A gradual progression from night to day, from the dancefloor to the domestic, is one way of looking at George FitzGerald’s musical trajectory to date. His forthcoming second album All That Must Be, which comes loaded with crossover potential, is informed by the 33-year-old moving back home to London and embracing fatherhood after years of service at the more thoughtful end of the international club scene.
Raised in north-west London on a diet of garage and dubstep, FitzGerald cut his teeth as a DJ before moving to Berlin in 2010 and becoming a producer. Berlin nurtured a growing interest in techno, and FitzGerald’s early releases on Hotflush were fit-for-purpose club tracks, though euphoric moments were counterbalanced by a healthy dose of melancholia.
The latter quality was all over his 2015 album debut, Fading Love, which alchemised romantic troubles and touring fatigue into melodic, slow-burning electronica. All That Must Be pushes further in the same direction, though any sleepless nights that fed into the album’s delirious, spun-out quality are more likely to have been caused by a screaming baby than a pounding dancefloor.
“I wanted that to mirror the uncanniness you feel when a massive event happens in your life,” says FitzGerald of the disembodied vocals that haunt the album, alongside more intelligible guest slots from Lil Silva and Tracey Thorn. “Everything looks and sounds the same, but it’s somehow different.” It’s a neat summation of the album itself, which feels more rounded and focused, more mature even, without breaking radically from what came before.
• George FitzGerald plays at the Haunt, Brighton on 26 March; Islington Assembly Hall, London on 27 March; the Art School, Glasgow on 28 March; and Gorilla, Manchester on 29 March
