- A wild, twisty ride that highlights Leon Vynehall's unique storytelling skills.
- Just three years ago, Leon Vynehall released a career-defining mix CD, hot on the heels of an equally important album. His DJ-Kicks was the kind of mix you really get to know, one whose contours and transitions become embedded in your memory, a mix that gives a whole new context to each of the songs inside. In short, it felt like one of those magical once-in-a-discography moments. But now I'm feeling deja vu. Fresh off last year's triumphant Rare, Forever LP—something of a return to the dance floor—now Vynehall appears with another mix CD in an equally iconic series. In keeping with the twisty, ecstatic vibes of Rare, Forever, fabric presents Leon Vynehall is a straight-up club mix, which, in his hands, means it's full of captivating stops and starts, dips into hip-hop and downtempo and how-did-he-do-that blends. It might even be better than his DJ-Kicks.
Over the course of these 77 minutes, Vynehall moves from emo rap to classic dub techno to colossal drumfunk and Portuguese batida, but we don't need to congratulate a DJ for playing more than one genre anymore. The value here is in the way Vynehall plots his journey between extremes, sometimes by emphasizing differences or simply collapsing them. Take the beginning of the mix, wading through tracks by Zebrablood, Newworldaquarium, Lo Jack and Lady Blacktronika. The seams are inaudible, and all these tracks take on a funky, broken beat quality somewhere between techno and dancehall. Vynehall's steady hand helps them melt into each other and become something else entirely, something that feels funky and universal as his own work.
But I wouldn't call fabric presents Leon Vynehall particularly steady. Instead, Vynehall bases the mix around a number of inflection points that either restart or recalibrate the energy. The first comes with Or:la's "Allaballa," a lumbering drum track that sounds almost like nothing she's done before, that then enters a spirited section culminating in a dubby house track from Basic Channel as Round Four. The next comes with A2's "Midsummer Misery," a wonderfully catchy sadboi rap track with an exquisite piano instrumental that could have come from Vynehall himself. Instead off going slow from there, the mix veers into skippy UK garage, another rap tune and then tumbles into a section of UK funky and batida, before Skee Mask's "Untitled 279" leads into Avon Blume's "South Bermo"—a monstrous drumfunk track that marks the beginning of the mix's gratifying final stretch.
Vynehall's own "Sugar Slip (The Lick)" is the climax of fabric presents Leon Vynehall, a track whose giddy energy and fitful structure becomes almost heart-palpitating, as if juggling all the momentum Vynehall built up over the previous 28 tracks. This is also when you start to realize the sheer amount of music you've heard—by the time the wistful strains of Ana Roxanne take things down at the end, you've been through 33 songs. It's a testament to Vynehall's flawless mixing that fabric presents never feels particularly fast-paced or jumpy, even when it stops and starts again. Vynehall is weaving songs together rather than running through them, a fitting approach for an artist obsessed with narrative and storytelling.
It's easy to note the differences between fabric presents Leon Vynehall and his DJ-Kicks, but it's more interesting to take stock of the similarities. Both feel like painstaking personal expressions, and both are put together idiosyncratically but beautifully, with flows and sequencing that defy usual dance floor logic to superb effect. One of the most pleasurable things about Rare, Forever was, amidst its festival main stage moments and occasional Four Tet vibes, that it was genuinely weird, going in directions you don't expect. Vynehall takes an equally circuitous route on fabric presents, pulling you along for a thrilling joy ride at 100 MPH through every kind of terrain you could imagine.
Tracklist01. Leon Vynehall - Climb Into The Cistern feat. Wesley Joseph
02. Zebrablood - Whatcomesup96
03. Newworldaquarium - Star Power
04. Lo Jack - Virgin Traff 22
05. Lady Blacktronika - Good Dick
06. Mute - Never
07. Louise Bock - Horologic
08. Or:la - Allaballa
09. Pole - Überfahrt
10. Gombeen & Doygen - D'Americana
11. Round Four - Found A Way
12. Woo - Wah Bass
13. Mosca - This Branch Is Weak
14. Steevio - Syzygy
15. A2 - Midsummer Misery
16. DJ Deep & Traumer - La Valle La B (La Deep Mix)
17. DB Selective - Dub Train
18. Wax - Switch
19. Hagan - FWD
20. Bubas Produçoes - Padjinha Pt 3
21. A.k.Adrix - FL Studio, Obrigado
22. Skee Mask - Untitled 279
23. Avon Blume - South Bermo
24. Sector Y - Road To World Cup
25. Innersphere aka Shinedoe - Phunk
26. Gaunt - Raw Cartoon
27. Piero Umiliani (Zalla) - Produzione
28. Commodo - Scabz
29. Leon Vynehall - Sugar Slip (The Lick)
30. Mala - Misty Winter feat. Crazy D
31. Ehua - Helios
32. N-ERGY - The Mad 808
33. Ana Roxanne - Suite Pour L'Invisible