Fang Jr. – Nest & Brown Fang remix (Phlexx Records)
Nottingham electronic artist Fang Jr. releases the first of his two summer singles Nest for emerging independent label Phlexx.
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Artist: Fang Jr.
Track: Nest
Label: Phlexx Records
Released: 7 August 2020
Find it: Spotify
It is often in the smallest details that memories are formed, and spark from. The way the light glowed off the walls as the sunset outside, the drifting laughter from a nearby party you weren’t invited to, the mix of perfume and bodies.
It’s in these small details that Fang Jr., alias of Henry Claude, anchors his lyrics before setting them to analogue synthesiser and off-kilter beats for electronica which is just as disjointed and expansive as those triggered memories can be. So we find him on latest single, Nest.
Deliberately eschewing steady percussion for more stop-start beats, Nest is concentric melodies which bubble up, burst and disappear before surfacing all over again. In an interview with journalist Karley Myall he said of the track: “Nest is a love song to the mundane and the feeling of home. I’d never really tried to write anything without constant percussion and made a conscious choice on this track to limit its usage and place it in meaningful spots. The rest is an organic sounding, bouncy ditty.”
The Brown Fang remix – an instrumental sister project – keeps the same laid back and off-kilter feel, dropping the vocals and focusing in on the melody. There is, of course, a recognisable mirroring of elements between this and the original, but it drifts just far enough in its own direction to stand strong on its own too.
The tracks are his first for Nottingham-based Phlexx Records, a label with an eclectic roster and who aim to nurture artist development not only through traditional label activity but through events in the wider community (although, presumably that side of things is paused for now). It’ll be interesting to hear where the partnership takes Fang Jr.’s sound next.
Fang Jr.’s Nest is out now on Phlexx Records and is due to be followed by more new music later in the year.
Find Fang Jr: Facebook | Instagram | Spotify
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Sarah Lay
A long-standing music journalist she's also co-founder of independent record label Reckless Yes, an author of novels, and when not messing around with words and music, a digital strategist.
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