Fufu Records make some serious waves with their third release, Random Moods by Oldtoy. In true testament to the increasing global musical community, Random Moods sees a small-time Parisian producer released on a label based out of Hong Kong, with a far-reaching universal sound that flows from warm, delicate house to organic, timberous ambient folktronica.
With an understated online presence (mainly muted snapshots of bell shakers and triangles rather than any self-marketing) Oldtoy’s Twitter feed is an honest counterpoint to his music – simultaneously stripped and simple yet thoroughly endearing.
The record flows from a dance-ready A side to an introspectively spacious B side, but without feeling contrived in its progression. A1 kicks off with Soul Seek, a rolling, trance-inducing house track introducing us to the careening melodies that weave through the whole record. A2 Various Woods takes us on a deeper dive into the dance floor, packed with synth lines that soar likes paper planes. On the flipside, B1 takes us through dripping percussion straight through into the verdant B2, Soft Song, a verdant, gently guluncking cut with a borderline tropical feel. It makes that perfect ‘summer song’ – peach-toned, nostalgia-tinged, faintly melancholic but uplifted by snippets of psychy guitar lines snatched away on the wind.
Oldtoy’s sense of texture comes to the fore in the closing track, Tiny Places, where mewing melody lines and sparkling guitar licks collide with bicycle bells, gongs and stuttering static glitches in a 4 minute ambient meditation that is both transcendent and humane.
FUFUHS001 is out on Thursday 15th February.
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