Fufanu: Sports review – middling second outing by Icelandic post-punk revivalists

There’s something slightly irrational about a lot of post-punk revivalism. Apparently unable to capture the sense of instability, the intensity of emotion, and the sheer levels of dissonance that poured forth from the likes of Public Image Limited and Joy Division, bands instead tend to mimic their hammering rhythms and grey guitar sound – qualities you can’t help feeling post-punk triumphed in spite of, not because of. It’s an aesthetic that Icelandic band Fufanu continue to mine on their second album, with help from needling synths, grimly enduring beats and singer Kaktus Einarsson’s monotonous, muttered vocal. The title track here pummels like Ian Curtis and co; Tokyo nods to the desolately chiming guitars of Echo and the Bunnymen’s Killing Moon; whereas Just Me recalls the cleaner, more angular mid-00s post-punk revival. Fufanu capably replay the post-punk sound but, without the transgression and creativity of the original movement, it feels as if there’s little point in doing so.