- Furfriend's 2012 track "Geck" set out their stall pretty strongly: "Hey there, Robbie / Want some K? / It's alright, I know the way / To my place / To the toys / To the boys / I'm gonna come in your face." When Killekill set up Death By Rainbow—a sub-label aiming to "push gay dance culture into darker and uncharted territories"—you can understand why they signed the duo for the first release. Killekill's contention is that queer dance music "has been travelling a beaten path" lately, and that the way forward is to reject mainstream gay culture by embracing extreme sounds. The nice thing about Furfriend is that, beneath the apocalyptic EBM beats and lurid lyrics, there's also a message—well, sometimes.
There is with "Polytuna," a thunderous ode to polyamory, or rather an explainer aimed at the skeptics. "You love your daughter / You love your son / And I love Danny / And I love Tom," reasons the duo's monotone vocalist, his voice layered with its downpitched double to make it sound extra diabolical. Musically, relentless deathmarch techno is the order of the day. Somehow things get more and more terrifying as they go, before a Mills-like atonal synth loop crowns it all in the closing minute.
The remix comes from The Fool's Stone, a new group responsible for Death By Rainbow's second release. They rework the instrumental into lacerating acid-electro, but stick to roughly the same structure: ever-rising intensity. Their version is a bit long and could do with finessing. (When the shrieking 303 line abruptly jumps up a semitone, you know they're playing for time.) But they're careful to keep the message intact. "Just because one and one makes two / Doesn't mean I can't love you too," goes part of the refrain, and you'll agree if you know what's good for you.
TracklistA Polytuna
B Polytuna (The Fool's Stone Remix)