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Anyone who’s ever braced for a car crash or a punch to the stomach that never actually happens may get a similar feeling after listening to Adam Beyer’s Fabric 22. For a DJ and producer whose reputation has ridden on playing the most hard-hitting techno around, Fabric 22 shows considerable restraint. Beyer might even be accused of soft-selling his sound in order to keep with the Fabric stable. Let’s be fair, Fabric 22’s wonky, cut-up minimal intro of Slam’s “This World” (Wighnomy Brothers & Robag Whrume Remix) is miles away from the pulverizing techno madness he’s displayed on either his Drumcode or Code Red labels. But Beyer belies his rep and turns the mix into a more nuanced, slow burn and wends it through more offbeat minimalism by DJ Minx, Alex Under, the Gadgets, Dominik Eulberg, Osborne and Beyer’s own bumping “Snuff & Noise.” By the time Beyer drops fellow Swede Joel Mull’s reliably mechanistic “Persuaded,” the mix toughens up thanks to tunes by Alex Long, Tony Rohr, David Roiseux’s crunchy “Demented” and some swings into some funky techno grooves courtesy of Tim Track, Sterac and Cari Lekebusch, another Swede, with his patented layers, loops and shimmering, filtered vocals on “Motions of Energy.” For the masochistic, Fabric 22 won’t total your ride or leave you gasping for air, but it’s still a nice arc of smart techno that proves Beyer is more of a softie than he gets credit for. -- www.fabriclondon.com -- review by Yuri Wuensch
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