Two years on from their widely acclaimed third album, This Bit of Earth, Greg Dowling and Shane Johnson are back on the Go Deep label with their latest long player. What I Mean By Beautiful touches on the previous collection’s themes of upheaval and dislocation, digging through the lost and found of modern life and always looking for light in dark places.

The album marks something of a return to the duo’s house music roots, with a four-to-the-floor foundation underpinning many of the eleven tracks. It exudes a warm, natural sound, where samples sit with modular synths, programmed drums with live loops, and quirky plugins with obscure outboard gear.

Opening track, ‘I Float in the Clouds’, sets a dramatic tone with intricately interwoven guitar and keyboard lines, fragmented, spectral vocals and deep, melodic bass. Tempos range widely throughout the record, from the loose, low-slung grooves of ‘So They Were Changed’ and ‘High Wire’, to the infectious, mid-paced title track, to the intense house workouts of ‘You Came Into My Life’ and ‘All In Everything’. Greg and Shane’s long established dub leanings are also in evidence, especially on the slow motion churn of ‘Low Tide Dub’ and spacious atmospherics of ‘South Gate Step’. The album closes on an open and optimistic note with the soothing pads and deep electronic pulse of ‘Be Brave’, the result of a collaborative project with author Lisa McInerney and actor, Hillary Rose.

DJ Feedback:

CHARLES WEBSTER / MISO RECORDS
‘Beautiful album....so much depth and emotion in the music with impeccable sonics and attention to the all-important details.’

HOT TODDY / CRAZY P
‘Lush and immersive with an emotional, melancholic tug.’

LAURENT GARNIER
‘Pure beauty.’

COFLO / OCHA
‘Awesome, love Fish Go Deep and this is a lovely new sonic excursion for them!’

MASSIMILIANO PAGLIARA
‘This is indeed very beautiful.’

BILL BREWSTER / DJ HISTORY
‘Love these guys and loved the last album. Standouts on first listen: Love The Other, What I Mean By Beautiful, High Wire.’

MR V / SOLE CHANNEL
‘Love this album and where Fish went musically.’

SUBATOMIC / AFTERLIFE
‘This is a truly beautiful album, a breath of fresh air in a world that looks to the past so often rather than forward for inspiration. I loved This Bit of Earth but love this album even more. Full radio support all year.’

BILLY SCURRY
‘Bleedin sensational… like Basic Channel meets The Tom Tom Club!’

CLIVE FROM ACCOUNTS
‘Deep, rich with ideas and beautifully produced.’

FEEL FLY / INTERNATIONAL FEEL
‘Wow! An exciting and magnificent record, masterful work!’

KEN FAN / CAFE DEL MAR
‘Wow wasn’t expecting that, amazing.’

JERRY BOUTHIER / CONTINENTAL RECORDS
‘Very well put together and inspired all the way, bravo!!’

TREVOR FUNG / THE PROJECT
‘Fabulous LP…All tracks…Love it!!’

KEVIN REYNOLDS / TRANSMAT
‘Fish Go Deep produced a stunning complete album. The drift of Larry Heard, dubbed notes grazing Burger / Ink ethos and one can feel clouds of The Orb. 10 out of 10 for me.’

SEAN JOHNSTON / A LOVE FROM OUTER SPACE
‘Great stuff! Lovely production.’ More

Greg Dowling and Shane Johnson return to the Go Deep label for their third album, ‘This Bit of Earth’. Beginning work in the relative normality of 2019 and finishing over the strange summer of 2020, the resulting music mirrors the thoughts that such upheaval brings out - our world and our place in it - while also functioning as a kind of travelogue of journeys past and planned, real and imaginary.

Mixing samples with modular synths, programmed drums with jazz loops, and quirky plugins with outboard gear, the album ranges far and wide while retaining a warm, natural core sound.

The title track opens proceedings on an ambiguous note. A simple double bass motif weaves around a misheard vocal sample, layers of piano and vibraphone take up the call, and the whole thing gradually spins off axis to a distorted, disjointed finish. ‘Suburban Key’ follows on a groove of busy drum work and deep sub bass, the stately piano and strings setting the stage for an undulating synth solo.

Further in, ‘Alice on Jupiter’ takes a deep breath and blends field recordings, gently swelling pads, modular bursts and a recurring picked melody.

‘Back Trace Dub’ strolls the imagined streets of Irish author Kevin Barry’s ‘City of Bohane’, noting the “taint of badness” in the air and revelling in the tense, dub-noir atmosphere. Later on, the spoken word intro of ‘I Could See’ expresses the dread of confinement and the relief and ecstasy of release, a theme the music reflects as it steadily builds to a joyful climax.

And closing the album on an optimistic note, the languid, emotional Culatra Ferry remembers better, beautiful days in the sun and looks hopefully forward to more.

“Highlights are the stunning sonics of Suburban Key, with its dusty groove and fast paced drums, stately piano, and cinematic strings reminiscent of a Four Hero orchestral masterpiece. High As Scaffold is full of warmth and soul and is yet another example of Fish Go Deep going even deeper into the dark blue waters of their brilliant musical minds.” Ban Ban Ton Ton review, Japan More