Unlock the Editor’s Digest for free
Roula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.
USB002 is a compilation of tracks that feature in Fred Again’s DJ sets. Its mood differs markedly from the albums that have brought fame to the UK producer, aka Fred Gibson (who stylises his stage name as Fred again..).
Starting with Actual Life (April 14-December 17 2020) in 2021, his studio albums are emotive experiences structured around voice memos recorded by Gibson. Affecting or inspirational phrases recur, uttered by people encountered by Gibson or sung by guest vocalists. The sound lies at the sentimental end of dance music’s spectrum, the point at which the club morphs into a secular church. It has turned its maker into one of the biggest names in his field. In 2024, he became the first dance artist to headline the Reading and Leeds festival.
USB002 dispenses with the powerful but vaguely outlined sense of meaningfulness running through his albums. Its foot-to-the-floor character is illustrated by the revving noises accompanying US rapper Bia in “Icey . . . ”, as though she were hurtling along an expressway. This is no-nonsense club music, produced with an acute ear for texture and the songwriting smarts of a producer who began his career penning chart hits for the likes of George Ezra.
Fred Again began collecting songs under the USB banner in 2022. He calls it an “infinite” album to which he adds whenever he wishes. The latest batch of 16 tracks is available on vinyl. They provide an adrenaline kick of reverberant basslines and scissoring percussion. The vocals, delivered by an imaginatively assembled array of rappers and singers, are brash and full of attitude.
Amy Taylor of Australian punks Amyl and the Sniffers chants about seizing the initiative on “You’re a Star”, galvanised by convulsive passages of drum and bass. Skepta illustrates grime’s links to rave music in “Last 1s Left”. Fellow producer Floating Points joins Fred on “Ambery”, an immaculately designed techno rush in which thuddy distorted sounds vie with clean bleepy ones, a contrast between chaos and control. The mawkishness hovering over Fred Again’s studio albums is nowhere to be found.
★★★★☆
‘USB002’ is released by Atlantic Records
Read the full article here