The Sufis - Double Exposure (2020)

The Sufis are an Anglo-Indian/American band based on the writing partnership of Calvin Laporte and Evan Smith. During a chance meeting at Belmont University in Nashville, TN they bonded over a shared love of the Elephant 6 Collective and 20th-century classical music. AKer spending their formative years obsessively consuming and studying many different kinds of music, they set out to create their own musical universe. Under the guidance of Nashville tape wizard Randy Blevins, they built their dream recording studio in 2011. Not wasting any time, they set out recording their debut album enlisting the help of their friends, including local wunderkinds the Paperhead. These recordings quickly caught the attention of Ben and Tjinder of Cornershop who released the album on their label, Ample Play, in the summer of 2012. Upon release The Sufis was named Rough Trade Album of the Month and also received high praise from the likes of The Times, Shindig!, Record Collector, and Rolling Stone's David Fricke who called it 'an extended reach into the droning minimalism of the Velvet Underground and Faust's tape manipulation.' They quickly followed up with Inventions in 2013, an ambitious attempt to consolidate their love of The Shaggs, Wesley Willis and Bach. The next few years found The Sufis focusing more on production and engineering dues for Paperhead, Peter Stringer-Hye, Universal Friend, Paul Messis/The Market Squares and many others. Frustrated with the small town aesthetic of Nashville, they spent time traveling around, eventually settling on Brooklyn, NY as their new home base.