Review: Fred again.., The Marble Factory

South London producer Fred Gibson, aka Fred again.. became the sound of the past, present and future during lockdown. Tracks burst through the fog, drenched in nostalgia and brimming with hope for the future. His sound struck a chord with a generation who felt they had had precious years of their youth stolen from them.

Fred again..’s debut album Actual Life (April 14 – December 17 2020) rang out with feelings of loss and aspiration, beats pounded against the glass of our windows and vibrated in our frozen bones. Hearing these anthems live became a thing to look forward to; a dream to keep the hope alive.

For Bristol music fans, this dream finally came to be on November 23 as a stream of people ready to ride the electro-pop waves of Fred again.. flooded into The Marble Factory. The air was electric with anticipation, the crowd brimming with the realisation that this is what we had all been waiting for.

Actual Life is a collection of thoughts and feelings from the height of the pandemic, a sound collage of samples, voice notes and twinkling pianos that dive deep into the complexities of living through a worldwide lockdown.

A songwriter, multi-instrumentalist and super producer, Fred again.. is a master of tracks that evoke raw emotion. Poetic dialogue grounds the message of his songs, with exploding instrumental breaks creating a soundscape around their meaning.

Fred again… – photo: Atlantic Records

Though the backdrop of Actual Life is bleak, Fred again..’s sound is infectiously optimistic and feel-good. This notion of finding joy in a desolate place echoes the atmosphere of The Marble Factory, as the crowd bustles together in the cold, vast concrete hall, waiting for Fred again.. to light up the stage.

Kyle (I Found You) kicked off the set, immediately lighting the fuse and causing the crowd to erupted with elation. Charged by months of lost experiences, the crowd buzzed in this moment of liberation, feet pounding the floor to the beat of a newfound freedom. The effect was overwhelming, and as the tears welled up, I watched the faces around me reflect my own, eyes glassy with emotion.

The gig’s production paid homage to the origins of Actual Life, an album created in isolation from the connections made online. An LED screen took on the appearance of a giant phone screen, showing the faces behind the samples and song titles – the community of artists who contributed to the album.

Photo: Atlantic Records

In Actual Life the songs and samples bleed into one another, creating a journey through mixed emotions with recurring ideas cropping up repeatedly. The effect is visceral, and amplified in the live experience, the crowd were carried through a jumbled thought process painted across the pixels of the LED screen. The faces of the artists featured in the album exploded onto the screen throughout the gig; phrases like “we gon make it through” and “I can’t wait to see your face again” are repeated – notions which have burnt within us over the last two years.

As the intro to Dermot (See Yourself In My Eyes) crept in, the lives of one couple in the crowd were changed forever, becoming engaged to Fred again..’s magnetic love song.

Though the intimate album plays out like a chaotic and contemplative diary, his sound is deeply connected to a world collectively mourning the loss of their normal lives. Nothing was more relatable than Marea (We Lost Dancing), with lyrics like “we’ve lost the hugs with friends and- and people that we loved, all thеse things that we took for granted (wе’ve lost dancing)” punching us in the gut.

The anthem which catapulted Fred again.. as a solo artist and a sure-fire closer for the show whipped up the crowd into an enraptured frenzy. Fred again.. did indeed keep his promise in the song, “if we can live through this- what comes next will be marvellous”.

Fred again.. at The Marble Factory – photo: @jamaihn

Actual Life was born out of the darkness of lockdown, a silver streak in an ink black sky. When the album was released in April 2021, his sound rang out from the holes we were trapped in as we sat in isolation clinging to his hopeful vibrations, waiting patiently for our actual lives to restart – to break out of this stagnant state, and re-join the world.

November 23 felt like a homecoming, a sigh of relief, and a night to find your feet. In the final moments, the crowd revelled together, shoulder to shoulder, back where we belonged.

Knowing the night was coming to an end, we watched Fred take centre stage. Holding a large cable, he called out that this was the final song and pulled the sparking plug. Expecting the sound of silence, the crowd exploded as the rapturous Billie (Loving Arms), from his freshly released album Actual Life 2, instead burst through the speakers, playing out the gig.

This stunt feels like a perfect metaphor for the magic behind Fred again.. – the world pulled the plug, but the music kept playing.

Main photo: @jamaihn

Read more: ‘The last few weeks have reinforced to me how special live music is’

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