Mix of intellect and musical ability
Feminist Review blog | worldwide | 08/25/2007
(5 out of 5 stars)
"It's hard to get a handle on who Ewan Pearson isn't, and what he doesn't do. His bio includes bits about being an underground electronic music idol (so much better than being an American Idol), a producer who did work for Gwen Stefani and a remixer who has `rerubbed' everyone from Depeche Mode to The Chemical Brothers and Franz Ferdinand to the Pet Shop Boys. Pearson's bio also includes a degree in English lit from Cambridge, and a Masters in Philosophy. On Fabric 35, also the name of a famous London nightclub where Pearson DJ's, he remixes 15 songs into one novella of music with a plot that lulls the listener in, and a subplot that keeps them close.
It's the mix of intellect and musical ability that shines through on Fabric 35 making it a stimulating trip from start to finish. Pearson is an obvious veteran of the electronic scene. He uses his skill to pull out the best elements of each song, and then blows them up like an awesome bubblegum bubble that pops deep bass all over your face when it bursts."
Are you present? Can you hold on?
LexAffection | Philadelphia, PA USA | 10/22/2007
(4 out of 5 stars)
"Following Ellen Allien's well-established Fabric footprints is anything but an easy task; Ewan Pearson, however, makes the job look just about as simple as rolling over in bed. Gas-powered grinding kicks off the thirty-fifth Fabric album that retains its dignity by being cohesive, but manages to be a wildly unique album in its own right by tearing at the very fabric of its own cohesiveness. Those who took note of Pearson's Sci.Fi.Hi.Fi_01 mix will be pleasantly surprised by this sexually funked follow-up record which really outdoes itself in bringing freshness to the scene.
Fabric 35 feels like "rocked-out" minimal tech music and whilst the blips, bloops and whirrs characteristic of minimal electronic music are never at a loss for musical speech, tracks like Jahcoozi's "Ali McBills" and Gui.tar's "Push In The Bush" lend a strongly danceable hand to this journey. Instead of floating on the surface of sporadically electronic elements like most minimal releases, Pearson's choice of tracks fine-tunes a simple yet steadfast raft upon which the listener can safely ride the turbulent waves of melody without fear of attention span going overboard.
Pearson crafts this proverbial raft in such a way that one is wildly aware of the one urgent caveat: Do not become complacent! When the solidity of Pearson's flow seems to border predictability, Snax's dirty house track "Honeymoon's Over," alongside the incessant jangle of tambourines and disco-funk vocals, suddenly lands with the type of "bang" that is certainly anything in the world but predictable. "Tranquillite" brings minimal-tribal house to the table - a genre rarely rearing its head from the deep underground house scene. Much like the rest of the album, this oddity simply delights the senses. The eccentric and often erratic movement from one shade of house to the next links very different tracks together in an electronic foxtrot. Most of the tracks with variability ranging from xylophones to oddball percussion and bells, whistles, deep throttling bass lines and wailing vocals from both genders blend into a single raging storm of delightful incongruity. The combination of these paradoxical elements finds Ewan Pearson at the top of his game, without question reaching new heights both for his own stylistic tendencies and those of the Fabric series. Allien's release was fairly cutting-edge for many of the same reasons, but in no way was Fabric 34 as workably dicey as Pearson's offering. A compact example of this can be found on "100 Hz," a jazzy crowd-pleaser with incredibly high-octave piano keys and bouncy, erratic minimalistic funk beats over spoken-word male vocals: "I love you, but I don't trust you. I don't trust in ya baby, I don't trust in you." Another paradoxical encounter, "Plastik" and "Can You Relate" turn up the craziness with mean and growling bass coming to a climax and exploding into a tempestuous club banger which is entirely sandwiched in-between two tracks which would find perfect residence amongst the likes of M.A.N.D.Y. or Tiefschwarz a la Fabric 29/Misch Masch. It is a simple instance of Pearson's finely crafted musical raft rising, riding along the crest of a wave and then crashing down on the surf where it began.
This is not the only case of musical undulation which occurs along the duration of Pearson's ride: In fact, the whole album can be compared to a sea-swell, continuously rising, peaking and sinking back only to rise again - but this time, peaking even higher than before. Perhaps the best albums from any genre are those mixed by DJs whose track selection is wholly incongruous and yet somehow manage to utilize the jumble to make a stronger, more diverse album. The pairing of Kaos' "Panopeeps (Origin)" and Beanfield `Tides' / Aril Birkha's "C's Movement #1? simply has to be heard to be believed.
And thus, without speaking so much as a word, Ewan Pearson brings to a close his finest work to date and poses rather forceful questions to newcomers: Are you present? Can you hang on for the ride?
~Lex"
Track Listings (15) - Disc #1