THE GLIMMERS

The Glimmers are two peas from a rare breed of pod; both Benoelie and Mo are alight and burning with an enviable passion that so few people possess. It's the kind of zeal that keeps them enthusiastic about every gig, the kind of love that keeps them viewing their expansive 20-year career as nothing more than a paid hobby ("We are unemployed. We just play music."), the kind of fascination that keeps them still yearning to find the name of a record they heard almost 25 years ago (true story). Hailing from Ghent, Belgium, the party capital that later birthed Soulwax/2ManyDJs, The Glimmers both fell deeply under music's spell at a young age. The two were undoubtedly a likely duo: Mo, a rapt child dazzled by the scratch-coated records disposed from his family bar's jukebox, was avidly building his own record collection, while Benoelie grew from a family deeply rooted in nightlife and party culture. At the ripe age of 16, old enough to DJ but too young to drink, they found themselves gigs together at a local bar called Mistral. A few years later, their residency at a club called Fifty Five saw them sweating out 11-hour marathon sets every week; workouts that nurtured their flexible attitude and inimitable style. The Glimmers took their unique genre-blurring style to a factory in Ghent for their next night-time takeover, Pablo Eskimo Bar. Once a factory to produce Eskimo underwear, The Glimmers filled the walls with their revolutionary sound and found it was the perfect ambience to get beats, not knickers, in a twist. Mingling disco with post-punk, reggae, hip hop - and everything in-between - to create unimaginable concoctions, the night that began with 300 people soon attracted over 7,000 hedonists flocking from all over the world. The remarkable success of the club night spawned a compilation series in which the mighty sound of Eskimo was encapsulated on disc. 8 celebrated Eskimo compilations later, with a widely acclaimed DJ Kicks mix and a Blue Note CD released on the side, The Glimmers find themselves continually shuffling between cities with smiles as big as their tour schedules. Most recently, The Glimmers have been pushing remixes and their own productions, each auditory gem equipped with the unmistakable charm of unfettered independence. The Glimmers' affinity with artistic freedom comes shining through on Fabriclive 31, a vivid, alluring mix that defiantly breaks free from all musical trends and restraints. The Glimmers shimmer with a highly surprising collection of classic tracks, each as extraordinary as the next, that synchronize and blend together with an unparalleled synergy. Rock out in the back of the classroom with a history lesson taught by The Glimmers, where spread across the chalkboard are some of the most influential, underappreciated, forgotten, essential, interesting and cutting-edge (even by today's standards) beat pioneers. Sway to Black Slate's reggae-tinted drums, tread to electro-acoustic legend Pierre Henry, break to a Freeez classic and shake to Padded Cell's techy take on Mekon, all within the space of one disc. Producers that sat tall in the charts 20-30 years ago still sound more innovative than the chart-dwellers these days. Perhaps the mission statement on their Eskimo compilations says it best: "The future is present in the past. The past presents the future."