[Image: Fabric Bourgelle]
Article by Maya-Rose Torrão
Last week we featured Ross From Friends’ new single ‘Project Cybersyn’ as one of our top new experimental electronic tracks (read the article here) and we are really hyped that this hot underground producer has just dropped another single from his upcoming debut album ‘Family Portrait’ and released a really unique video along with it. Ross From Friends, born Felix Clary Weatherall, has been making serious waves in the electronic music scene in the last couple of years, boasting over 4 million views on YouTube for his song ‘Talk To Me You’ll Understand’. While there may be a couple of hiccups this year with the talented musician receiving a serious defamation of character accusation from Hollywood actor David Schwimmer, who played the character Ross on the hit show Friends, this lo-fi music lynchpin continues to release unique tracks that dazzle listeners with their crunchy beats and moody experimental synths.
His new single is called ‘Pale Blue Dot’, a name which already conjures up a great nostalgia, reminding the listener of Voyager 1’s iconic photograph from 1990 – our planet earth as nothing more than a pixel from space. The music video takes that nostalgia to the next level and gives us some really special insight into Ross From Friends’ family history; all of the footage used is from a trip taken in the same year as the Voyager 1’s iconic photo by Ross From Friends’ very own mum, a young budding filmmaker at the time, and documents Ross From Friends’ own dad’s DJ adventure across Europe with a group of friends and artists.
After years of DJing at squat parties around London, Ross From Friends’ dad organised a sound-system and a generator and invited a bus full of people to travel across Europe, setting up parties in various creative locations along the way. The most touching part of the whole thing? This is the trip where Ross From Friends’ parents met for the first time and fell in love. Ross From Friends’ mum even rang him a couple of days ago to say thanks for the video and also explained a little more about how the trip was a political stance in many ways. In the years prior to the time that his parents took the trip, many areas across Eastern Europe were inaccessible to Westerners because of the reign of the Soviet Union and the tensions following WWII. The Soviet Union’s collapse and the significant tearing-down of the Berlin Wall and Checkpoint Charlie meant that these areas no longer had these heavy restrictions and in this newly liberated landscape Ross From Friends’ dad and his crew went on a journey to share music and celebration to those who had been trapped for years.
The single itself fits flawlessly in with the video, featuring pulsing nostalgic drum beats, reverb-soaked vocal manipulations and delicate piano breaks.
Watch the passionate, nostalgic video for ‘Pale Blue Dot’ below.
Ross From Friends’ new album ‘Family Portrait’ is available via Flying Lotus label Brainfeeder for preorder here. Don’t forget to also follow Ross From Friends on Soundcloud, Facebook, Twitter and Instagram and check out Ross From Friends‘ tour dates below.
