Fuzznaut Premieres “Sufferlove” Single Out This Week
This Friday, Pittsburgh drone guitarist Emilio Rizzo, otherwise known as Fuzznaut, will release the new single “Sufferlove,” as the first outing from the project since 2022’s Apophenia (review here) full-length. And like that album, “Sufferlove” cries out into empty space with solo guitar and unmitigated breadth, creating and inhabiting an atmosphere that draws the listener further across the five-and-a-half-minute expanse. Cycles of ‘riff’ bleed in amid the ambient sprawl, and with a title that perhaps hints toward its expressive purpose, an emotional crux is conveyed along with the depth of tone and the weight that emerges in the second half of the piece.
That’s a contrast — tonally, between air and earth — which Rizzo readily identifies in his own work, and which is audible in the track itself. It comes through immediately in the meditative vibe at the outset of “Sufferlove,” which echoes out not too far removed from Lamp of the Universe before finding and exploring its own space as Fuzznaut makes it sound much easier to do than it actually is, and the harder, lower-noted distortion strum that arrives at 1:35 broadens the scope of the nonetheless hypnotic piece, which cycles through the back and forth again before a thoughtful bridge leads to the more open-sounding progression — the air — to finish, interpreting a classic structure from what in another context might’ve manifest as verse/chorus/verse with a clarity of intent in following a different path.
I’ve done a few premieres for Fuzznaut at this point. Both the video for “5184” that you can see below the entirety of Apophenia that’s also down there streaming made their debut here. As Rizzo perhaps looks to move forward from the 2022 LP and headed to another collection of one sort or another, “Sufferlove” brings quick assurance of progression in sound, and one would expect no less.
Whatever it may lead to, “Sufferlove” is out Friday as a standalone single, and its patience, resonance and groove live up to that challenge of representing Fuzznaut post-Apophenia.
Enjoy:
Emilio Rizzo on “Sufferlove”:
Meditation is the practice of death. A practice of immersion and dissociation. Similar to shoegazers staring at their pedals and shoes. Are they shy or fully immersed in their music that all they can do is stare at the ground? Present and absent. Sufferlove by guitarist Fuzznaut is the sonic performance of creating a state of non return. As intangible as that might be, the latest single brings mind bending tones that are further grounded in shoegaze. However, the guitarist continues to inject crushing down tuned riffs in between the flurry of pitch bending vibrato, and fuzzed out drones. At 5:33 seconds one cannot help to be engaged in the flurry of tones, and either be lifted or grounded. Either way it’s a trip to another sonic dimension.
Fuzznaut
“Sufferlove”
Single 2/2024
Digital Release
Independent
Time: 5:33
Mixed and MASTERED BY Fuzznaut at Leafy Brain Sounds 2023-2024.
Artwork by Fuzznaut
