Tag: One Little Indian Records

singer/songwriters by William Ruben Helms

New Video: Sarah Walk Explores Crippling Insecurity Self-Doubt and Uncertainty in Soaring “What Do I Want”

Sarah Walk is a Minneapolis-born singer/songwriter, and Berklee College of Music grad, who currently splits her time between Los Angeles and London. 2017’s Steve Brown-produced debut Little Black Book found the Minneapolis-born singer/songwriter and keyboardist crafting piano-based ballads. 

Walk’s forthcoming Leo Abrahams-produced sophomore album Another Me is reportedly a radical change in sonic direction for the Berklee College of Music grad with the album’s material moving towards shimmering and contemplative synth pop featuring soaring melodies and percussive arrangements. Thematically, the album’s material may be the most introspective she has ever written with the material inspired by a period of immense challenge and transformation, touching upon marginalization, survival, death, misogyny, vulnerability, reclamation of oneself and learning how to take up space. Additionally, the album sees Walk directly tackling the challenges of being a queer woman. “A lot of things had been untapped in my writing until now, many of which deal with burdens that I’ve carried or felt responsible for, which I believe has a lot to do with being a woman and being queer” Walk says in press notes. 

“What Do I Want,” Another Me’s latest single is an atmospheric bit of synth pop, centered around shimmering synth arpeggios, detailed syncopated percussion paired with Walk’s achingly plaintive vocals. And while bearing a resemblance to Kate Bush, the track reveals Walk’s knack for crafting a hook that’s both melodic and soaring. But despite its seeming tranquility, the song’s narrator attempts to work through anxiety, procrastination and paralyzing indecision in every aspect of her life. “Sometimes it’s easier to be so overwhelmed by what to do that you don’t do anything until someone else makes a decision for you,” the Minneapolis-born singer/songwriter and keyboardist explains. “I think part of that comes from being a woman; we’ve been conditioned to doubt our capability; afraid of confidence coming off as arrogant. Writing this song was a way of holding myself accountable so I can transcend societal structures and avoid falling into the same patterns of paralyzed anxiety.”

Another Me is slated for an August 28, 2020 release through One Little Indian Records. In the meantime, the recently released video for “What Do I Want” features Walk personifying the anxiousness and uncertainty within the song, as she seems plagued by crippling indecision. 
 

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

Last month, I wrote about the  Reykjavik, Iceland-based indie rock/post-punk trio Fufanu — and if you recall, the trio, which is currently comprised of founding members Kaktus Einarsson (vocals, guitar), whose father Einar, was a member of The Sugarcaubes and Guðlaugur “Gulli” Einarsson (guitar, programming) (no relation,by the way) along with Erling Bang (drums) can trace their origins to when the band’s founding members met while at school. According to the band’s founding duo, Katkus had glanced at Gulli’s iTunes and noticed that they had listened to a lot of the same techno and electronic music. Quickly bonding over mutual interests, the duo went into a studio and began writing and recording electronic music under the name Captain Fufanu. And within a month of their friendship and the project’s life, they had began to play shows in and around Reykjavik.

In a strange twist of fate, the original album of material that Kaktus Einarsson and Gulli Einarsson wrote and recorded has long been presumed lost as the studio they recorded their original Captain Fufanu album was burgled. And instead of trying to recall the material they initially wrote from memory, the project’s founding members decided that it was a perfect time to completely reinvent their sound.  Around the same time, Kaktus Einarsson was in London working on Damon Albarn‘s Everyday Robots and touring with Bobby Womack when he began writing lyrics  while simultaneously Gulli Einarsson had started to recreate their sound in a  way that Kaktus describes as conveying what he had been thinking. They then added guitars and drums and began pairing that with Katkus’ brooding vocals — and then renamed themselves Fufanu.

