In-Store: The MFA 'The Difference It Makes'

On Saturday 15 November, Border Community alumni The MFA joined us at Inverted Audio Record Store in Peckham to celebrate the reissue of The Difference It Makes, featuring new remixes from Joe Goddard and Nathan Fake. Huge thanks to everyone who came down and made the evening so special. 

Some tracks slip into the bloodstream of club culture, and never quite leave. The MFA’s 'The Difference It Makes' is one of them. Originally released in 2002 on James Holden’s then-new label Border Community, this track quietly rewired expectations, an unassuming computer-built track that went on to connect with ravers, DJs, and outsiders alike. Twenty-three years later, it still carries that rare electricity - the kind of track that makes the hairs stand up on your arms.

Using a battered PC, free software, and whatever gear they could get their hands on, The Mother Fucking Allstars (The MFA) - Ali and Rhys - pieced together a track out of happy accidents and stubborn determination. “We set out aiming for a peak-time banger,” they recall, “but the setting mellowed it into something more like an Ibiza chill-out track. Part of that was intentional, and part was that we really couldn’t figure out how to do proper drums.”

The charm of the record lay in precisely that tension: naive but inventive, euphoric yet restrained, underpinned by a vocal hook that seemed to crystallise a moment. James Holden, a university friend who had already become a name to watch on Radio 1, heard something special in it. Against all odds, the track landed as the third release on Border Community, the imprint that would go on to define a generation of artists.

Now comes the reissue of The Difference It Makes, remastered and remixed for 2025 by Joe Goddard of Hot Chip and Nathan Fake. It also marks the debut release of Deskbound Complex, The MFA’s new imprint.

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