Fabric 32 (CD - 2007)

Audio Remixer: Gui Boratto.

Luke Slater is a dance club veteran, and one of the people credited with fusing the sounds of U.K. and Detroit techno. His sound is rather chilly and often quite minimalist, but even when he's working with a minimum of musical elements he manages to hold your attention by introducing subtle variations that compel you to stay tuned. His contribution to the Fabric series is essentially a live album -- a DJ mix performed in one long session, though in the studio rather than in a club. It features contributions from such eminent artists as Spank Rock, Switch, and the Juan Maclean, as well as secret-handshake names like Raudive and Perspects. Although all of them share a similarly dry vibe, some are more minimalist than others: on one end of the spectrum is Shakes' "Sister Self-Doubt," which is actually a fun and new wave-y song, and at the other end is Basic Channel's "Phylyps Track II/II," a grey and featureless track that becomes almost physically painful after the first minute-and-a-half. ("GT (Version 2)" by Planetary Assault Systems is similarly arid and unenjoyable). Somewhere between are Slater's own "She Showed Me Heaven" (docked a point for gratuitous smarminess) and Colin Zyskowski's pleasantly glitchy "For the Asking." Not bad overall. ~ Rick Anderson minimize