Something's happened to George Fitzgerald's music since he debuted on Hotflush in 2010: as his production style has grown ever more nuanced, it's also gotten catchier. This was especially the case in 2012, the year that "Child" burrowed its way into the ears of more than a few clubgoers on the back of a subtly unstoppable hook. And the Needs You EP, which dropped late in the year, certainly doesn't buck the trend.
Not surprisingly, Fitzgerald's hooks here are delicious. What's more notable is the music that backs them up. Textured and tweaked as we'd expect, his two original productions here nevertheless feel especially focused and restrained. Taking its beat from the breath of what sounds like a runner pushing through her final lap, "Needs You" evokes movement in all directions simultaneously. Yet it takes little more than an easy shuffle and dubby vamps to get us there—work that would generally require a much larger toolkit for most producers, Fitzgerald included. "Every Inch" is a few ticks more minimalistic. But with a keyboard melody as expressive as this one, a producer can absolutely afford to trim the fat. It sounds like Deetron got the memo as well: his remix makes a big-room bomb out of "Every Inch," with just a few key adjustments and not a hint of bluster.
