Often, there’s a degree of anonymity associated with dance music producers, but South London born Fred Gibson distances himself from that stereotype. He’s spent much of his illustrious career accumulating production credits for the likes of George Ezra, Ellie Goulding, Stormzy, and Ed Sheeran. It wasn’t until 2021 when he stepped out of the super-producer shadows and released his first two solo albums as Fred Again: Actual Life and Actual Life 2. Both were enthralling patchworks of sample-based ambient house, using audio gathered everywhere from night-out-recordings, to YouTube clips, to voice-notes. They’ve since received widespread critical praise. Now, we see the release of Actual Life 3: certainly, a sonic evolution from its predecessors. Throughout this album, Fred seems more confident than ever in his self-assigned mission to document the beauty of everyday-interpersonal connection. However, sometimes the album relies a little too much upon the gimmick of its samples, without expressing any emotionally concrete ideas.
The intro track ‘January 1st 2022’ evokes vague symbolism surrounding New Year’s Day, before segueing into the moody and nocturnal ‘Eyelar (shutters)’. This track somewhat reuses a synth motif from an older Fred Again single: ‘Kyle (I found you)’. This makes for an interesting call-back. However, the track doesn’t evoke much more than the atmosphere of walking-contemplatively-at-night-time, a vibe that Fred has created many times already.
Luckily, the euphoric-house-piano of ‘Delilah (pull me out of this)’ picks up the pace. It foreshadows how the album’s clubbiest tracks are also its best, like the rattling-two-step-garage of ‘Kammy (like i do)’, and the ridiculously catchy tech-house-floor-filler ‘Danielle (smile on my face)’. ‘Berwyn (all that I got is you)’, on the other hand, displays Fred’s ambient-music-chops. It’s an expansive track that sounds like a night sky, sweeping synth pads and twinkling pianos overlaying emotionally resonant samples. It’s more expansive than the ambient tracks of ‘Actual Life 1 and 2’ which were often fairly minimalist.
Other tracks are a little too streamlined to be that interesting. ‘Bleu (better with time)’ is constructed around a beautifully simple vocal sample from rapper Yung Bleu. Unfortunately, the straightforward instrumental somewhat reiterates another Fred Again single ‘Angie (i’ve been lost)’. Later, with ‘Mustafa (time to move you)’ Fred tries to create an emotional culmination by reusing previous samples, but unfortunately comes across like he was running out of ideas.
Luckily, the album ends on a high note. The euphoric progressive house instrumental of ‘Clara (the night is dark)’ enhances the carpe diem attitude of the sample: ‘Courage my soul // It won’t be very long.’ This track smoothly segues into the tender ambient closer ‘Winnie (the end of me)’.
Overall, there’s some undoubtedly high calibre song-writing on Actual Life 3. It’s a record that feels made for Gibson’s live shows: a celebration of community and collaboration, and a sonic evolution from his covid-informed first album. However, it also feels like more-of-the-same, and leans heavily upon the sampling gimmick. As a result, some songs feel a little stale and lifeless. Yet, despite this, Fred seems surer of his artistic vision than ever. It’s also exciting to see his growing experience as a club DJ influencing his choices of genre. As such, his future records are guaranteed to be an intriguing and exciting ride.
Words by Caradoc Gayer
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