Tush - Fantast (2021) Hi-Res

It’s time to get back on the dancefloor and, right on time, Canadian duo Tush have provided us with the perfect soundtrack. It’s an incredibly uplifting and exhilarating debut. Louder Than War’s Gordon Rutherford reviews.

The individuals behind the band are Kamilah Apong, who brings powerfully soulful vocals and synths, and Jamie Kidd supplying bass, guitar, synths and programming. One is Black/Chinese, one white. One is straight, one queer. They say opposites attract and they clearly do in this case because the duo fuse magnificently on this collection of attention-grabbing tunes. Taking inspiration straight from late seventies disco, Hi-NRG, house and electro funk, Fantast is sassy and confident, sashaying out of the speakers with the attitude of an Eton sixth-former.

Sometimes you just know that you are going to fall in love with an album the moment the needle hits the vinyl. Fantast is one of those albums. The opener, Wavy Baby is a slow burner, swelling and growing. It prowls around you, patiently awaiting its moment, but when Kidd’s killer bass line drops one minute and forty-eight seconds in, you know that you’re in for some fun. It’s a tune that just oozes sultriness and seductiveness, with Chino de Villa’s percussion locking the whole track down wonderfully. “Intimacy”, implores Apong repeatedly. It’s fitting, because this is what intimacy sounds like. Assuredly striding into the room, Tush have chucked their metaphorical trilby on to the hat stand from ten metres away and just demanded our attention. Quite an introduction. We are then into the pulsating, high tempo intensity of Chrysalis. Again, in case you needed reminding, this is what dancefloors sound like. It is utterly infectious with a hook so catchy that it could keep wicket in England’s test XI.