BURST(Scarlet Tiger)
Producer Felix Weatherall adopts another guise, swapping lo-fi analogue for a disorienting burst of alternative dance music
Felix Weatherall, the London producer best known as Ross From Friends, has spent much of his career escaping other people’s preconceptions. He emerged in the mid-2010s as the most popular face of the so-called “lo-fi house” or “YouTube house” scene – not really a scene, as much as a collection of producers making analog-sounding dance music that algorithms loved – and since then has worked hard to show he has more to offer than just supremely curated vibes. His latest project, under the alias Bubble Love, is a sharp pivot away from sepia-toned gauziness: it’s a high-energy pop-club record that’s extremely fun, if far from groundbreaking.
Bubble Love often sounds like the work of someone who only just discovered contemporary alternative dance music, which is not a knock. Believe, a warm, jazz-sampling take on the frisky stop-start of Canadian producer Kaytranada, is both sensual and party-starting; Double Caper and Faceless capture the twinkle and shine of great nu-disco. Hate, a furious, minimalist garage track, and <3 <3, which combines calypso drums, a lithe Houston hip-hop guitar line and unnerving computerised vocal samples, feel like appropriately disorientating Two Shell tributes. You walk away knowing little about Bubble Love as a project, but certainly not having had a bad time.
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