The music suggests a producer making decisive decisions, even when he isn’t fairly evolving from the mission’s first installment. Gone are the maudlin pop and deep home that marked pre-USB hits like “adore u.” And whereas typical Fred once more.. signatures do floor, just like the slightly-too-saccharine gated chords on “solo,” or the smudged, low-attack synth breakdowns on “you’re a star,” USB002 favors the membership over the contemplative. UK storage and four-on-the-floor beats lurk underneath practically each monitor, the melodies are insidiously catchy, and Gibson’s manufacturing strikes spotlessly, because of his previous in pop music. Even on tunes like “..FEISTY,” the place wobbling bass and chunky kicks would possibly often tip into mix-drowning extra, Gibson’s precision reins all the pieces in, letting BIA’s strutting vocal traces propel the monitor.
A few of USB002’s efficacy, like PinkPantheress’ Fancy Some Extra? or Charli XCX’s Brat remix mission, will also be attributed to the sheer density of its guestlist. Not many producers have the power to tug collectively such a wide-ranging crew, getting JPEGMAFIA, Floating Factors, Australian techno producer Pores and skin on Pores and skin, Caribou, Twitch streamer PlaqueBoyMax, and UKG celebrity Sammy Virji all rubbing shoulders in Fred’s crowded digital DJ sales space alongside earlier collaborators like Skrillex, Romy, Lil Yachty, and Overmono.
The place PinkPantheress and Charli XCX’s tasks, though remix-based (and equally clouted), felt like real interactions between friends and influences, USB002’s link-ups typically really feel extra useful than mutually illuminative. The album’s beats are uniformly punchy, providing strong foundations for his visitor vocalists; the euphoric chords of “solo” make for an efficient distinction with Blanco’s heartbroken rhymes, and BIA’s rasp sounds fittingly menacing paired with the blown-out storage and hip-hop beats of “ICEY..” and “..FEISTY.” But when something, his collabs sound too a lot like Fred once more..—there’s barely any hint of Floating Factors contained in the lumbering “Ambery,” avoid wasting temporary sparkles of synthesizer, and Caribou is equally rendered nameless beneath Brazilian singer Menor Teteu’s lilting vocals on “Facilita.” And the album’s most provocative characteristic, from Aussie punks Amyl and the Sniffers, is rendered unrecognizable amid the pro-forma drum’n’bass breaks of “you’re a star.” There’s little doubt that Fred once more.. is aware of his method round a banger, and industrial-flavored techno of tracks like “I Luv U” makes a welcome return to the darkness of “Rumble.” However for a mission touted as “infinite,” USB002 feels curiously constrained by the narrowness of its horizons.
