Afuche

Highly Publicized Digital Boxing Match
Cuneiform Records

www.cuneiformrecords.com

01 Monster Smith
02 Who’re They
03 They’re In There
04 Danice Marino
05 Here’s To Here’s To Toast
06 Here’s To Toast
07 Initialeone
08 Gulf
09 Pablo Leon
10 Muscovy
11 Th Sq’d

Check out a three track sampler from Afuche’s bandcamp page below

Afuche are a Brooklyn, New York 5 piece who have really set the stage for keeping the torch lit for the horizon expanding nature that progressive artists have infused into music for the last 50 years. Headed by Zach Ryalls (guitar) and Ruben Sindo Acosta (keys, vocals and percussion), this is a group with highly advanced forms of composition, technique with creative ingenuity. Afuche has released their third record and debut album with Cuneiform Records, “Highly Publicized Digital Boxing Match”. After I hit play, the organized chaos that ensued was beautiful, shocking and exhilarating. Each songs beginning and end becoming unseen and a constant attention grabbing ride with the most lasting aftereffect takes hold. I had heard one preview online and immediately asked the label for a copy to review and I could not be happier with how this album came out. It’s easy to toss out names of where origins of these sounds come from, but for this album I feel it is not needed as they guys really define their own sound.

“Highly Publicized Digital Boxing Match” is organized in a ominous way, with a lot of attention given to very odd time signatures, intricate and extremely complex harmonies with many sudden stops and bursts. Baritone Sax inclusion to the group has added a really different depth to this style that a lot of people associate as math rock. It should be noted that this music includes a large variety of influences from around the globe and pulls all together in pop composition format and rock tendencies towards youthful expression. The drummer, Max Jeffe, is phenomenal, always adding in lots of flourishes and leaving tons of space for the highly complex harmonies built around the rhythms. Max’s style is so tasteful, you don’t even realize how technical his parts are until you really focus on how much he moves around his kit.

With Afuche and all of their releases, there is a huge homage to Soft Machine, Frank Zappa, Spirit and all of the other people during the late 60′s and 70′s who were taking composition in the rock medium and blowing all previous conceptions of what was possible out of the window. “Highly Publicized Digital Boxing Match” is a beautiful record that was recorded in one day, and the bands reputation live proves why this was even possible. Their last full length contained 16 musicians and this album is the complete opposite in presentation, reflecting the raw and precise state of how this band comes forth live. Excessive over thinking is a common thread in today’s landscape of technology and possibilities, but this album tells you to leave that all behind for this moment. Recordings in one to two takes and live should not sound this organized and produced or even come from this time period, but it does and you need to see why. Afuche shows precision on a level you don’t find much in the world of rock. More importantly, they are not just ripping off groups of the past but are building on those important foundations that have endless amounts of room for expansion. Afuche is one of many bands out today who are a part of this expansion, highly recommended from Sound Colour Vibration.

~ Erik Otis