even at its most steely, is not techno in the sense of steady forward momentum and patient evolution. The UFO sound is far more Brixton than Berghain, with a non-stop sensory assault of subby, slithering garage basslines, snatched R&B vocals, grimy electronics, juddering rave-continuum riffs, and beats that are forever busting with fresh counterpoints and bumpy fills. Rhythmically, Ben UFO is giddy, ebullient even. Which is why, even at his most corrosive, he is not just a very smart "crate-digger," but also a phenomenal party starter.
Tracklist 01. Mix Mup - Dub
02. Delroy Edwards - Feelings
03. Pev & Kowton - Raw Code
04. Tim 'Love' Lee - The Tortoise (Sex Tags Mania NYC Mix)
05. Elgato - Zone
06. Gesloten Cirkel - Twisted Balloon
07. Chicago Skyway - It's OK
08. K Hand - Project 5 (Untitled B1)
09. Fluxion - Pendoulous
10. Minimal Man - Consexual
11. Jam City - Club Thanz
12. Herbert - Take Me Back
13. Lowtec - Looser
14. Pearson Sound - Clutch
15. Mr. Fingers - I'm Strong (Instrumental)
16. Shackleton vs Kasai Allstars - Mukuba Special
17. Kyle Hall and Kero - Zug Island
18. Circuit Breaker - Ping
19. Osborne - Bout Ready to Jak (Shake Remix)
20. Juniper - Jovian Planet
21. A Made Up Sound - Malfunction (Despair)
22. Grain - Untitled
23. Bandshell - Perc
24. Blawan - And Both His Sons
25. Pangaea - Release
26. Joe - Studio Power On
27. Floating Points - Danger (Locked Groove)
28. Grown Folk x Main Attrakionz - I.C.E. (Kuedo Remix)