Rien à faire: Futurat

picture by AcidKmash

You guys know Mudhoney's first EP Superfuzz Bigmuff, named after the band's two favourite guitar effects pedals which give this very peculiar dirty fuzzy sound, right ?

Well the Futurat guys, from St Petersburg, Russia, could have actually use that title as their band name! Because it's a proper OD of super fuzz guitar sound that they plan to make us have!

I did not find much information about these young lads, they probably have connections with DP (weird instrumental low-fi synth punk) and Zür Tü (fuzzy instrumental noise rock, a drummer side-project), two other St Petersburg bands which are also internationally oriented enough to write in english, but that's all I know.

Reality Emulation was released as a 8-track cassette on the Australian label Slime Street Records in march 2019.

Starting with Entrance Fuzz (and ending with Gone Fuzz) Futurat are not hiding their hands... it's gonna be slow, heavy and extremely fuzzy all the way!

Taking us back to the early days of grunge when Seattle and the world was putting heaviness back on the map, incorporating Black Sabbath and the heavy rock of the 70s in a modern punk perspective, Futurat pushes the idea to the limit and wraps us in a thick layer of buzzing molasses.

Soundgarden, Green River, and Mudhoney of course... these names immediately come to mind while going through the more than 4 minutes long tracks of the Russian band. But even these classics are far from the level of fuzziness under which the Futurat vocals are buried.

Yes I know we're quite far from the usual short and intense hardcore punk stuff I usually promote here, but you guys need some change sometimes as I much as I do..

There is honestly something intensely bewitching, mesmerizing, to let the thick but soft bass frequencies lull you into a slightly intoxicating drunkenness.

To be honest it can sound like it's too much at first and yet, in the end I was quite surprised to see myself enjoy the whole thing way more than I thought.

The perfect tape for a long subway journey or a Sunday afternoon of tidying up !

This new tape called Incinerat was released by Under Heat Record (another aussie record label) a few weeks ago.

On the contrary of their previous release, these six new tracks have all Russian titles and Russian lyrics, which makes more sense in my opinion.

But it's far from being the only difference, the tracks are also shorter and give off an energy that is incomparable with what I've heard so far from Futurat.

The trio has worked on the drums sound and the overall mix of the instruments which is now a bit more balanced (the guitar is still super fuzzy and all over the place of course) in a way that the energy of each of them is better oriented to the front...

Ok it starts a bit softly with the first tracks (which I would not have put at the beginning) but as soon as we reach the very Bleach-era-Nirvana-influenced cпонтанное событие (spontannoe sobytie) it's clear that everything before was just appetizer.

But to me the best really comes at the end with во сне (vo sne) and ртуть (rtut') that propel us directly into another dimension made up solely of free energy and low-frequency riots.

To be quite frank it took me several listenings to really digest the heaviness and the thickness of the sound that Futurat force-feeds us deep in the gullet.

But like a good old foie gras, it's worth it!

I nevertheless believe that the band is capable of going one (or more) notch higher in its fuzz and tinnitus pastry. And I'm all curious to taste the next batch...