Let’s Build a Song
Function Falls is the latest EP from Brooklyn based duo Buke & Gase, a musical team more refreshing than a tall glass of lemonade under an oak tree in the middle of August. Comprised of Arone Dyer and Aron Sanchez, Buke & Gase makes fun, catchy, distorted, indie-electric garage rock songs entirely from scratch. The unique sound they achieve stems from the fact that they make their own instruments.
The lead instruments in this band are a modified baritone ukulele (the Buke), and an electric guitar strung up with steel bass strings (the Gase), and their melodies are punctuated by a low-fi kick drum and a “toe-bourine,” a loop of jingling dishes fastened to the player’s foot with a strap and a bicycle toe clip. They run these inventions through so many effects and amplification tricks that the sound turns into something entirely new, and gives the feeling of a much larger band.
It’s novel, sure, but the music is much more than novelty. Dyer and Sanchez play their inventions with a level of precision and tightness that most musicians have trouble achieving on instruments that have been around for hundreds of years. There is a bit of improvisation here, thankfully laced with a sense of structure. These home grown songs reflect on the nostalgic simplicity pushed by early indie bands like The Vaselines and Beat Happening, but the use of effects and production turns that old sound into something unconventional and contemporary.
The Function Falls EP consists of four tracks – three original compositions and a cover of New Order’s classic “Blue Monday.” The music industry needs more bands like Buke & Gase; they’re bringing back the do-it-yourself spirit that made rock ‘n’ roll fun again in the mid-70’s, after the explosion of arena rock.
Function Falls is an honest record made by honest musicians – something that is unfortunately rare these days.
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