- London's George FitzGerald is one of the more interesting producers operating in the teched-up bass-heavy kinda-house kinda-garage sector of the UK right now. While his first single on Hotflush placed him in a garage pigeonhole somewhere close to Joy Orbison, since then he's established a techno sound that doesn't really sound like anyone else anymore—one that is more suave than savage.
"Silhouette," FitzGerald's debut EP for Will Saul's Aus label, might be a little too suave. Following the label's recent meander into uber-polished house and techno, "Silhouette" is so perfectly opalescent that it provides almost nothing to grasp onto as it slides by on stabby dub techno chords. The surface-level sensory overload of pretty sounds and innumerable vocal samples feels...well...merely surface-level. John Roberts continues to prove himself an unpredictable remix wizard (following his handclap-happy rework of Darkstar's "Gold"), taking the slippery smooth ride of "Silhouette" on a severe left turn into staggered breakbeat house, each drum hit like a carelessly thrown rock scuffing up FitzGerald's minted groove.
On the other side "Reset" sees FitzGerald finding a better fit for his new-agey techno sound, pooling vocal samples into an oily slick (as on his fantastic "We Bilateral") over a straightforward and chunky kick drum, claiming some of the focused energy that "Silhouette" lacks.
Tracklist A1 Silhouette
A2 Silhouette (John Roberts Remix)
B Reset