Gideon Foster’s new single, Fatal Kiss, is right up our street. If you’re a fan of slightly 80s feeling new wave/ pop/ rock, then we think you’ll like this song too.
Fatal Kiss feels like a song which would sit well on an OMD album. The song starts with a rhythm and style that feels a lot like Electricity by OMD, and in fact, the whole feel of the song has that lovely 80s drenched in guitars, slightly poppy feel to it.
Vocally, we’re reminded of David Bowie in many places. Gideon’s voice cuts through strongly in the mix. Almost a shock to begin with, but then settling in as more instruments are added.
There’s some lovely use of panning, giving Fatal Kiss a great stereo feel. Its a real feel good song. Perhaps because it reminds us of the 80s which is an era we all agree was a great time for music.
There’s a lot happening in the song with many different things happening on the guitars, together with a few synth sounds thrown in for good measure.
Just when you think you have a handle on how the song is going, there’s a totally random stop and restart at about 2 minutes 30s. And why not, we say?!! It all helps to maintain the listeners interest and forces you to pay more attention in case you miss something else that’s kind of cool!
This is a really catchy and well written track. Foster says in his biography that he’s only very recently started to write songs, and yet he’s produced something which somehow manages to sound timeless and well crafted.
From a production point of view, we feel that perhaps the vocals were recorded a little too close to the mic. There’s a lot of sibilance in the track which could be fixed in the master with a dip around the 8-10kHz frequencies. A better option would be to place the mic at a 45 degree angle if singing this close to it. That will help with the sibilance and help the vocals sit more comfortably in the mix. Perhaps consider looking at the compressor settings a little more on the vocal track too to help balance out some volume differences. We’d also suggest a high pass of the low end of 35Hz and below to deal with a little rumbling that doesn’t contribute to the track and can’t be handled by most home speakers anyway.
Gideon Foster’s Fatal Kiss is one of our favourites of this week. We’re all huge fans of 80s style music and this ticks many boxes for us. We wish him all the success in the world and can’t wait to hear much much more from this talented UK artist.