HinweiseA name like Sofa Surfers suggests a bunch of slackers sitting around in a lounge room armed only with cans and a well packed bong watching Troma films and listening to scratchy Sabbath vinyl. Nothing could be further from the truth. The Sofa Surfers are actually a well disciplined group of Austrians with a passion for exploring discrete musical styles. The band’s previous outing was into hip-hop territory with the dark Encounters. On this album the focus is R’n’B, tinged with a rock flavour. It’s the sort of music that can eradicate any tension lying dormant in your mind and cause you to assume that things are OK – without engaging in any of that mindless hippie-new age-shit that only leads to a quagmire of lethargy. As you’d expect from a band hailing from Austria, the Sofa Surfers combine a minimalist approach with an artistic quality that’s both subtle and spell binding. The emphasis on simplicity – exemplified by the opening track White Noise – is occasionally so captivating it becomes hypnotic. Yet on songs like Say Something and Softly there’s a danceable rigour that blends the soul of Marvin Gaye and early 90s UK rock. Across it all sit the enchanting vocals of Mani Obeya, sitting somewhere between Corey Glover from Living Colour and Lisa Kekaula in her Basement Jaxx incarnation. On Good Day To Die – the stand out track of the album – the softness of Obeya’s vocals almost disguises the dark lyrical content; One Direction is transformed from a straight up and down rock track into a creature of complex quality and Love As A Theory is a rock ballad packed with power (without making you want to puke uncontrollably). The Sofa Surfers are a class act; rigorously unpretentious but demonstratively talented and committed. Who knows where they’ll go from here but chances are it’ll be a direction worth following. PATRICK EMERY
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