‘Build Up To’ turns romantic tension into one seriously addictive electronic track.
There are some songs that take a minute to show you what they’re doing. SelfDivision’s ‘Build Up To’ is not one of them.
The synths hit straight away, there’s this electronic pulse underneath everything, and almost immediately you get that feeling of anticipation the whole track is built around.
It feels like she is right in the middle of that awful, exciting bit at the start of something, where you know something is happening but nobody has actually said it out loud yet.
Fitzgibbon’s vocals are grounded but packed with feeling. Whoever she was staring down across a club while this track was taking shape in her head should probably be nervous, in the best possible way.
That is probably why it feels so relatable.
There is something about it that makes me think of Laura Jean. Not because they sound alike, really, but because they both understand how much feeling you can get out of synths without losing the human side of a song.
And I love synths.
There is also a little of what makes Robyn’s ‘Dancing On My Own’ so good here. Again, I don’t mean they sound the same. It is more that very specific emotional thing of being completely in your feelings while also wanting the song turned up as loud as possible.
‘Build Up To’ is a total mood.
Co-produced with Jack Ladder at Golden Retriever Studios, with Laurence Pike on drums, the production is detailed without feeling fussed over.
Also, will someone please tell me how they came up with that killer sound that comes in around the line, “my stomach flips like birds above, like birds above the water,” and then appears again towards the end before slowly disappearing? I am obsessed with it.
Isabella Manfredi has overseen the project as A&R, and you can hear that there are very good instincts behind this thing. People who know when to add something, but also when to leave it alone.
It probably doesn’t hurt that Ladder and Manfredi are two of the sharpest operators in Australian music, either.
SelfDivision’s 2023 EP ENIGMA moved between trip-hop, folk and electronica, but ‘Build Up To’ feels more immediate. The atmosphere is still there, but the hook comes forward and the whole thing feels bigger without losing what made her interesting in the first place.
And then there is that ending.
This is the part I have had on repeat for the better part of an hour.
Fitzgibbon keeps circling “build up to, up to you,” and the track just keeps leaning further into it. No giant dramatic payoff, no unnecessary explosion. It just keeps building, repeating, pulling you in, and then slowly peters out.
It is ridiculously satisfying.
That ending is the reason I keep going back to the start.
‘Build Up To’ is the first taste of SelfDivision’s forthcoming debut album, and it is a very good place to begin.
I want to hear this in a club. I want to hear it on the radio. Mostly, I want to hear that ending again.
There is some seriously good electronic music coming out of Australia right now, and this is one of those tracks that deserves to travel.
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