On & On... & On at fabric

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    Mar 19, 2010
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  • Walking into the underground labyrinth that is fabric, into the dark, smoky gloom on the brightest, sunniest Sunday afternoon in weeks is a strange, strange feeling. As is being confronted by a fabric populated, at 2 PM, by a sparse crowd of people in various states of mental and physical dilapidation. Some—a handful perhaps—hadn't left the 30-hour marathon that was On & On... & On since arriving Saturday evening, and as an exercise in people watching, it provided ample opportunity for an amateur anthropology of club culture. Arriving sober as well, after a good night's sleep and a hearty breakfast, enhanced the oddity of this experience. This isn't to say, however, that it wasn't one of the most enjoyable Sunday afternoons in my recent past. As countless comments on numerous message boards attest, fabric suffers on a Saturday from a surfeit of tourists, beer boys and the less cultured clubber, as well as a real density problem. fabric on a Sunday, with a sound-system pushed to its limit (pushed too far at times, judging by the occasional cut-out) and space to dance was, to put it simply, superb. The two hours of Keith Worthy's set we heard drove a train of jacking Detroit straight through room one. Soulful and intense, the mixture of tough yet melodic Detroit house and techno was well received by a crowd who still managed to shuffle its way through the afternoon, with the addition of some obviously fresh clubbers to the mix. Photo credit: Nik Torrens With only room one open at this point (room three reopened later, we heard, with Seth Troxler and Craig Richards going back-to-back with a soul set following their early morning six hour slot) the place had an eerie, lost feel about it. There's something inherently aberrant about ignoring that glorious day outside for sticky floors, hollow-eyed souls and pounding basslines, but something nonetheless good. People have complained about the less-than-full dance floor and expanded set timings, comparing it unfavourably with the previous birthday marathon that inspired On & On... & On. But this was something different. Something London isn't used to yet. The idea wasn't to stay for thirty hours, or to keep an intense atmosphere up for the entire time, but to create something that drifted, ebbed and flowed. Much like Berlin's Berghain, the night just continues, opening up space for events, happenings and chance occurrences, such as Troxler and Richards back-to-back, or being able to turn up after brunch to be greeted by Detroit's post-Ford soundtrack. More people were drifting in as we left at eight for dinner, during a deep mix by Trus'me. When we returned, refreshed, Konrad Black was finishing up a two hour set and Dinky was just starting live on stage. The atmosphere had changed again, the dance floor had become denser and the vibe stepped up a notch towards the climax of the night/day/night with Radio Slave, who wrapped things up by 6:30 on a Monday morning. This kind of event potentially marks the start of a culture of the open-end in the Capital—the opportunity to extend possibilities; to go out later (or earlier, depending on your perspective), to sleep less over the weekend, to go on and stop. Or to just go on, and on, and on.
RA