- Big-room techno with flair.
- Alan Fitzpatrick is rightly considered a big-room techno artist—he has close ties to Drumcode and is a regular at events like Awakenings and Creamfields—but that tag also does him a disservice. While many of his peers play and produce tracks lacking in soul or new ideas, Fitzpatrick's music often fizzes with life, the result, in part, of a deep-rooted fascination with early UK rave culture. This influence is at the heart of The Awakening, a seven-track EP stuffed with club-ready bangers. It's not all gold—four or five tracks may have sufficed—but there's plenty of personality.
All seven cuts share certain characteristics: giant kick drums, rousing breakdowns, canny percussive gear-changes. Even so, the mood and energy vary subtly from track to track, determined by the elements up top. Three are lighter and more trancey. "All Hope Fades" pairs dense pads with a mechanical clank. "Dead Beat Exile" is darker and leaner, though shimmering synths soften the clean, crisp acid line. "Ego," with its pulsating breakdown, is the most epic.
Fitzpatrick strips things back on "Eleven Eleven," much to his detriment. The two main elements—a mechanized vocal and whirlpool-style synth blasts—are jarring, but more tiresome are the long, dull passages of naked drums. For an artist whose tracks usually brim with action, it seems out of character. The remix by Polymod (AKA Shadow Child) isn't much better.
Things improve on the final two cuts. "Stand Up," the EP's standout, is Fitzpatrick on ravey, feel-good form, with echoes of 2016's summer smash "We Do What We Want." Its core is a loud and dynamic melody that constantly shifts in tone and pitch. When paired with thumping kicks, the effect is electrifying. "Toasted Pitta" is deeper, with glistening synths pinging against muted stabs that fade in and out of focus. Once again we're reminded that, in 2019, stadium-sized techno needn't lack flair.
Tracklist01. All Hope Fades
02. Dead Beat Exile
03. Ego
04. Eleven Eleven
05. Eleven Eleven (Polymod Remix)
06. Stand Up
07. Toasted Pitta