Ricardo Villalobos @ fabric 06/07/2013

I was fabulously excited last week before going to fabric for the first time this year, convinced it would be my best night out all year.  Just in case you don’t know, fabric is my favourite nightclub in the world, and Ricardo Villalobos is my favourite DJ in the world.

We arrived around 1am after I had done a little sobering up to surprisingly no queue (for members).  In fact the night never became as busy as I am used to for Ricardo Villalobos.

We started in room 2 and in particular we were both very impressed with Konrad Black, some of the tracks he played were outstanding, really good to dance to and a step up in pace and sound quality from the previous DJs, who also deserve credit.

Room 2 was too ridiculously hot though, at least where we were near the DJ and as soon as Craig Richards started, we found our way to Room 1 – the place where I feel most at home in the world.

Craig Richards played an excellent set, as you would expect, much more techno than I was expecting and some very cool electro/early hip-hop tracks were a particular highlight.

The crowd was not a highlight.  My lovely dancing partner decided to do some market research to discover the motivation of the crowd – last time we were at a Ricardo night, almost everyone we spoke to was gushing in their admiration for him.  This time it was a 50/50 split between fans and clubbers who had no idea who he was.

There are many reasons why I am glad I am not a girl.  I don’t want to give birth, I don’t want periods nor would I want to spend 5 hours getting ready for a night out when I can spend 5 hours drinking beer and still look beautiful.  Neither would I want my arse groped regularly and to have to beat off streams of sleazy men – tourist season is clearly in full flow and it showed.  I went to a gay club many years ago in Ibiza and had my arse grabbed a disturbing number of times so I do actually know what it feels like.

A piece of advice for guys – try talking to girls and being nice.  It sometimes works.  Actually it is Friday and I am in a good mood so I am offering a second piece of advice especially for those going out to exercise their dick rather than their feet – fuck off to the shit bars.

A question for fabric if you are reading – have you considered head-hunting Sven Marquart?!  Then again he would probably turn me away!

Anyway onto the important bit.  Mr Villalobos.

I always say expect the unexpected with him but I know roughly the bounds of what he is going to play.  Or I thought I did.  So Villalobos being Villalobos he decided to turn the book upside down and hammer out these strange house/techno hybrids at around 130bpm – I haven’t been dancing to music that fast since I was dancing to a fire alarm at my mate’s hard house night 7 years ago (the fire alarm was the best audio of the night).

The energy was impressive, highlighted in the video below.  I was blown away but by 930am we had had enough as though I loved it, I was totally unprepared for it.

In a way I felt disappointed that I had not had the musical experience from Ricardo that I had been so excited about but also I was intrigued about this new faster music and really enjoyed something totally different from the norm.

I am questionning my musical slow-down – I normally listen to 120bpm and DJ 124bpm at most – is 130bpm the way ahead?  I doubt it.

It was the best night of the year, I had a great time there, before and the afters but still not the perfect night I require.  8.5 out of 10.