Ambient music icon and rising home music star get collectively for a copacetic collaboration
U.Ok. dance producer Fred once more.. is in a interval of reinvention, and the entire world is watching. Frederick John Philip Gibson got here up doing behind the scenes work for artists together with Ed Sheeran and Rita Ora within the late 2010s, earlier than rapidly making a reputation for himself as a ludicrously speedy pattern chopper. Just some years into his profession he’s already one of many buzziest DJs on the planet, with a sonic method that makes use of snippets collected from on a regular basis life to infuse home music with a personable playfulness that may typically really feel self-consciously goofy. He has leaned into that picture, branding himself as the kind of artist to take pleasure in gimmicks like carrying generic Apple earbuds whereas DJing.
2023 has discovered Fred once more.. hovering to lofty new heights. He headlined Madison Sq. Backyard and Coachella alongside studio collaborators Skrillex and 4 Tet, dropped a group of plaintive piano items, and carried out a charming NPR Music Tiny Desk Live performance. His new album Secret Life – a partnership with arty rock icon and ambient pioneer Brian Eno – is his most spectacular transfer thus far. Eno, in fact, has been mentoring artists because the Seventies, producing traditional albums by Speaking Heads, U2, and others. Right here, throughout 11 tracks, the 74 yr outdated legend coaxes out a extra nuanced aspect of Fred once more’s sound, highlighting his personal vitality within the course of.
Secret Life arrives through 4 Tet’s label Textual content, and the seasoned English artist took to Twitter to proclaim it, “probably the most lovely album of 2023.” Whereas that is an overstatement, it is rather fairly. On “Radio,” warped vocals relaxation atop shimmering synths and distant piano notes. Opener “I Noticed You” is deceptively driving, steadily constructing till issues abruptly path off right into a naturalistic outro. “Sufficient” is probably the most commanding music on the document, centered on fabricated orchestral tones that harken again to prime Eno cuts like “An Ending (Ascent)” and “The Plateaux Of Mirror.” Secret Life exists adjoining to Eno’s signature pressure of ethereal noise, however the duo discover methods to place a contemporary spin on his acquainted synth drones and neoclassical composition type.
In an interview with Zane Lowe final yr. Eno emphasised the give-and-take nature of his relationship with Fred once more.., claiming to have discovered from his progressive mentality within the studio. The fruits of their shared labor aren’t excellent—one can pinpoint apparent echoes of Overgrown period James Blake on the album, and the distinguished use of murky results usually appears like a crutch to distract from undercooked songwriting. However Secret Life is finally a powerful outlier in every artist’s handful of current releases. The Eno data which have come out within the wake of his standout 2010 LP Small Craft On A Milk Sea have typically had an inclination to play like benign soundtracks for chain bookstores, and Fred once more.. hadn’t precisely captured his newfound earnestness till now. Secret Life shows a creativity we haven’t heard from Eno in years and reinforces that whereas Fred once more.. may be laughing all the way in which to the financial institution, he isn’t a joke.
