10 July 2011

George Fitzgerald - Silhouette EP

George Fitzgerald - Silhouette EP (Aus Music)

George Fitzgerald follows up his fantastic work for Hot Flush with a 3-track EP for the equally awesome Aus Music, who've gone from being a solid house/ techno label, to putting out some of the best cross-genre records in less than two years; Carl Craig remixing Ramadanman & Appleblim, Ramadanman and Midland's collab, Joy F'n Orbison.

Fitzgerald's pushed a lot of the right people's buttons with his mix of R'n'B, house and dubstep, and I was about to criticise this one for being overly-predictable, decent enough garage. Until I released my promo copy's been mislabelled. The B-side Reset (which I had as the flagship track) is a rolling, off-time garagey/r'n'b number that takes its time working over a single vocal line and offbeat piano stabs. It's pretty decent, but doesn't even come close the crossover potential of The Let Down, and frankly, the vocal's fucking irritating. Equally, the remix of Silhouette, by John Roberts, is this loping, weirdly played purple wow/ hip-hop number that doesn't know if it's trying to be smart electronica or a quality banger and had me ready to pan the release as a missed opportunity.

Then we get to Silhouette.

Holy Shit. Big analogue synth line warping through delays, epic smashes of white noise and irresistibly funky percussive riffs; big tune. Building up over time, it eventually bursts into a lush, drawn out slice of techno, with a looped and chopped vocal acting to drag the tune to new heights. Then, with the briefest of drop-outs, a monster sub-bass line kicks in and it all gets messy, turning it into one of the best tunes I've heard for months. This one's going to be big; I did find myself wondering why such a magnificent piece of work was consigned to the B-side. Buy it.

No comments:

Post a Comment