Album Review: Various - Sandwell District: Fabric 69

“Death is not the end”, Bob Dylan once sang, and that's certainly true of the music industry. Having declared Sandwell District to be kaput in 2012, the techno-super group of Regis and Function have been resurrected almost 12 months to the day; the lure of an invitation to join the illustrious roll call of Fabric series' DJs seemingly too hard to resist, even for the deceased.

Not afraid to blow their own trumpets, the pair line up a swathe of their own productions alongside those of the coroneted techno illuminati. Employing the dub-inspired gloom of former collaborator Silent Servant's A Path Eternal, the opening movements inspire evocative street imagery, as the distant echoes and looming sub bass conjure pictures of a seedy Bladerunner style metropolis. It's not until the halfway point, however, with the introduction of Carl Craig's subtly malevolent Darkness, that the ominous undercurrent of emotion builds into a tide. From this suspenseful juncture, a mesmeric journey unfolds, as the cavernous reverb of Samuel Kerridge's Waiting for Love counters Plastkiman's hypnotic acid. Ultimately though, the award for most compelling track, not to mention nerveless innovation, must go to Untold whose Motion the Dance descends into a kind of melted low-end buzzing that in another dimension might have been created by a mad scientist caramelising a beehive with a blowtorch.

An arresting peak in the esteemed Fabric catalogue, the only caveat is that if you're anything like this reviewer you'll be opening your wallet a second time as you hunt down full-length versions of the numerous highlights.