- No one makes deep house as deep as Fred P does.
- Fred P's approach to music has always been resolutely DIY, and lately, he's found new ways around the dominant streaming economy. Through his subscription-based Private Society label, the East Coast deep house hero has released 15 singles and three albums since launching in 2020, many of them hidden behind paywalls or released only as limited-edition CDs. In an era when any track can go straight from Ableton to Instagram ID videos in a couple hours, Fred P seems to be trying to give dance music a bit of its magic and mystery back. It's the digital equivalent of thumbing through 12-inches at a strip mall thrift store. This sense of magic not only describes how Fred P is releasing music, but also what he's releasing. A track like "Remain," from his latest album, Oasis, is full of a certain kind of effervescence. Like reuniting with an old lover, it's at once familiar—twinkling piano notes conjure up his signature late-night intrigue—and butterfly-inducing, as loose, broken rhythms stumble across the stereo spectrum.
Oasis is a return to form for the Berlin transplant. His last LP, Reminiscent Era, was skeletal, almost cold by his standards, as he experimented with outer space techno. Other releases have gone down an ambient rabbit hole. Oasis, on the other hand, is a timely reminder that no one makes deep house as deep as Fred P does. The darker corners of his tracks occasionally light up with passing glimpses of melody and live instrumentation, before returning to the quiet confines of the dark once again.
This isn't to say his other recent albums were below the bar (the ambient Brilliant Atmospheres from 2020 is one of his best records), but it's always refreshing to hear Fred P in vintage form. On the title track, he reprises some of his old Millsian tricks—anxious chords and a techno-sized kick drum—and supplements them with live guitar, Rhodes solos and swung Latin-style hand drums (the sort of percussion he trotted out on his last LP as Black Jazz Consortium). He locks into another Latin-flavored groove on "Inspired By Beauty." This track's back half feels like the heat finally breaking on a sticky summer night as a slapped bassline and wonky synth dance across the clipped vocal and string stabs.
In his RA Exchange, Fred P described his life as quiet and solitary—so much so that even his neighbors don't know he's a musician. His work has always been hushed, even drawing comparisons to the impressionists. It's a simile that has staying power: the bass solo and melody on "Like No Other" are bright, nearly bursting into little fireworks, but the dub techno chords blur the edges around them. The same is true of the "Ambient Pass" of "Brownsville Groove," where he smudges the jazzy drums and luminescent synth solos into a Monet sunrise. It's this subtle approach to beauty that makes Oasis a potential classic, as a beloved dance music producer fine-tunes the sound that will always be instantly recognizable as Fred P.
Tracklist01. The Story Of Humans
02. Oasis
03. Remain
04. Inspired By Beauty
05. Brownsville Groove
06. Brownsville Groove (Ambient Pass)
07. Play What You Feel
08. Like No Other
09. Hold Fast To Joy