Alice Merton is ready to return to the stage with her new single “Vertigo.”
Produced by Koz, the track was inspired by a dizzying experience Merton had while waiting in line for a club. She channels this unease into a dense drum beat and cathartic guitar riff reminiscent of Muse as she tries to grapple with the unpleasant sensation.
“‘Vertigo’ was the first song I had written, where I thought ‘OK, now I’m actually writing for the next album,'” Merton tells Rolling Stone. “For the first time in a while, I felt excited to have written a song that I couldn’t wait to perform live. It basically came about after Koz and I had talked about what it’s like living in Berlin, the very different club scene, and my anxiety when it came to going out and being in big crowds and small spaces. I casually described a club night, where I felt out of place, and the feeling of vertigo took over. We both felt it would be fun to play around with this idea and create a dark atmosphere, supported by a driving rhythm and an almost hypnotic guitar riff.”
“Vertigo” marks Merton’s first new music since 2019’s Mint. In 2018, she was featured as a Rolling Stone Artist You Need to Know, where she discussed her debut single “No Roots.” Merton describes her new album as darker and more melodic than its predecessor.
“It was important to me that whatever comes next isn’t just a logical sequence to Mint, but a more adventurous journey, challenging myself but also staying true to what feels right in the moment,” she says. “I was lucky to work with various producers who were just as excited as I was to venture out of our comfort zone and try new things.”
MUSIC PREMIERES
Four years on from the ‘Actual Life’ series lifting him into the mainstream spotlight, Fred Again.. continues to feel unavoidable. The London producer and DJ born Fred Gibson has moved at a relentless pace, bouncing between sold out stadium dates in New York and surprise appearances at Sheffield’s 1,000 capacity Forge, while also making history as the first electronic artist to top the bill at Reading and Leeds in 2024.
Where the ‘Actual Life’ releases and his fourth album, 2024’s ‘Ten Days’, leaned into warmth and joy pulled from ordinary moments, Gibson has also sharpened his instinct for high impact club weapons rooted in garage, dubstep and jungle. That side of his output lives on ‘USB’, an “infinite album” first imagined in 2022 as a home for tracks that exist outside any fixed universe, including defining moments like ‘Rumble’ and ‘Jungle’.
‘USB002’, the second vinyl only chapter of the ‘USB’ project, brings together 16 recent tracks, many of which surfaced gradually on streaming services over a ten week stretch. The music was shaped live, in step with ten unannounced DJ appearances across the world from Dublin to Mexico City. Even with a Glastonbury style registration system in place, The Times reported that 100,000 people tried to secure tickets for the opening night in Glasgow.
Appropriately, ‘USB002’ feels alive and constantly in motion, helped along by contributions from close collaborators such as Floating Points and Sammy Virji. The rigid, techno driven pressure of ‘Ambery’ echoes elements of Floating Points’ 2019 album ‘Crush’, while Gibson’s take on ‘The Floor’ builds like the slow climb of a rollercoaster before dropping back to earth without warning.
The guest list stretches beyond the usual dance circles, with two Australian guitar bands popping up in unexpected ways. ‘You’re A Star’ reworks Amyl and The Sniffers’ ‘Big Dreams’ into a breakbeat driven rush, while ‘Hardstyle 2’ pulls the experimental post punk edge of Shady Nasty into an Underworld adjacent space alongside Kettama. Gibson’s real trick is his ability to connect with anyone. These tracks are not reinterpretations but full takeovers.
The visual world wrapped around the ‘USB002’ rollout reinforces the instinct behind the music. Phones were prohibited at shows staged in vast warehouse spaces under sweeping light rigs, while Gibson’s team shared striking black and white footage and created artwork for each single on site. Bottling that sense of urgency, the project is rooted in the thrill of the present moment, something Gibson seems able to summon simply by turning up.
If the ‘Actual Life’ series and ‘Ten Days’ captured passing snapshots of experience, ‘USB’ is defined by constant movement, a space where boundaries are removed entirely. Sitting somewhere between an album and a playlist, ‘USB002’ underlines why Fred Again.. feels so dominant right now, and suggests that his current run may only be the beginning of something much bigger.
