Born Ruffians – Red, Yellow and Blue
Red, Yellow and Blue seems an appropriately colourful name to match the almost merciless energy and vivid tones of Born Ruffians’ first album. With the rhythm and rounds and throaty sounds of Animal Collective, it’s not surprising that they share a producer in Rusty Santos.
The title track is a patriotic song for an imaginary land, all loud and odd and moving. Military drumming and Wall of Sound echo are set off by nasal vocals with a folkish rise and fall, as if it were a marching song for Simon and Garfunkel. And, like Simon’s Graceland period, the album has a tinge of Afrobeat in the funk infused guitars and complex syncopation (Hummingbird; In A Mirror), and a dash of North American roots music in the form of hearty singing and homespun lyrics (Little Garcon; Hedonistic Me). Both are complimented by Steve Hamelin’s pervasive tumbling drums – alluded to in the onomatopoeic title of Badonkadonkey perhaps – and frontman Luke Lalonde’s maverick vocals. LaLonde also adds a touch of Albert Hammond Junior with his guitar, most apparent in I Need A Life and Red Elephant The latter makes an esoteric love poem of sorts, though descriptions of said elephant turning blue and meeting “the peach fish underneath” sounds like ham-fisted Joanna Newsom-style erotica. Kurt Vonnegut quotes a whole verse by its namesake and ends up a cocktail of The Strokes and Clap Your Hands Say Yeah, with its effortless lilt and dash. Barnacle Goose has a strong flavour of CYHSY too, with a mixture of playfulness and the feel of someone exploring the limits of his own voice. And it’s this vocal gurning that will prove to be most divisive – it’s a fine line between the melodious drone of David Byrne and the off-key yelps of Alec Ounsworth. Foxes Mate For Life has the oral theatricality that earmarks of Montreal, with tongue-in-cheek whoops and rumbles. But where most songs hit the upper range, there’s an unintentional hint of Terrance and Phillip, especially in the childish declarations of Badonkadonkey (“If you get squashed/I’ll just find another you,It won’t be hard to find another one like you”).
Born Ruffians may provoke a reflex response – either goosebumps or gag. Stretching the colour analogy just that little bit further, they may not be a conventional trio, but mix them together in different ways and you get a bold, bright result.