California’s own guitar genius NUFFER has just released his debut project, A-OK.
The first singles “Big Brain” and “Deadbeat” spearheaded the project with a melancholic tempo and an abundance of satirical honesty. “Big Brain” is playful tease on the repetitive nature of both the power chords and the industry at whole. NUFFER certainly had a lot of fun with this one–he even uses distorted guitar in an almost saxophone-like nature. The self-proclaimed masochist takes a stab at the rose-tinted world with snarky lyricism along with a melody that sounds a lot like a helium balloon letting its “brain” out.
While “Big Brain” is NUFFER’s self-deprecating inside joke for dropping out of college, “Deadbeat” is the perfect farce that exposes the very irony of California living. In the music video, NUFFER dresses himself in the perfect Californian suit: round metal glasses, a Sublime shirt over a black and white striped long-sleeve and of course–a mullet. With his guitar in hand, NUFFER stands in front of a green screen and in a corner store–which either would practically give him to ability to traverse time and space in California, honestly–then it gets cheeky from there. On a treadmill, he walks between $10 Oscar statuettes, palm trees and the goddamn City Lights. While blatantly criticizing the cliché of Los Angeles, NUFFER in turns gives his appreciation for the tackiness of it all as well. Sometimes the best way to survive a painfully romanticized satire is to live it out, NUFFER certainly knows that feeling.
The entirety of A-OK contains the same undertone of the singles but with a whole lot more crazy. While NUFFER has an amazing track record for his jazzy guitar work for other musicians including the ultra-talented r&b star UMI, the real groove of this debut comes from the indie rock-esque distortions on both his voice and various instruments. For an EP, A-OK feels exceptionally cohesive as a full package that comes with a proper intro (“NUFFER Super Intro”) and an echoing salute (“Grifter”). NUFFER takes simplicity to an extreme, using mostly major chords, steady tempo and a splash of acoustic guitar to balance out the crazy distortions. His production style fuses a perfect balance of anti and hyperpop, which both accentuate his straightforward confessions of musicianship and living it all.
One thing among the chaos of A-OK stands out: NUFFER had a lot of fun mismatching honesty and irony, and you will enjoy it too.
