Akufen

The man who goes by the names Akufen, Nekufa, Anna Kaufen, and Horror Inc. -- Montreal's Marc Leclair -- is known primarily as a producer. He's been DJing for well over a decade, a fact known by few outside of his home base -- so it should be a surprise to many that he's the provider of the 17th Fabric mix. It's a hardly a shock, however, that the mix he concocts -- done with a pair of turntables and a mixer -- isn't inspired by the kind of trance spun by DJ Irene. With rare exception, it's filled out with alternate takes on the kind of upbeat, clicky, hiccup-ridden microhouse that he's been kicking out since the late '90s. His mixing style is closer in spirit to Herbert and Dan Bell than Michael Mayer, at least as far as their commercial mix discs are considered; rather than build some sense of a story line and allow each track to unwrap itself, he'll occasionally ride out a track for several minutes and isn't afraid to get several others in and out within 90 seconds. The two opening tracks -- Philippe Cam's "LFO Drive" and the Pantytec mix of Matthew Dear's "Dog Days" -- overlap for nearly four minutes; otherwise, the blends are relatively discreet with nary an abrupt transition. The set makes it plain to see -- for credit-scanning geeks, at least -- that microhouse is no longer exclusively dominated by Germans from Cologne, Hamburg, and Berlin; Krikor, Cabanne, Crackhaus, and a couple others hoist the flags for Canada and France. Also helping this set remain apart from all other microhouse-oriented mixes is the slightly perverse presence of Señor Coconut's festive, Latinized overhaul of Deep Purple's "Smoke on the Water," which strangely doesn't seem out of place after the first jarring listen. The first nine months of 2004 were very slow for multi-label mixes heavy on microhouse, so Fabric 17 helps fill that gap while showing a dimension of Leclair that most didn't know about. It remains a shame that so many of his own tracks remain bound to vinyl, unable to be heard by those who consume only CDs. This is no small consolation, though. ~ Andy Kellman, All Music Guide