Adam Wray works the angles.
The best dance music works on two levels: it’s body music, coaxing you into movement; it’s mind music, too, engaging enough to work outside the club. With “Thinking of You,” forthcoming on Hotflush, London’s George Fitzgerald is working both angles. Debuted last weekend in the midst of his January 19 BBC Essential Mix, “Thinking of You” is an extension of the sound he began working with on 2012’s “Child.” That tune is an elegant slice of throwback house, all glossy synth stabs, tight, unfussy drums, and sticky vocal loops. “Thinking of You” is a rougher take on the sound, its synths more rugged, its drums pounding harder — it’s the after-party to “Child,” amphetamine sheen replaced by a darker energy. Fitzgerald puts his best four on the floor and loops chopped male vocals over top, braiding them through kicks and claps, returning to a pleading refrain: “I’m constantly thinking of you.”
Isolated, on headphones, “Thinking of You” is a dynamic head-nodder. Deployed mid-set by a canny selector, though, it scans as a monster floor-filler. You hear its potential on Fitzgerald’s Essential Mix, nestled between choice cuts from Portable and Huxley. Now imagine hearing it on a proper system. The mix was an installment in a series called “Future Stars of 2013” — if Fitzgerald keeps cruising at this pace, he may well be one.
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