GAJOOB Review by Bryan Baker:
Sometimes a record finds you at just the right time — and “Feel It All Around You” by Fatshaudi is one of those. Lush, folktronic, lo-fi washes of whispered melody settle into a gorgeous, intimate pocket, and if you ask me, it’s a good pocket to stay in.
Brisbane artist Rachael Ryan, working under the Fatshaudi moniker, makes music that’s equal parts bedroom confessional and sonic exploration. There’s a distinct DIY energy running through these tracks, but it’s not amateurish — it’s “authentic”. You can hear the thread connecting this debut album back to her 2021 EP “Meet Me Where I Am,” but you also hear the evolution: more confidence, more subtlety, and a firmer grasp of the interplay between vulnerability and experimentation.
The album pulls from a wide swath of sonic palettes — ambient washes, delicate synths, auto-tuned vocals, guitar textures, and the occasional playful club beat. But what really makes Fatshaudi stand out is her ability to balance these elements without letting the production overwhelm the emotion. Where some artists get lost in their own atmospheres, Fatshaudi uses the haze to reveal rather than hide.
Standout track “Forever Inside” is a perfect example: ethereal vocals layered over minimalist synths and a soft, unfolding drum machine pattern. It’s intimate and open-hearted, a quiet plea for connection that feels universal. Elsewhere, on Remembering (Things I Love), Ryan captures the bittersweet tension between holding on and letting go — a song that dances between eerie optimism and tender reflection.
The closing track “Raindrops In My Eyes,” with its flip on Kim Carnes’s iconic sound, feels like a nod to the past while firmly planted in the present. And “Visions,” with its blend of drums, synths, and aching guitar, tips its hat to classic rock atmospheres without slipping into nostalgia-for-nostalgia’s-sake.
It’s tempting to call Fatshaudi’s work nostalgic, but that word feels too reductive. What she’s doing here isn’t just a longing for the past — it’s learning from it, absorbing its textures and lessons, and reshaping them into something personal and new. There are echoes of Copenhagen’s Smerz and Erika de Casier, or New York’s Chanel Beads and ESP, but there’s also a distinctly Fatshaudi fingerprint on everything.
Good art carves out its own space in the present, and Feel It All Around You does exactly that. It’s a quiet triumph — reflective, personal, and committed to its own growth. Fatshaudi isn’t just looking backward; she’s pointing toward something unfolding in real time.
Count me in as a fan. And like the album’s title suggests, you’ll feel it all around you.
Media: CD.
Bandcamp URL: https://fatshaudi.bandcamp.com/album/feel-it-all-around-you
