★★★☆☆
This is a dark, long, self-showcase of deep house that if spun any deeper would bypass the earth’s core and tumble out the other side of the globe. Leave this to hum in the background and it’s hardly the most immediate, dynamic mix bearing the Fabric name, never mind the argument of whether mixing all your own material is any sort of challenge or spectacle. Yet conversely showing an individuality that the flagship craves of all its contributors, Petre Inspirescu is a character of sorts. Half the time he cowers from the audience having not adjusted to the light that frames him; otherwise you visualize the Romanian scrabbling away, happily oblivious to his surroundings as he organizes a subterranean science slash archaeological dig for beats and pieces.
The mix is veiled in the unspoken and the unknown yet poses a sunken funkiness, a backbone of non-nondescript 4×4 against minor key scrapes and chimes, the slightest hint of the folk-based and the theatrical, the contradiction of the jet black against faraway pipers, after hours percussionists and random rhythm enhancers. “In Miriste” sounds as if it’s keeping its head just above boggy water; “Anima” and “Seara-n Crang” get closer to the truth and more from Inspirescu’s introversion, but contend with mournful or inquisitive orchestra extras. When in full stride, it clutches the straight and narrow hard (the grappling “Murgul”), but it may take time to get inside your head and stay there.
File under: Luciano, Steve Bug, Lee Gamble