- If you had to send an electronica-loving tourist, just touched down at Heathrow, in the direction of what sums up the sound of London now, you'd do no worse then point them in the direction of George FitzGerald. With releases on Aus and Man Make Music, the all-encompassing, eclectic sound of FitzGerald has found its most regular home on Scuba's Hotflush.
If you're not already familiar with "Shackled" from Scuba's DJ-Kicks, it inhabits the hinterland between UK garage, deep house and dubstep, not too far from the borders from techno. Could have been a mess in most hands, but in the best traditions of Brit cross-hybridising, FitzGerald stitches it together seamlessly. Trippy synth swells weave in and out, a single repetitive note beeps away amid spattering handclaps before a breakdown that takes you to the edge and leaves you there.
"Feel Like" adopts a more classic UK garage feel, with plonking Tuff Jam keys, harnessing it to snapping techno drums and with dubsteppy vocal snatches dropped over it, eventually heading towards a super-emotive denouement. "Friends in High Places" doesn't quite set the pulses racing like its EP siblings, but there's no shame in dropping the pace down a notch. Instead, amid scrunched-up, almost tranceyish, analogue synths and finger clicks, FitzGerald allows himself the space to experiment with some complex tribalish drum patterns. This is the sound of a producer who's in the zone.
Tracklist 01. Shackled
02. Feel Like
03. Friends In High Places