Alright, it’s time for Fred again to have his own thread.
I have fallen really hard for this guy’s music. It’s a pretty interesting blend (IMO) of spoken word / iphone recorded bits and very slick UK garage beats (which I love, so no big surprise I’m falling for this). His music is fairly poppy / bright / sheen-y, so probably won’t appeal to the dark techno lovers here. For me, it’s scratching the same itch that I get from Joy Orbison, Bwana, et al.
What makes his story pretty compelling is that he also has been mentored by Brian Eno since the age of 16 and is very anti-GAS / gear in general. I found this SOS piece really inspiring and it made me rethink / reapproach some of my own tunes that have been sitting around, waiting for me to be brave enough to finish.
So, what do other people around here think of him and his music? Curious to hear if its connected with anyone else in such a big way.
Here’s an example track featuring the Blessed Madonna.
Let’s keep this positive (don’t want it to turn into taking the piss on Boiler Room, which has its own ethical issues…)
I love his music. He’s such an anti perfectionist, which is relieving for a perfectionist like myself. His music is all about the feeling and that’s what music should be about and he’s the only producer that makes me liking tunes with a happy and uplifting vibe.
I don’t think I’ve heard someone that has connected with me since maybe Burial until I heard Fred again. His music is obviously very different to Burial (and he’s not going to be a sleeper/underground act either), but it feels real in exactly the same way.
There’s just something about what he does with the phone clips, and that twinned with how he writes. All his songs are pure slabs of emotion, which is such a joy. I had those 2 YouTube sets on a loop earlier in the summer, and that really set me on the road to learning more about him.
I also like how he has nods to lots of 90s dance coming through, sometimes literally lifting musical phrases (like the nod to Billie Ray Martin). I hear chunks of garage that makes me think of the way Jamie XX and others have messed with that genre. I’m not that good with genre names, but I also here moments of the Anajuadeep/progressive and deeper house type stuff in there too at times, which seems to feature a similar pop writing style.
I’d also recommend his TapeNotes interview, as he talks about a lot of his process, and the anti-perfection stuff you’ve mentioned here.
I highly recommend the podcast Tape Notes and their episode with Fred.
He goes into his process and thinking and a lot of it explained why I connected so much with his music.
For example, he talks about how he starts with a recording of someone, like a poem, finds the key they talk in, then builds on that with drones and melody…
I am going to look him up. I never heard about the Blessed Madonna until I looked up the closing song in the Triangle of Sadness the other day which was a collaboration between them and someone else I never heard of. This Fred is no relation to Right Said Fred?
Actually listening to it right now. Super insightful. It’s such an interesting approach to sample spoken word stuff and put it through Auto-tune. Kinda feels like a truly modern approach to making music.
Oh so that We Lost Dancing Triangle of Sadness closer is Fred Again…when I looked it up the other day I half had this feeling of should I like this? Didn’t know it was made by someone of interesting repute.
The number of mentions of his boiler to set has kinda caused the popular book effect within me…
It’s a lot easier to listen to a boiler room than to read Harry Potter or Girl With the Dragon tattoo though haha. So I should probably just check it out.
