Saudi duo, Fulana, are proving themselves to be an intangible, enigmatic force of music, a rare case where all we really have to go on is, quite simply, their music. Producing together since 2010, it’s 2021 that has seen them take a leap forward in their journey on record label, Wall of Sound, with their second track of the year, ‘Lore’, offering another peek at a touted upcoming album.
The anonymous Jeddah-based duo’s January release, ‘Minarets’, took their multi-genre sound (one that has touched on indie-pop, bedroom-pop, alt rock and dark disco) and smoothed it out into an almost ethereal chill - something that continues, to an extent, in ‘Lore’.There’s a line to be drawn with the track and 80’s synth pop, though their many other influences can be found loitering through its five-minute runtime that pulls into the more contemporary arena of indie-pop. While the shimmering synths carry the track on first listen, it’s the vocals that make the track pop, so to speak, it’s what gives the track a drama that builds to a crescendo towards the end.
Fittingly, the lyrics carry a weight of meaning, telling the story of “falling in love with a higher being but not being able to express it,” the duo writes of the track, adding that it is something of a satirical piece that “combines melancholy with sarcasm.”
It all feeds into Fulana’s overall M.O of finding inspiration in “the significance of everyday life, the exciting and the mundane,” with which they draw on “raw and unfiltered emotion.” A promise like that can only mean good things for this album they speak of.
