My familiarity with Mark Farina is limited to the old Mushroom Jazz releases, which, according to BPM Magazine, “For many downtempo fans, Mushroom Jazz is where it all began.” Other than that, I had lost sight of Farina; knowing he still was out there, but ignorant of what he was doing.

Fabric 40 is a good House mix, but becomes quickly boring (for one who doesn’t chase scantily clad girls at clubs) as the four on the floor beat is just mercilessly ceaseless. When high tempo beats are maintained for 75 minutes without a single respite, I start to feel that awful, heart-racing back end of a night snorting cocaine. In short, uncomfortable. Nothing is allowed time to get inside my brain and tickle my cortex. Farina’s beat matching is flawless, but how many DJs are still getting paying gigs that can’t do this? I’m also a little disappointed that there is a decided lack of extra soundscape samples and noise thrown in to spice up the mix. Sure, there’s the sporadic dabs of stereotypical soul style vocal samples, but not much else.

If you are less discerning about the actual artists and level of artistry in your music and just wanna dance your ass off, then this is the kind of platter for you. However, if you need to listen to some beats that paint poems and script short films for your mind, stay away.

-Gabriel Bogart