Ralph Lawson

If dedication is considered the backbone of culture, then house music lovers the globe over owe a sea of gratitude to the genre's much loved UK doyen Ralph Lawson. There's something to be said for a man who having dropped the very first record at Leeds' clubland institution Back to Basics in 1991, still remains its resident to this day. And it's something special indeed.

"We'd have to go over to Manchester every weekend, as there was nothing in Leeds – so we got to thinking we might as well start our own night. I was already running a night called "Clear". We had Carl Cox up on a Wednesday night for the first time in Leeds. I remember I paid him 80 quid and we had about 25 people in the room but we all absolutely loved it. We also had Andrew Weatherall and Justin Robertson. Honestly, I think our biggest night we had about 100 people and we were like 'yeah we've got 100 people - we're massive!' But I met a guy called Alistair Cooke at Clear who brought his mate, Dave Beer, and they told me they were going to start a club on Saturdays. They invited me to be a resident alongside Ali and so I came to play the first ever record at Back To Basics on November 23rd 1991. It still runs every week and, as far as I know, it's the longest-running house night in the world. Some people kind of misuse the term 'residency' when they play somewhere once every 3 months – I was there every week. It's just a real part of my history, Back To Basics, Leeds. The whole sound has been very influenced from that club for sure." – Ralph Lawson

Basics grew from strength to strength and Lawson went from being, as he puts it, "a thick DJ" to being deeply immersed in studio production. 2020Vision began in a deserted farmhouse in the middle of Yorkshire's rhubarb triangle in 1995 with keyboard genius Carl Finlow at the controls alongside Lawson. Through the years, many future electronic stars climbed over the rhubarb to pass through its doors to make merry and make music, including Josh Wink, Stacey Pullen, Chez Damier and Ron Trent, Derrick Carter and Mr C to name but a few. The studio grew in stature and the 2020Vision sound was even lent to the likes of David Bowie, Fat Boy Slim and JK. But despite the big stars knocking at the door, 2020Vision never lost grips on their tough underground edge. When Finlow left for love in Paris in 2000, Lawson found himself bored with the current climate and hungry for a new buzz.

"I thought clubbing was really boring, all the DJs around at the time were playing it safe, everything was really repressive, there was no experimentation, there was no real leftfield, it had become such a boring mass-produced experience." – Ralph Lawson

A chance to work with Manchester's downtempo label Fat City on a mix album whirled Lawson into a new world of inspiration. Around the time his work with drummer Dubble D came out on Fat City, he sifted through his towering pile of demos to find a gem from an Argentinean band called Silver City. Fortuitous coincidence and a destined like-mindedness brought them all together in the studio, and it wasn't long before 2020Soundsystem was born. Since then, the electronic band have taken their energetic live act around the world.

"One rule we've made for 2020Soundsystem is that the track comes out of a live jam. We might jam for 40 minutes and for 39 we might sound horrible, but for one minute we might hit something good - we take that idea and run with it. You have to have a spontaneous spark to start it; after the spark, I don't mind where it goes. We're always getting better and people like to follow that progression. If we've got 25 people watching, we rock them, and the same if there's 25,000 people like we recently had at Creamfields Buenos Aires." – Ralph Lawson

Fabric 33 paints a beautifully emotive picture of Ralph Lawson's diverse career, setting the scene with the thick acid basslines, swelling crescendos and dope beats he's known for. Drawing upon inspiration from life on the road with the 2020Soundsystem as well as his own DJ experiences, Lawson has used each and every one of the 76 minutes to create a mix capable of rocking any disco or festival. The feelgood, trend-resisting mix takes the listener out of the charts and straight to the dancefloor, with productions from cutting edge electronic producers such as Tejada, Romboy and Koncke mixed up with the "live" sounds of The Rapture, Joakim and The Emperor Machine.

"I just went into the studio and did it all in one take. All I was thinking about was the next record; I had already sourced the tracks I wanted to use. I'd been thinking a lot about it and I wanted to represent myself, Leeds and fabric. I'm not very nationalistic, but I wanted to represent what was coming out of Britain as well as at the moment there's a lot of really good new music." – Ralph Lawson