Eris Drew & Octo Octa – Day After A Night With U/Stars & Water

For their first official release on their new label project Fabric Originals, legendary London institution fabric looks to the formidable duo of Eris Drew and Octo Octa. Their joint EP Day After A Night With U/Stars & Water features one new track from each artist, and plays out like a little diorama of the dancefloor utopia the pair have been creating together over the past four years.

For her contribution, Drew looks toward fabric appropriate breakbeats on Day After A Night With U. But it’s in how Drew decorates these that makes for something interesting. She goes with a squelching, acid leaning synth riff and a computerised harpsichord loop that’s slightly reminiscent of a soundtrack you may encounter while playing The Sims. A soulful vocal sample rounds out the mix, making for a jubilant and sunny experience that oozes with an offbeat happy-go-lucky energy. This surges into the thumping house rhythms of Maya Bouldry-Morrison AKA Octo Octa’s Stars & Water, a deep house cut spanning over eight minutes which is essentially two songs morphed into one. Morrison plays with dreamlike, spacey arpeggios and waves of drone synth to create a somewhat psychedelic experience, heightened by a masterstroke tempo shift at the halfway mark. As the beat slows down, so does everything around you, pulling you into the vortex of Morrison’s cosmic discotheque. What follows is a more hallucinatory iteration of Stars & Water’s first half, the arpeggios and synth washes taking the lead until its twinkling end.

Drew and Morrison previously worked with fabric in 2020, curating an edition of the ongoing fabric presents compilation series. The duo are an interesting choice for the new fabric label’s inaugural release, but a welcome breath of fresh air for an institution most associated with male led techno and garage. It lines up with the brand’s recent pivot from fabric live to fabric presents, an attempt to broaden their repertoire of genres and styles. Launching their new venture with a dazzling and euphoric queer energy is a definitely a move in the right direction.

Listen to Day After A Night With U/Stars & Water below.