FabricLive 28: Evil Nine

[Guest dafleur]

‘FABRICLIVE 28’ is a raw, scorching view of breakbeat in the wide-open eyes of Evil Nine. Anything goes, as long as it satisfies the dancefloor. The beat rebels stylishly abandon all preconceptions of the genre with an innovative, bass-heavy redefinition. They mingle technofied thrashings of indie rock with electroclash synths effortlessly; even 4/4 conformists will feel compelled to nod their heads to the syncopated beats. The mix flows through throbbing acid-tinged basslines, vibrates in pulsating electro, ripples during squelchy techno bleeps, and pours over hard hitting angular drums. Featuring radical producers such as Riton and Switch, and ending with anarchic legends The Clash, this is a fluidic collage of anomalous sounds, woven together by a common thread of wild rebellion and, sure enough, pure evil.

“We tried to bring our view of breakbeat to light. It’s not a techy mix for chin-strokers – it’s definitely a party record. It may not necessarily be ‘breaks,’ as most people know it, but I think it has the essence and vibe that people would expect from us.” – Evil Nine

After many years of moving between cities and bands, Tom Beaufoy found himself comfortably settled in Brighton. The seaside city breezily acquainted him with breakbeat; freshly inspired, he ditched his bass guitar and permanently shelved his black eye makeup to establish his own night, Champion Sound. One Friday evening, Pat Pardy left his Brighton studio, where he'd been cooped up creating theme music for Western film soundtracks, to hear some beats. The night marked the sinful meeting of two evil minds. Many meetings and beats later, they had crafted a demo, which scattered through the scene under the name Evil Nine. It soon reached the appreciative ear of Adam Freeland and the devilish duo were whisked away to create their first EP, the atmospheric ‘Less Stress,’ an immense proggy hit for Marine Parade. Evil Nine continued to explore the feel and fit of various sounds, eventually finding themselves most comfortable on 2002’s ‘Cakehole,’ a rock-infused breaks masterpiece.

“I think we got too concerned with writing these really big tunes, and [with ‘Cakehole’] it seemed like we finally just relaxed and wrote a track that we just liked for ourselves. That made us realize you could bring anything into the mix, and not to be restrained.” – Evil Nine

Confident in their production, Evil Nine went on to release a variety of unrestrained dancefloor smashers, including several massive remixes for the likes of UNKLE and ILS. ‘You Can Be Special Too’ was a debut LP of mammoth proportions, which caused uproar amongst stunned critics, found a fixed home in DJ charts across the board, and even scored an “Album of the Year” award from the annual Breakspoll event. With musical backgrounds stemming from goth to folk to punk to hip hop to country, it’s no surprise Evil Nine’s rich, all-embracing music sticks two fingers up at the genre-controlled music industry.

“I think the essence of breakbeat is different for us. Breaks can be anything; it can be housey, techno, electro, rock, have a hip hop vibe…people don’t take advantage of the fact that you can play all these different sounds. They just play this boring, regimented idea of ‘breakbeat,’ which isn’t at all how we see it.” – Evil Nine

‘FABRICLIVE 28: Evil Nine’ Tracklisting

01 Will Saul Ft. Ursula Rucker/Where Is It? [Evil Nine Remix]/Air

02 Simian Mobile Disco/Click/Simian Mobile Disco

03 Uffie/Ready To Uff [Dub]/Ed Banger

04 Bodyrockers/Round & Round [switch Remix]/Mercury

05 Riton/Anger Man [Riton Re-Rub]/Riton

06 The Mystery Jets/The Boy Who Ran Away [Riton Extended Dub]/679

07 Thomas Schumacher/Kickschool 79/Spiel-Zeug

08 Paul Woolford Presents Bobby Peru/Erotic Discourse/2020 Vision

09 Boys Noize/Volta 82/Boys Noize

10 Bassbin Twins/The Dogs/Bassbin Records

11 John Starlight/John's Addiction/Television

12 Daft Punk/Technologic [Digitalism's Highway To Paris Remix]/Virgin

13 Franz Ferdinand/The Fallen [Ruined by Justice]/Domino

14 The Kreeps/All I Wanna Do Is Break Some Hearts [boys Noize Remix 2]/Output

15 Test Icicles/What's Your Damage? [Digitalism Remix]/Domino

16 B-Movie/Nowhere Girl [Freeland Remix]/Some Bizarre

17 The Clash/London Calling/Sony BMG

www.fabriclondon.com