- George Fitzgerald—young, British, into bass music—seems perfectly suited for the hype machine, but I sense he has as little interest in it as any producer. His tracks, signed to such hot-shit labels as Hotflush and Aus, are some of the hardest working tunes on the dance floor, to the point that their utter hipness would seem to be secondary.
If one could levy any criticism at Fitzgerald, it's that his tracks sometimes don't do much to sonically distinguish themselves from those of his peers. And indeed, "Fernweh" and "Hearts" cover much of the same steppin', vampin', sweatin' ground of folks like Scuba and Joy Orbison. But while those producers seem to be fully embracing the house and techno flourishes their sound once only touched upon, Fitzgerald remains a true believer in the power of cross-pollination. It's difficult to discuss "Fernwah" and "Hearts" separately: both fuse the uneven rhythms of dubstep, the unrelenting forward motion of techno and the warm chords of house with great determination and very little self-conscious posturing (though the former takes a more epic approach than the latter). The 12-inch may not break a whole lot of new ground, but these tracks are as well constructed, hard-hitting and purpose-driven as any on the bass continuum right now.
Tracklist A Fernweh
B Hearts