Laura Kerry
Thinking about Iceland’s music, ethereal, atmospheric musicians such as Björk and Sigur Rós most readily come to mind. But Reykjavík-based Fufanu are not like them.
More subterranean than spacey, Fufanu makes experimental post-punk that radiates with anxious energy. Since their first release, 2015’s EP Adjust to the Light, the band has been fine-tuning their electronic rock sound, moving from a techno-infused duo, Fufanu Captain, to a grittier one that borrows its dark impulses from new wave and krautrock. The latest LP, Sports, the band’s second full-length, builds on these impulses in a crisp album that is gripping from the first thumping bass notes on the opening track to the last fadeout of guitar feedback on the final song.
Propelling Sports is a tension built by two competing strains: Fufanu’s mastery of both the hook and the wicked surprise. In “Tokyo,” after the band establishes a pattern structured around an even bass line, swirling guitars, and a straightforward melody, the guitar jumps unexpectedly, twisting a catchy line into something strangely ominous. The title song, about desire in the form of a metaphor about a child wanting a brownie, similarly moves around dissonance and the stabbing regularity of its rhythmic instruments, as do “Syncing In,” “Liability,” and “White Pebbles.” Some songs are all tension, though—for example, “Bad Rockets,” with its mounting layers of ringing guitar, dispassionate vocals, and increasingly rough voices, and “Gone for More,” with its urgent rhythm. Others are all dance, such as “Just Me,” a song about social anxiety couched in an infectious chorus and synth riffs.
Evading both the urgent dance feel and the tense dissonance is “Your Fool,” the penultimate track. It begins quietly with soft percussion, warm synth, and vocals that sound gentler and rawer than anywhere else on the album. The song offers a satisfying build as it moves from standing alone on a dance floor to a happy moment outside: “No sense of direction / Just hold me like I’m your fool / We’ll sleep on the back of the new moon.” Right before the end of Sports, it offers a moment of earnest joy that reflects back on the whole album, recalling other emotionally clear moments, such as the six year old coveting a brownie in the first song, the calls to action in “Liability,” different kinds of love described throughout, and several moments of anxiety. It’s one last surprise that Fufanu throws our way—a sincere and pretty song to recast the dark and cool electronica that came before. By the time the implied instruction in the last song’s title, “Restart,” rolls around, the listener wants to follow it.