Dif Juz - The hidden face of dream-pop

Throughout the 80s, 4AD was an unrivalled forge of talent, united by a particular vision of music geared towards reclaiming psychedelia and buckleyesque vertigo, all condensed into an ethereal, celestial pop aimed at the sonic materialisation of the transcendent, at the aseptically colourful representation of the senses' swirling vortex; and then there were Vaughan Oliver's visual concepts, which hinted at the flavours, illustrating the philosophy of those songs even before they were played. We'll never stop thanking Ivo Watts-Russell for the artistic treasures he gave us, for the bands he brought to light, for the courage he showed in championing that music. The 4AD catalogue was packed with names who enjoyed the favour of critics and sometimes of the public too; others, however, remained in the shadows, perhaps not adequately supported, perhaps simply unlucky. Such is the case of London's Dif Juz, a forgotten band, yet one worth recounting for a handful of fleeting flashes of insight, not entirely brought to fruition, but which can lay claim to a certain quality of "prescience".

Years ago I read about Dif Juz in the label's catalogue, and while on one hand they intrigued me (who on 4AD doesn't deserve at least a listen?), on the other they discouraged discovery, perhaps because they weren't prominent or particularly cited by critics and colleagues. Then came the listening experience, and the revelation of a poetic, multi-coloured world, of a music that surely springs from the same wellsprings as the 4AD sound, akin to the bodily abstraction of Durutti Column, but rich in a series of peculiarities that make it hard to classify.

Dif Juz were formed in London by brothers Alan and Dave Curtis, joined by bassist Gary Bromley and drummer/saxophonist Richie Thomas, though initially they were called London Pride and played punk, to the point that reports tell of gigs supporting Birthday Party and Jah Wobble.

Their first recordings date back to 1981, when "Huremics" and "Vibrating Air" came out, both later collected in 1986 on the album Out Of The Trees; another EP followed in 1983, "Who Says So", which from the start showed the similarities with their 4AD stablemates in the form of a minimal, atmospheric sound, albeit one with a certain vigour; fullness prevails over emptiness, noise over silence. The group's masterpiece, however, arrived in 1985 with the LP Extractions, a genuine basket of delectable sonic offerings. Here the typical 4AD sound is rendered "impure" by a series of digressions, which spill over into jazzy atmospheres and ambient voids, rhythmic irregularities that set it apart from the rounder, more canonical pop of Cocteau Twins and company. Oh, I almost forgot, Dif Juz have no vocals.

1985 saw the band on a European tour with Cocteau Twins, while 1986 brought the release of the mini-album "Out Of The Trees", which collected the first two EPs, albeit with different mixes on some tracks; after that, nothing else, save for the 1999 compilation "Soundpool". Dave Curtis would go on to beef up the line-up of Wolfgang Press, while Richie Thomas would go on to work with Jesus And Mary Chain and Butterfly Child.

Extractions, as we said, is the group's masterpiece and one of the most far-sighted and forgotten albums of the 80s. Starting out from the solid foundations of the 4AD style, Dif Juz actually transfigure its premises, leaning on imaginative arrangements and sturdy rhythms. Emphasis on ethereal softness or sterile existentialism for goths on the brink of suicide is banished from the band's vocabulary, and romanticism, where present, is never an end in itself, but simply a syntactic/semantic wrapper, serving to convey the compositional creativity of Thomas and his bandmates.

Dif Juz also knew how to hit hard, and the sound that resulted was often gripping and compelling; but above all the musicians were able to play their respective instruments at their very best, and the alchemy, as so often happens, stemmed from the will/intelligence to put one's own talents at the service of the whole's completeness, without falling into needless showing-off or one-upmanship.

Extractions opens with the suite "Crosswinds", where Thomas's sax leads the dance through 7 minutes and 44 seconds of free-ranging fantasy. In truth, the track isn't remotely representative, and the rest of the album runs on different levels of intensity. Too much stillness and too much preciousness, but at the same time, so much beauty.

"A Starting Point" is instead a perfect example of Dif Juz's mastery, so full of ideas and insights that it's hard to even describe: first of all, two melodic patterns that weave and overlap, then a driving rhythm that spills into a brief, bodiless pseudo-funk interlude in the vein of A Primary Industry—elements that shape an ethereal storm in a teacup. On the same wavelength is "Silver Passage", a pure sonic oxymoron, a melodious chant that tries to soar airily but struggles, constantly pulled down by fractured cadences.

But it's "Twin And Earth", a track of singular creativity, that really knocks you off your chair. If you haven't heard it yet, picture spectral guitars materializing in the jungles of Jon Hassell, before building an exquisitely elegant shoegaze melody, with tribal bass and sturdy proto-noise digressions; a confluence of influences and foresight, a blend of originality and sounds from the past.

The only track on the album to feature vocals is "Love Insane", and what a voice it is. Lending her pipes for a spine-tingling performance is none other than Elizabeth Fraser, who, accompanied by a gentle piano melody and Thomas's sax resonating quietly, manages to conjure ghosts and evoke muffled laments, as if drifting in from adjoining rooms. Angelic and bloodless, as ever.

The closing tracks "Hu" and "Re" deserve a chapter of their own, as possible forerunners of much of the music we now identify as post-rock. "Hu" ferries the metallic timbres of Glenn Branca into dream-pop territory, in the form of a guitar concerto for the night sky, with melodies chasing one another and drums pounding into the void, while the emotional charge builds, fueled by continuous bursts of sound. Then there's "Re", which follows the same path, like a Vinny Reilly doing an impression of the Velvet Underground.

Starting from these final compositions, the band could have developed a far more complex approach, perhaps by bringing in noise elements, perhaps by leaning more on repetition rather than melodic progression. Maybe we would have found ourselves in the presence of Mogwai a few years ahead of schedule. Whether or not you agree with what's been said here, what clearly emerges from Dif Juz's work is that such poetry has rarely been paired with such a concrete vision of music.

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