Their first live set with their new sound and aesthetic was at Iceland Airwaves and they quickly became one of the most talked about bands of the entire festival. Building upon the buzz they had received, they went into the studio their full-length debut A Few More Days To Go, which further expanded a growing national and international profile as they toured with renowned acts such as The Vaccines and played at JaJaJa Festival. The band’s forthcoming Nick Zinner-produced sophomore full-length Sports is slated for a February 3, 2017 release through renowned British label One Little Indian Records. And with the band’s sophomore effort,  the project’s founding duo recruited Erling “Elli” Bang (drums) to further flesh out their sound as they expanded upon it and its thematic direction. With Sports’ first single, album title track “Sports,” the band retained the synth-driven sound that first caught international attention while pairing it with a tight, motorik groove reminiscent of Can, Neu!  and Joy Division while nodding at Security-era Peter Gabriel.

“Liability,” Sports‘ second single continues in a similar vein as the trio pair angular busts of guitar with shimmering synths that twist and turn through the mix, a sinuous bass line and a mid-tempo groove that nods at the techno that the project once was. However, much like “Sports” the single possesses a dark, enigmatic air while pointing out the mundanity, drudgery and banality of daily life; but just under the surface there’s a broiling frustration and resentment of someone wanting to break free and yet not knowing how to do so.

 

 

 

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: The Surreal and Brooding Visuals for Up-and-Coming Icelandic Post-Punk Act Fufanu’s Latest Single “Sports”

Currently comprised of founding members Katkus Einarsson (vocals, guitar), whose father Einar, was a member of The Sugarcubes and Guðlaugur “Gulli” Einarsson (guitar, programming) (no relation,by the way) along with Erling Bang (drums), the members of Reykjavik, Iceland-based indie rock/post-punk trio Fufanu can trace its origins to when its founding members met at school — and as the story goes, Katkus had glanced at Gulli’s iTunes and noticed that they had listened to a lot of the same techno and electronic music. In the same week that the duo met, they went into the studio and began writing and recording electronic music under the name Captain Fufanu. And within a month of their meeting they began playing shows in and around Reykjavik. “It was happy electronica,” Katkus Einarsson recalls in press notes. “We were aiming for something deeper, but didn’t have the capabilities. The reason we never released anything as Captain Fufanu was that as soon as we had something ready, we aimed for something new, more challenging.”

In a strange twist of fate, that album that Katkus Einarsson and Gulli Einarsson wrote and recorded has long been presumed lost as the studio they recorded their original Captain Fufanu album was burgled and this was paired with the duo wanting to reinvent their sound. Interestingly, at the time Katkus Einarsson was in London working on Damon Albarn’s Everyday Robots and touring with Bobby Womack when he began writing lyrics — and simultaneously Gulli Einarsson had started to recreate their sound in a way that Katkus describes as conveying what he had been thinking. They then added guitars and drums and began pairing that with Katkus’ brooding vocals — and then renamed themselves Fufanu.

Their first live set with their new sound and aesthetic was Iceland Airwaves and they quickly became one of the most talked about bands of the entire festival. The band’s founding members then went into the studio to record their brooding full-length debut A Few More Days To Go, which further expanded a growing national and international profile as they toured with renowned acts such as The Vaccines and played at JaJaJa Festival. The band’s forthcoming Nick Zimmer-produced sophomore full-length Sports is slated for a February 3, 2017 release through renowned British label One Little Indian Records and the album which has the band recruiting Erling “Elli” Bang (drums), also finds the band expanding upon their sound and its thematic direction. While retaining sound elements of the synth-based sound that first caught attention, the band’s sound also possesses a motorik groove reminiscent of krautrock acts like Can and Neu! as well as Joy Division and Security-era Peter Gabriel as you’ll hear on the moodily atmospheric and propulsive first single off Sports, album title track “Sports.”

Reportedly, “Sports” as well as the rest of the material on Sports thematically deals with the drudgery and mundanity of daily life, while subtly hinting at other things in an enigmatic fashion. As Katkus Einarsson explains their lead single “could be about getting really obsessed with a chocolate brownie, or it could be about a boy or girl and being obsessed with getting them on your side.”

The recently released music video was directed by the members of the band and the video is a rather ironic take on the song as it features a bunch of high-school aged kids getting off a bus at a local track where they stretch and do the Olympic-styled track and field sports — but as the camera follows some of these kids, there’s creeping sense of something not quite right, as the kids look at the camera with distrust, loathing, fear and confusion. It’s a striking and surreal video that leaves a lingering feeling of unease, much like the song that it accompanies.