Mark Farina in charge for Fabric 40

Tuesday, 15th April 2008 at 9:22 am / Words: Beat Factor

With Chicago being such a close-knit scene, Mark eventually bumped shoulders with many of the scene innovators at Gramaphone, “a huge record store in Chicago, everybody worked there at some point - Derrick Carter, Ralphie Rosario, J Dub, DJ Heather – we’re all a big family.” It was only a matter of time before his residency at Medusa’s spread over to one of Chicago’s most seminal nightclubs, Smartbar. With his DJing career rapidly unfolding layers, Mark joined minds and rooms with emerging DJs Derrick Carter and Chris Nazuka, living in a loft space they fondly called “Rednail”. Named off the back of Carter’s Rednail Kidz productions, the loft took on a life of its own and became home for raucous parties and their first productions, and inspired their phone number (R-E-D-N-A-I-L). Producing under the moniker Symbols & Instruments, the synergistic trio’s most important (for the Chicago scene, and electronic music in general) production is, to this day, credited as the “first ambient house” tune: the KMS classic ‘Mood.’

Reaping the rapt success of Chicagoan productions like ‘Mood,’ DJs from different corners of the country began flying in to the Midwest to see what was bubbling. As a result, the snow-globe mentality of the Chicago house scene finally opened up, allowing the scene to see outside of itself – and Mark, meanwhile, was able to see all the way over to the left coast.

Fusing the laid-back vibes of San Francisco and the jackin’ sounds of Chicago, bringing the Midwest and West coast to some kind of smooth, sunny middle ground, Mark Farina takes fabric 40 by the helm and steers it down an astonishing, picturesque route. Mixed lovingly by hand, this buoyant, essential summer soundtrack swells and melds with the head-nodding sounds of Derrick Carter, JT Donaldson & Uneaq, DJ Sneak and King Kooba.

“When making the mix, I played a sort of fictitious set at fabric on a night that doesn’t exist. Musically, I tried to capture the techy, jackin’ Chicago/SF side of the house spectrum - dubby, chunky tracks. I tried to pick tunes from all over the world. I picked a good variation of underground goodies, a lot of which are unreleased or hopefully not on any other compilations. Tracks that have a good “shelf life” but that aren’t proven hits; hidden gems that might go over looked in this fast paced music era.” – Mark Farina

Track list:

01 Giom – Together - Amenti
02 Chuck Love – Yellow Truth [Atnarko Mix] – Onethirty Recordings
03 JT Donaldson & Uneaq – Why Not Rock ? – Uneaq
04 Ricardo Rae – Lead The Way – So Sound
05 John Larner & Slater Hogan – Gettin’ Ready – Muzique Boutique
06 Inland Knights – Where Ya At ? – Drop Music
07 Homero Espinosa - Got This Feeling (LNS Disco Dub) - Yerba Buena Discos
08 Alexander East – Believe En Me – Nordic Trax
09 Frank Solano – The Blues Line [Tommy Largo Remix] – Kolour Recordings Digital
10 Kris G – Feel My Love [Bobby Valentine Remix] – Union Recordings
11 Non Believers – Stasera – Hudd Traxx
12 Johnny Fiasco – Last Word – Dae Recordings
13 Mood II Swing – Closer [Oliver Desmet & Fred Everything Mix] – King Street Sounds
14 James Curd – Pick Up What I’m Putting Down – A Second Smell
15 Rylan White Ft. Olly Brunton– There Goes The Neighbourhood – All House Music
16 Lawnchair Generals – Broke Acid – LCG Music
17 Jeremy Joshua – Make Dat Shit [Derrick Carter Mix] – Digital Disco
18 DJ Sneak – Mumbler – Blu Funk Productions
19 Prztz – Brutality – Jamanta Crew
20 Mark Farina – Das Shibuya [Cheeba Mix] – Great Lakes Audio
21 King Kooba – Hoose Musik – King Kooba