Felix Weatherall, the London producer best known as Ross From Friends, has spent much of his career escaping other people’s preconceptions. He emerged in the mid-2010s as the most popular face of the so-called “lo-fi house” or “YouTube house” scene – not really a scene, as much as a collection of producers making analog-sounding dance music that algorithms loved – and since then has worked hard to show he has more to offer than just supremely curated vibes. His latest project, under the alias Bubble Love, is a sharp pivot away from sepia-toned gauziness: it’s a high-energy pop-club record that’s extremely fun, if far from groundbreaking.
Bubble Love often sounds like the work of someone who only just discovered contemporary alternative dance music, which is not a knock. Believe, a warm, jazz-sampling take on the frisky stop-start of Canadian producer Kaytranada, is both sensual and party-starting; Double Caper and Faceless capture the twinkle and shine of great nu-disco. Hate, a furious, minimalist garage track, and <3 <3, which combines calypso drums, a lithe Houston hip-hop guitar line and unnerving computerised vocal samples, feel like appropriately disorientating Two Shell tributes. You walk away knowing little about Bubble Love as a project, but certainly not having had a bad time.
