Following the career of Felix Clary Weatherall aka Ross From Friends has provided a fascinating insight into the development of a uniquely talented artist truly coming into their own. The early days selection of a tongue in cheek moniker belies the delicate balance of labyrinthine complexity and pure emotive feeling heard in his unique take on four-on-the-floor revelry; his second full-length release Tread succeeds in feeling like the future, even as he consistently deals in the tricks which made him singular in the first place.
The heady concoction of electronic musics various forms past and present are the through-line. For every ‘Brand New Start’, an exercise in blitzing soul samples into a soupy and oddly melancholic tone piece, a bursting forward motion of UK garage velocity pushes the wavy synth leads on the likes of ‘XXX Olympiad’ into another direction entirely, before ‘Morning Sun in a Dusty Room’ lays out a path of kosmische transcendence. The one-two punch of ‘Love Divide’ and ‘Revellers’, with their left-field rave and hardcore fanaticism, flood the audio space in the wake of the seraphic 2-step of ‘The Daisy’ which easily ranks among Ross From Friends’ most stunning productions to date.
Ross From Friends offers as many solid dancefloor fillers as he does disarming, spaced atmospherics with Tread, a defining record for an artist crammed with creative ideas taking delights in the unexpected.
