Imagine Richie Hawtin meets John Digweed @ a Electronic Symphony and they decide to orchestrate! You would get Tiefschwarzes Fabric 29. This CD combines some of the best minimal tech-house tunes out there in flowing manner. Unlike most Minimal Techno that I have heard, I do not get bored with the Songs or the CD in general.

The CD starts out hard and bumping with a aggressive semi-industrial tune and quickly switches to more melodic and harmonic tunes building back up to a combination of bouncy tracks and Mid-based Tunes.

I can strongly recommend this CD to anyone who enjoys the dark side of house and yet is bored with techno and minimal alone.

Having brilliantly mastered Deep and Tech House on their maiden outing "RAL9005" (2001/2), and then taken a giddy turn synth-wards into Acid Electro territory on their sophomore release "Eat Books" (2005), the Schwarz brüder have finetuned their new sound again for this DJ mix with a very faddish, very Eurocentric blend of Minimal, Techno Dub, and Micro House.

For those who are familiar with Mike Myers in his Saturday Night Life days circa 1990, Fabric 29 is the sort of music that Dieter and his ilk might put on to chill out. Clad in his signature all–black outfit of turtleneck and spandex tights, the colorless Euro–clone Dieter (Myers) would jerk-dance to Euro syntho, jowls sucked in, at the close of his Bayerische KabelVision chat show "Sprockets". If you're having a sly giggle, that's exactly the point.

"Eat Books" was virtually a self–parody from beginning to end, complete with guest appearances by post–punk indie poseurs in black eye–makeup doing appalling imitations of (The Cure's) Robert Smith. If it's any consolation, there are few vocals on Fabric 29 to make you retch, only Tracey Thorn as a sort of afterthought on the M.A.N.D.Y. remix of Tiefschwarz's own "Damage" (track 3), and spoken word/sing–song from Kate Wax on the fairly pointless closing track. But Dieter and "Sprockets" are still very much in mind ... .

The problem with the new–new sound from Tiefschwarz is that, if not handled with flair and a keen sense of humor, it invariably descends into self–mockery (with artist names like "Claude Vonstroke", "Theodor Zox", and "Maetrik", whaddya expect?). Whereas Erlend Øye took the mickey out of Micro House by personally singing unrelated acapellas over the tracks on his "DJ–Kicks" (!K7/2004), and Jerome Sydenham connected dots across genres and ethnic boundaries while keeping the sweet music flowing on this year's outstanding "Electric Pussycat", the humorless Schwarz brüder are so deep in their acido–electro-syntho bathwater that they positively drown in the "Sprockets" Syndrome. That's not to say that Fabric 29 doesn't have its moments: the mix finally gets going with the superb Maetrik remix of Zox's "Extruder" (track 4), but then slowly fizzles out. By the time we get to the pomposity that is the Tiefschwarz Dub of Depeche Mode's "John The Revelator" on track 12, even Dieter might be forgiven for snoring.

I've really got to wonder what happened to the brüder who were responsible for the exuberant Deep House sounds of "Music (Latin Music)". Even if the brilliant Luke Solomon "ReedDiMix" of "Nix" (the consummate Tech House track) was more Solomon than Tiefschwarz, the brüder could have taken a hint that the future lay in consolidating and building on their achievements in Deep and Tech House. Instead, they became Electro fashion victims.

As for those seeking pleasure in the "minimal but groovy", look no further than "Fabric 2: Terry Francis" (2002), or its sequel "Fabric 28: Wiggle" (2006), both of which effortlessly achieve nirvana in a way that Fabric 29 can only aspire to but rarely achieves.