The Sufis

The Sufis launched their recording career by unearthing garage-rock gems and rendering them through lo-fi bedroom-psych production. The first two albums blended Byrds-style harmonies, the original Nirvana’s melodic drive, and the polished energy of Shindig’s house band; on the subsequent pair of releases the Nashville-formed duo expanded their palette with synthesizers, dub-inflected post-chillwave textures, and sleek soft-rock atmospherics that modernized their approach.

Calvin Laporte and Evan Smith established the group in Nashville, where their concise songwriting and agile studio technique attracted the U.K.-based Ample Play label run by Cornershop. The self-titled debut appeared in 2012, followed by the psych-pop collection Inventions in summer 2013. After issuing two albums in rapid succession, the pair paused their own projects to produce and engineer recordings for Paul Messis/the Market Squares, Universal Friend, and the Paperhead. They also relocated from Nashville to Brooklyn and trained under avant-garde pioneers LaMonte Young and Marian Zazeela.

When the Sufis resumed writing, they moved beyond strict garage-rock revivalism toward a restrained aesthetic that retained psych-pop elements while incorporating post-punk and dub-reggae touches. They composed and tracked their third album, After Hours, in June 2017 and issued it via Burger Records in January 2018. The same sonic direction guided 2020’s Double Exposure, which further emphasized synthesizers and spacious soft-rock influences.