Dominick Martin’s a little bit of an anomaly in terms of contemporary drum & bass. Having been active and continually releasing music under his Calibre alias since 1998, it feels a little odd in a modern world so besotted with oversharing to think that he’s never had a remix made of his material, nor has ever released a commercial mix CD or ever managed an online presence. He’s one of those artists whose reputation simply precedes him; thanks in a large part to his incredible body of work that covers seven artist albums and countless 12”s, EPs and remixes. Almost as notorious for being a quiet person as much as he is a prolific producer, the Northern Irish musician has always been happy to let his music talk for him and with his unique blend of musicianship and tough, focused percussion garnering him releases on the pick of drum & bass labels, as well as his own Signature imprint, you get the impression that he’ll always be content not to say too much.
It’s an outlook Calibre draws on quite heavily for the duration of Fabric Live 68, using his own music and that of his peers to create a mix that’s both reflective of the way that he plays when he DJs and the bafflingly bountiful body of work he’s produced. Including several soulful vocal tracks that are reflective of his background and passion for song-writing, Calibre drops a single track that’s exclusive to the mix with his take on stripped bare d&b on ‘Simple Things’, also adding a couple of sterling examples of him reworking songs, here taking tracks by Totally Enormous Extinct Dinosaurs and Bo Saris out of their pop roots and re-imagining them as mournful soul tinged standards alongside pieces like ‘Inner Disbelief’ which hark back to purist jungle.
Leaning on the music of Soul:r boss Marcus Intalex, Exit head honcho dBridge, Lynx and material from DJ Marky’s Innerground label, Calibre weaves the records together more by their key than anything else saying “I wanted it to be a bit more about things that would combine pitch-wise because sometimes DJs don’t have the pitched ear, where I do and I wanted to use that”.
Tracklisting:
01. Calibre | Intro | Signature
02. DRS feat. Calibre | Keep The Faith | Soul:r
03. Calibre | Clipper Man | C.I.A.
04. DJ Marky & S.P.Y. | Yellow Shoes (Calibre Remix) | Innerground
05. Bo Saris | She’s On Fire (Calibre Remix) | Decca
06. Marcus Intalex | Emergency (Dub) | Soul:r
07. Random Movement | Down Somehow | Innerground
08. Totally Enormous Extinct Dinosaurs | Garden (Calibre Remix) | Polydor
09. Calibre | Simple Things | Signature
10. SpectraSoul feat. Tamara Blessa | Away With Me (Calibre Remix) | Shogun Audio
11. Zero T feat. Steo | Refusal (Calibre Mix) | Integral
12. Lynx & Hellrazor | Passing Time | Soul:r
13. Calibre | Notting Hill | Signature
14. dBridge | Inner Disbelief | Exit
15. Calibre | Hummer | Samurai
16. Kodo | The Jackal (dBridge Remix) | Ingredients
17. Calibre | Fire & Water | Soul:r
18. Genotype | Justice Over Law | Exit
19. Calibre | Blazin | V Recordings
20. Calibre | Student Music | Commercial Suicide
21. Calibre |Outro | Signature
