Dr. Hooker - Forge Your Own Chains - 4.42

SYMPHONIC

Portés par le vent

This summer, NuNorthern Soul celebrates its tenth birthday via the release of a lusciously packaged vinyl box set. After that, there’s the small matter of the label’s 50th release, a gorgeous, download-only EP from Bali-based Joey Fitzgerald AKA Gold Suite. Given that NNS was based for many years in Bali, and Fitzgerald and label boss Phil Cooper are old friends, it seems a fitting way to notch up half a century of releases.

Fitzgerald scored something of an underground hit with his self-released debut EP as Gold Suite, Hideaway – a set of tracks that Mixmag Asia praised to the hilt and ended up reaching Bandcamp’s list of bestsellers following its release in the spring of 2021. It was by no means his first foray into production – he’d previously delivered a handful of well-regarded edits and remixes – but it signalled a new chapter in the career of a DJ/producer who was previously better known for soundtracking sunsets and late night audio excursions at such iconic Bali venues as Potato Head Beach Club, 40 Thieves, Karma Beach and Mano Beach House.

The four tracks showcased on the On My Horizon EP do a terrific job in distilling his influences and inspirations into a colourful, sunset-ready and undeniably Balearic personal style that avoids easy categorization.

He begins with ‘The Cowboy’, a head-nodding and hazy chunk of dub-fired downtempo brilliance rich in warming bass, glistening guitar licks, spacey synth sounds and tropical lead lines, before brilliantly joining the dots between mid-‘80s Mediterranean synth-pop, relaxed nu-disco and Jose Padilla style Balearica on the kaleidoscopic wonder that is ‘Blue Lagoon’.

As the EP progresses, Fitzgerald skips merrily towards the dancefloor whilst retaining the inherently hot and humid atmosphere that marks out his music. ‘Slip On’ is a killer slab of Balearic boogie piled high with delay-laden drum machine hits, dreamy pads, undulating synth-bass and BB&Q Band keyboard riffs, while ‘On My Horizon’ sees Fitzgerald charge towards peak-time dancefloors via a mixture of weighty, Idjut Boys-esque dub disco grooves, flash-fried funk-rock licks and jangling, Gunfight at the O.K Corral guitars. Daniele Baldelli would approve.

As well as being NuNorthern Soul’s 50th release, On My Horizon is also the latest volume in the label’s Myths of Ibiza series – a set of eight EPs to be released throughout 2022, each of which features bespoke artwork from Ibiza-based illustrator Emily McGuinness. Her images for Myths of Ibiza all draw inspiration from folkloric tales of the White Isle. Depicted on the front of Gold Suite’s first NuNorthern Soul EP is “the familiar”, a mythical small goblin born from the stem of an herb that legend says only grows on the night of San Juan, under the old bridge of Santa Eulària des Riu. According to locals, if you manage to pick one of the short-lived plants and take one of its stems, it will come to life and turn into “the familiar”.

Dr. Hooker - Forge Your Own Chains - 4.42

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