Fabric 55

The self-effacing Lancashire-born Sam Shackleton first came to prominence during the early rise of the dubstep scene, running the label Skull Disco alongside Appleblim. Skull Disco is considered to have been influential, in that it combined more abstract or avant-garde musical forms with music that could work on advanced dancefloors. It was home to Shackleton's cuts such as 'Stalker,' 'Death Is Not Final' and 'Blood on My Hands,' reworked by Ricardo Villalobos into an eighteen minute four to the floor version. Most recently he released three EPs on Perlon, a Berlin label renowned for its low key approach to high creativity. From dubstep to techno, Shackleton's maverick take on big basslines and complex beats doesn't fit into any easy categories and that's how it's going to stay. Shackleton's records and live sets are thrilling and unique in their absorbing complexity and pure dancefloor enchantment. Fabric 55 is a timely record of Shackleton's electric live performances, recorded in the studio but directly inspired by the Fabric floor. The mix features partly new and unreleased original material - as well as tracks that have previously appeared on Perlon, Skull Disco and Hotflush, but in very different forms than the listener will have heard before. Rising out of the murky opening atmospheres are Shackleton's favored tribal drums and percussion that rapidly kick things into action. Refined sub-bass underpins much of the music here, alongside ceaseless drums, ominous vocal samples and layers of precise hisses, bleeps and mournful melody. Key to Shackleton's sound is a lightness of touch and delicacy in the arrangement that could be at odds with the force of his sound, but instead illuminates the different parts and awakens the senses. At times seriously freaky and twisted, with frantic percussion and jarring keys, there's an all-encompassing deepness to the whole as Shackleton weaves a path that completely absorbs up to the final sigh of the closing bars. It's a mix that instantly captures the listener and barely lets up before finally releasing you after eighty minutes of some of the most deep, intense and beautiful electronic music you are likely to hear this year.