To give you a little treat on this dark and gloomy Thursday in November, we have the honour to exclusively present the beautiful song “Knuckles” by Fybe:one and singer Zelda Marshall. Being the close-out track to his upcoming album “Elements” on Shades Recordings, the atmospheric instrumental combined with Zelda’s flawless voice makes us hum ourselves into a state of hypnosis.
Pre-OrderSouth Londoner Fybe:one juggles production, djing and managing the Shades imprint with his day job as an illustrator and graphic designer. He’s known for creating intelligent, melodic tracks pitched somewhere between house, garage and electronica, being super productive, and having a dangerous alter-ego called naish.
After years spent refining his sound, remixing peers and stalking others on soundcloud, Fybe produced “an instant classic album” with folk singer Jono McCleery (Counter/Ninja Tune), then turned his attention to his first solo effort.
This was 2012′s Harp EP (Shades), a mellow paean to one of his favourite instruments filled with delicate textures and IDM flourishes. Remix work for the likes of Part Time Heroes, Monokle and Deft swiftly followed, allowing him to explore other avenues of sound and augment his own in the process. This is evident on his first full length, Elements (Shades 2014), an altogether more dynamic affair taking in fragments of house, garage, jazz, electronica and more, with a few tracks aimed squarely for the dancefloor.
The collaborations reflect the amount of range on offer here; vocals from Zelda Marshall and Francesca Belmonte (Tricky’s vocalist) bring out Fybe’s softer, song-led side, while his tough-as-nails collaboration with Deft shows he can smash up the dance as well as anyone. Remixes from Duct (Shades), Sieren (Project Mooncircle), Kwala (Finest Ego/Freeform), Warsnare (Seclusiasis), Ross Wakefield (Part Time Heroes) and more round out the package.
The name “Elements” came through creating the artwork and video for lead track ‘Step 2 the Side’. It’s a collaboration between Fybe:one and photographer Nick Rochowski, who challenged themselves to photographically recreate one of Fybe’s geometric artworks in the studio. By combining handmade geometric shapes with ‘Elements’ such as air, water, light and earth they were able to create a world of indefinite scale, and manipulate it to reflect layers within the music. In the work, the air (dry ice) represents the grainy hiss sounds, the water reflects the melody, and the lighting sets the emotive tone.