Drum and bass pioneer and Good Looking Records label boss, LTJ Bukem is at the helm for the latest Fabric mix.

“As a kid, over the course of a couple of years I got heavily into jazz, discovering Chick Corea, Bill Evans, Lonnie Liston Smith, all those guys that I now idolise and have collected ever since, I was hooked.  Nigel changed my whole perception of music and developed my love for it at the same time; the first tune that he played me was ‘Lenore’ by Chick Corea and that has stuck with me right to this day.

I started a soundsystem called Sunshine back in the early 80s and me and a group of guys would do house parties, buy the music and do the usual soundsystem thing. A few years later I met a guy called Paul Waller in Blackmarket, and he said “Do you know anyone that plays the piano?” I told him I did and he said, “Well, listen man, we’re doing this remix and I work for Nellee Hooper (of Soul II Soul). Come down to the studio, we need some keyboards.”  So I went down there, and from just exploring the idea of wanting to be a DJ. The first track I ever made was ‘Logical Progression’ in 1990. It was a transitional period musically, but ‘Logical Progression’ was at a time when drum & bass wasn’t really there – so it was effectively, the beginning of drum & bass. In the early 1990s Good Looking Records got set up too.

Progression Sessions must be one of the longest running residency concepts in the scene. It started in 94/95 and it’s still going in 2009. We did Ministry for a few years, we did The End for a few years, we did Shepherds Bush Empire and various other clubs.  When I finished at The End, I was looking for a new home, fabric asked and I was like, “Yeah, let’s do it.” And I absolutely adore fabric, I look at it as my home, I love the club itself – because it’s just basically brick walls and a great sound system, and that’s what I’m all about. So Bukem In Session was born.

With the mix I really wanted to highlight what I’m doing as a DJ now. I’ve got nothing against how people create a mix, I could’ve sat there and done what a lot of people do: a computer mix, which is great fun as you can do what you can’t do live. But for me personally, I don’t see there being any point in me presenting fabric with a mix to release if it doesn’t represent what people are then going to go and hear me play on a Friday night. The mix is just me on two turntables doing what I do. Secondly, I wanted to represent people on the mix that I am working with on Good Looking right now, who I have a strong belief in what they are doing. So you’ve got people on there like Greg Packer from Australia, Tidal a new guy from Birmingham and a few tracks from Furney. Basically,it’s just about good music. That’s been my ethos since day one.”

- LTJ Bukem

Tracklist

1. Redeyes – Battle Sweet Eyes – Spearhead
2. Mutt – Ode To The Ghetto – Good Looking
3. Calibre – Alien – Unknown
4. A Sides – Tokiado – East Side Records
5. Paul T – Beautiful Girl – Fizzy Beats
6. Zero T – Make It Home – CIA
7. A Sides – One Love – East Side
8. J Layze – Memoryz – Looking Good Records
9. Calibre – Out The Box – Signature
10. Mutt – Era Draft – Unknown
11. Furney – Pipez – Good Looking
12. Ink And Perpetuum – Say Never – Colours Audio
13. Redeyes – The Science Of Sleep – Unknown
14. Furney – You Were There – Lovebeams Forthcoming Good Looking
15. Furney – Good Looking
16. Utah Jazz – Cloud 9 – V Recordings