Fabriclive 68
Dominick Martin’s a little bit of an anomaly in terms of contemporary drum & bass. Having been active and continually releasing music under his Calibre alias since 1998, it feels a little odd in a modern world so besotted with oversharing to think that he’s never had a remix made of his material, nor has ever released a commercial mix CD or ever managed an online presence. He’s one of those artists whose reputation simply precedes him; thanks in a large part to his incredible body of work that covers seven artist albums and countless 12”s, EPs and remixes. Almost as notorious for being a quiet person as much as he is a prolific producer, the Northern Irish musician has always been happy to let his music talk for him and with his unique blend of musicianship and tough, focused percussion garnering him releases on the pick of drum & bass labels, as well as his own Signature imprint, you get the impression that he’ll always be content not to say too much. But poke at the surface and there’s an incredibly engaging story there; one that centres on one guy’s focus in finding his way through music institutions and social prejudice in a place that he himself admits “wasn’t a very nice place to grow up”. Leaning on the music of Soul boss Marcus Intalex, Exit head honcho dBridge, Lynx and material from DJ Marky’s Innerground label, Calibre weaves the records together more by their key than anything else saying “I wanted it to be a bit more about things that would combine pitch-wise because sometimes DJs don’t have the pitched ear, where I do and I wanted to use that.”