FUR – “Mein” (video) (premiere)

On hiatus for the last few years, Detroit post-punk purveyors FUR are resurging with a new album. Heralding its release is an ominous video for lead single “Mein”, heavy on the chilly visualizations simulating their sound.

FUR disbanded shortly after the December 2012 release of fourth recordImage on the Reverse. Reforming in 2016, Ryan O’Rourke, Michael O’Connor, and Zach Pliska recorded successor Closing the Loop in Bisbee, Arizona, where O’Rourke now lives. At eight songs, the album finds the trio continuing to conjure and explore their patented shoegaze-meets-darkwave aural tableaus.

“Mein” opens with a tribal drum pattern, undercut by a blood-pumping bass line and a slicing guitar. O’Rourke’s vocals are icy and detached in the verses, ramping up in the refrain to a bitter snarl howling like a distant echo. The accompanying video is suitably austere, built around saturated lighting and epileptic flashes, the camera weaving about the trio’s stoic countenances. It’s steeped in a retro ‘80s underground vibe, an approach the band’s aesthetic is so indebted to. Clocking in at just under three minutes, the song bursts with immediacy, leaving you eager for more.

The video was directed by O’Rourke, with additional footage shot by Puspa Lohmeyer, in Arizona.

“Mike and Zach are two of the most creative and talented musicians I’ve ever played with,” O’Rourke said of the band’s reunion. “It took me longer than it should have to realize this, but there is an energy, a sort of language, that only the three of us speak, musically. FUR certainly has traceable influences, but what we can do when the three of us get in a room together is truly special and unique. I think that is very apparent on this record.”

“After taking a long break from each other, I realized I missed FUR,” Pliska added. “Ryan had a lot of interesting material to work with, and it was exciting to be able to contribute to that. Once we got back together again, it clicked.”

FUR is independently releasing Closing the Loop Saturday, June 24.