Launching at last November’s Iceland Airwaves, within the space of a week, Fufanu had become the most talked about new band of the festival, made their UK live debut at London’s JaJaJa night and supported Damon Albarn at the Albert Hall – winning the approval of Brian Eno into the bargain – and leaving a trail of foaming plaudits in their wake.
January saw the band return to perform crushing sets at Eurosonic before a return to the UK supporting The Vaccines on their sold out March/ April tour – also slipping in a memorable two-night stand with Bo Ningen at Hoxton Bar & Grill. In June things once again stepped up a gear when the band drew a crowd of over 700 to their exhilarating bandstand show on the bill, supporting Blur at Hyde Park.
Formerly operating as techno/ electronic duo, Captain Fufanu (while Kaktus and Gulli were still in their teens), with the addition of live instrumentation – and the band name shortened to a more economical Fufanu (“the Captain was left behind at a rave in Cologne”) – the pair began working up a dark, metronomic take on 70s and 80s European music. If clangorous metallic guitars and floor shaking syncopated bass are key elements in the band’s powerful circumspect post-punk, then the live show with it’s MBV-like furnace blasts of volume is a game changer whereby the mordant wit suggested by song titles like Plastic People and live opener Goodbye can shift up into thrillingly cold malevolence, fronted by ‘slyph-like’ singer Kaktus Einarsson’s magnetic stage presence.
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