Dufus - The Last Classed Blast

by Mark Rowland

published: 3 / 10 / 2006

Label: Iron Man Records
Format: CD

intro

Enjoyably strange mix of folk, Beefheart and Zappa style avant-nuttiness, US indie rock and punk aggression on latest album from the long-serving Dufus

Despite the awful name, Dufus are actually a really good band. Now in their tenth year, the band plays a weird mix of folk, Beefheart and Zappa style avant-nuttiness, US indie rock and punk aggression. Their closest contemporaries are probably Animal Collective, but in places Dufus out-weird them by miles. Opening track ‘Dawn Crusade’ is quite a strange one, possibly a way to alienate those listeners who aren’t really interested in odd time signatures, skewed song structures and crazy man vocals. If you are interested in those things, however, the song is great, vaguely resembling a folk-rock version of Mike Patton’s Mr Bungle. Next track ‘Babylon Com’ is simpler than ‘Dawn Crusade’, but is still all over the place in terms of song structure. Following on from those, ‘Tutu’ is considerably surprising, it being a relatively straightforward indie rock song. The rest of the album drifts through various levels of weirdness, but the band balances their experimentalism with a strong melodic edge. ‘Heaven is Waiting’, for example, has an obvious not-quite-chorus with a strong melodic hook, while ‘Balloon Rocking Chair’ starts like a Tim Buckley song when he was at his creative peak, before whoops and assorted background noises are added to the mix. Again, ‘Right On’ is essentially a pretty straight forward song, reminiscent of Neil Young’s country folk material. The only thing at all out-there about the song is its delivery, which features some ridiculously high singing.

Track Listing:-

1 Dawn Crusade
2 Babylon Com
3 Tutu
4 Innabarabie
5 Dissassemblement Hymn # Exponential
6 Heaven Is Waiting
7 Balloon Rocking Chair
8 War Is Over
9 Right On
10 Nenglich Pharloosely
11 You Weren't Ready
12 Sacred Charney
13 On and On
14 Lay Down Flat
15 Try More Patiently