Füxa

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Randall Nieman and Ryan Anderson of Füxa at Mission Control Studio, Warren, MI in 1997
Randall Nieman and Ryan Anderson of Füxa at Mission Control Studio, Warren, MI in 1997

Füxa (pronounced Fyoo-sha, or like the color fuchsia) was a space rock duo, consisting of Detroit musicians Ryan Anderson (formerly of Asha Vida) and Randall Nieman (formerly of Windy & Carl). Füxa was created in 1994 and their music has been described as psychedelic and experimental. Their first collaborative effort was a collection of short, guitar and synth driven, primal instrumental space rock songs, recorded at home on a borrowed 6-track cassette recorder. The tapes were later brought to friend Erik Kassab of Gravity Wax for mixing and mastering at his Mission Control home studio. The resulting masters totaled over 90 minutes, and the best hours worth of music was selected for their first release, a hand colored, labeled and numbered cassette. This tape was sold at local indie record shops, and quite a few copies were given away by the band. College DJ Lunar Larry played many selections from this tape on his Friday night program, "The Life According to Larry", on WHFR radio. Nieman & Anderson at that time began to take the Detroit coffee house scene by storm, quickly building a cult following with their brief, psychedelic, erratic drug induced performances. The duo performed with the assistance of an old, literally falling apart Korg mono/poly synthesizer, often left to its own devices to produce loud, random arpeggios throughout the entire performance, which almost always cumulated in a drum circle where audience participation was encouraged to "feel good" with the band.

Their debut single was the self-released split with friends Gravity Wax, followed by the ground-breaking "Free Your Soul" EP, which featured the duo's best song to date, "Photon".

Füxa's first full-length CD was a compilation of their first 3 singles, entitled "3 Field Rotation", released by England's Che Records in May 1996. To correspond with the release of the disc, the duo was invited over to London to play shows supporting the disc. Later that year, the band was featured on a split 7-inch with Stereolab, and performed a few shows with Stereolab in the USA. Other bands they have split recordings with include Azusa Plane, Orange Cake Mix, Flowchart and Bright.


The band's second full-length came out in late 1996, entitled "Very Well Organized" - a collection of songs composed around a 1963 Hammond organ situated in the band's living room.

1997 saw the release of "Venoy", a contribution to Darla Records famous Bliss-out series of EPs. The band also focused on the publication of their fanzine, Masstransfer, with the first issue arriving in November 1997.

Anderson departed from the outfit in 1998, and Nieman took over Füxa as a solo project.


Contents

[edit] Band Members

[edit] Current

  • Randall Nieman: Synths / Guitars / Percussion / Space

[edit] Past

  • Ryan Anderson: Bass / Drums / Synths / Percussion
  • Eric Morrison: Drums / Percussion
  • Jesse Percival: Guitar



[edit] Selected Discography

[edit] Singles and EP's

  • 100 White Envelopes 1995 (Mind Expansion - Split 7" with Gravity Wax)
  • Free Your Soul 1995 (Burnt Hair - 7")
  • Dreamlanding 1995 (Mind Expansion/Blue Flea - Split 7" with Windy & Carl)
  • Standing Under U 1996 (Alley Sweeper - 7")
  • Pivot 1996 (Mind Expansion - 7")
  • City/Metro 1997 (Darla - Split 7" with Bright)
  • Greenfield 1997 (Che`/Mind Expansion - CD5/12"EP)
  • Venoy 1997 (Darla - "Bliss Out v.5" CD5/12"EP)
  • Techno Lite 2000 (Rocket Girl - 7")
  • Hideaway 2001 (Mind Expansion - 7")
  • Fuxa Vs. Six Clips 2004 (Mind Expansion - CDEP)
  • Electric Sound Of Summer 2006 (Static Caravan - 7")
  • Fuxa Commits Suicide 2007 (Mind Expansion - CDEP)

[edit] CD/LP/Cassette

  • In Another Direction 1994 (High Tokes - Limited Edition cassette only)
  • 3 Field Rotation 1996 (Che`/Mind Expansion - CD/LP)
  • Very Well Organized 1996 (Che`/Mind Expansion - CD/LP)
  • Inflight Audio 1998 (Che`/Mind Expansion - CD)
  • Accretion 1998 (Mind Expansion - CD/LP)
  • Fuxa2000 2000 (Rocket Girl/Mind Expansion - CD)
  • Supercharged 2001 (Rocket Girl/Mind Expansion - CD)
  • The Modified Mechanics Of This Device 2001 (Antenna Records - CD)

[edit] Compilations

  • Mind Expansion Vol. 1 1995 (Mind Expansion - 4-way split 7")
  • Mind Expansion Vol. 2 1996 (Mind Expansion - 4-way split 7")
  • Noise Reduction 1996 (Alley Sweeper - CD)
  • Disco Sucks 1996 (Che` - CD)
  • Elsie, Jack & Chair 1996 (EJC - CD)
  • An Evening In The Company Of Vespertine 1997 (Vespertine - CD)
  • A Mind Expansion Compilation 2007 (Mind Expansion - 2xCD)

Fuxa originally was the name of an old Czecheslovakian Family. How the band found the name is unknown.

[edit] External links