Although we always aim to bring you the very best we can find in cutting edge music, today’s recommendation has us that little bit extra excited and is passed to you whilst we jig up and down in our seats like a giggling, sugar-fuelled baby. We are very much wagging our blog tails as we turn you onto one of the finest bands to appear from Sydney in years.
RÜFÜS are Jon George, James Hunt and vocalist Tyrone Lindqvist and they punt out the kind of advanced, electronic indie that has us feeling like we’ve just heard music reach the next level. They have an extraordinary and very rare ability to produce music that is intelligent, beautiful and delicately constructed, yet has instant appeal and could be easily adopted by anyone adorning a pair of ears.
They released their début, self-titled six-track EP in January and have been gaining momentum on the blog highways ever since. Although the opening track, Paris Collides, is perhaps the strongest of the six available songs, the EP never drops off your happy meter, as the plateau it reaches is on a higher plain to most. Every track is multi-layered, with an endless variety of appealing tones alongside their signature strengths, which include the vocals drifting and weaving around the complex music like smoke around silk.
Paris Collides is the sound of patience being rewarded as you wait for the twinkling synths that pop like bubbles, in the same erudite way that Bronski Beat‘s Smalltown Boy used to creep in, before the vocals arrive so smoothly they sound like they were chauffeured in by Chris Rea driving a Rolls Royce. It builds up around you like a horizon of imposing dark clouds, as Tyrone calls “I’m forming circles in my mind, waiting for the storm to come“, before it breaks momentarily and returns with the voice now in a dreamy falsetto. It’s utterly remarkable.
The whole EP feels effortless and continues the subtle beats and complex synths throughout. No one instrument ever dominates, including the vocals, seemingly arranged like an orchestra of electronic indie. They regularly visit the rarely-seen ends of the mature pop spectrum, reminiscent in atmosphere to The Beloved‘s The Sun Rising.
True masters of any skill seem to make it look easy, doing things in a slower motion, whilst the rest of us mere mortals run around them. This is none more evident than in the track Fuel that takes 1min 49secs to even reach the vocals, but just as you don’t think it could improve any more they really start to show off when, at 2mins 30secs in, they drop a vocal refrain that would have New Order cowering behind their sofas.
Nocturnal finds more familiar instruments, as they sample a twisting bottle-necked guitar riff, as Tyrone sings about losing his mind on a beautiful day. The track, We Left, has a more enjoyable drive to it, bringing in the kind of swelling atmosphere that Delphic create at their most euphoric. This is witnessed once again with the track Collect, although admittedly it’s with a slightly less impressive glossy finish.
The entire EP feels like Australia has finally started to shake the shackles of the dominant and much-loved Modular bands, such as Cut Copy, The Presets and the rest. This seems like a band that’s grown up and is confidently looking forwards. In one magical and consistently bright EP, Rufus have just given Australia a glance at their future. (MB)
RÜFÜS – PARIS COLLIDES
RÜFÜS – FUEL
RÜFÜS – WE LEFT
