If Comacid is your starting point for the music of Frederick Schmid you are in for a treat, with this 12” and in the unearthing of quite a gem.
Freddy Fresh has a strange claim to fame. The majority of the world will have heard a single sentence from him more than his music, his voice being the looped sample heard in “Fucking In Heaven” by Fat Boy Slim. In spite of this, the Minneapolis musician has been seriously prolific in his decades long career. Having set up a number of labels, such as Analog, Freddy Fresh (aka Frederick Schmid) has also explored a spread of music styles, from ambient to hip hop with acid drenched techno being his go to sound. It’s to the latter that Forced Nostalgia turn, dredging the vast archives of Mr Fresh for a quartet of 303 goodness.
Spooked synthlines and brittle beats combine for the opener. “Slow Death” has a haunted quality, the ferocious side of Schmid’s sound being sheathed. And that thump, the pound, isn’t present on this selection, instead it’s the bending bars, curled chords and sinewy squawk that is in focus. Lonesome bleep and decay characterize “Space Funk”, claps supporting bitter sweet notes. The 12” is a condensed vision of Fresh’s range. “Scared” maintains those lost blips of “Space Funk” before acid growl descends taking the track by the wrist to the floor. The stagger and stumbling notes of “Binder” close, a reduced and removed piece of pared back electronics.
I’ve liked Freddy Fresh since I was a teenage, especially his less bangin’ material, but I hadn’t listened to him for at least a couple of years. After listening to Comacid I went fishing on in my collection, sitting back and reacquainting myself with an old friend. Freddy is a lesser sung pioneer of techno, one who experimented with an arsenal of machines to create a spread of sounds. If Comacid is your starting point for the music of Frederick Schmid you are in for a treat, with this 12” and in the unearthing of quite a gem.
Comacid is available on Forced Nostalgia.
