Confused

Montreal's Handsome Furs have featured here before. I dug out their 2009 album recently and enjoyed it all over again. They're a couple and a duo, he plays guitar and sings, she plays mini-Korg and sings. Together they kick up a punky synthy racket with a big kick drum underpinning everything. This song, I'm Confused, starts with a great keyboard tone that sounds like a vuvuzuela (stick with it) and then takes off.

I\'m_Confused.mp3

Handsome Furs 'Talking Hotel Arbat Blues'

This is the standout track from Handsome Furs' 2009 Face Control album. Alexei Perry and Dan Boeckner are from Canada, and make 'synth-punk indie-rock'. Over the whole album it can get a bit wearing but on their own many of the songs are ace. A trip to Moscow inspired this song, with visits to nightclubs where the doormen could refuse entry to people who had paid upfront, but didn't look right- a practice known as 'face control'. This song is great- hard hitting bass drum, great vocals, spiky guitars, punky energy married to synths. And as you can see, they look good too.

talking hotel arbat blues.mp3