AIM (LIVE) / BENT (DJ SET): FABRIC, LONDON 07 Mar 2003

Wandering through the labyrinth of walkways, stairs and rooms at Fabric you can’t fail but notice the diversity the club offers. From the crowd of disparate styles and fashions, to the range of music that leads you from one room of high-tempo drum n bass, through another of smooth house, to some old school hip-hop at the stage in the main room.

Only at Fabric could the laid-back hip-hop of Andy Turner’s band, Aim, sit snugly amongst the blazing rhythms favoured by the beat-hungry crowd. Yet Aim’s are hip-hop only in the sense that they draw from the same funk and soul pool of influences. And with their live show Turner avoids repeating the samples in favour of live instruments.

The eight-piece band pile on stage with vocalist, Niko, for the title track of their debut album, ‘Cold Water Music’. They stride through a selection of good tracks including a few from ‘Means Of Production’, a new collection of Aim’s initial Grand Central Records releases. Regular Grand Central collaborator, Spiky T, joins Niko for the sweet ‘Good Disease’, and Turner takes over vocal duties for the tender beauty of ‘A Twilight Zone’. It is mostly decent funk music, though they never quite recover from a mid-set technical problem and struggle to maintain a solid groove. It’s slightly Aim-less yet the crowd is generous in their applause, before they head off to find something a little more high tempo.

They can find this in the smallest of Fabric’s rooms where Bent are playing a DJ set. The Nottingham duo have a new album, ‘The Everlasting Blink’ out but far from giving the crowd a taster of their subtle, string-laden chill-out music, they are pulling out a set of house music. Ranging across the spectrum from progressive to deep to funky, they mix frequently and fast. Yet too often they fall prey to the cheese trap, overriding their usually astute taste, with some hardcore howlers.

But if Bent aren’t doing it for you then continue your nomadic dancing where Goldie is followed by DJ Die in the drum n bass room, the Stanton Warriors unleash their resident stomping beats in the main arena and James Lavelle is sure to follow. At Fabric, diversity is an Aim effortlessly achieved.

words: Colm Larkin