Juffage is actually Jeff T Smith who is from Leeds and is the one man behind the music. Back in only June of this year Juffage released his (technically their) debut album Semicircle, yet by November Juffage’s new EP Small Fires will be available to purchase. Of course the question has to be when is an EP not a single release as Small Fires is a track from debut album Semicircle, with this EP release containing three versions of Small Fires and a remixing of album track HHV.

Opening with the album version of Small Fires, anyone new to Juffage will immediately be launched into what could be the midway point of an Arcade Fire track, with rolling drums, flinches of bass guitar and ascending and descending electronic notes. Jeff’s vocals are blended into this musical seascape, with the drums frantically pitching and rolling inside and outside of the music. Fluidity is probably the best description of what Jeff manages to achieve here, with a varied layered approach of musical stylings, which no doubt comes from the fact that Jeff is crafted every musical note here himself.

The Viola Version of Small Fires emphasises that there is a semblance of folk music in Juffage’s work, with everything taken back to the viola playing the Small Fires tune, before Jeff’s vocals can be heard as an echoey block under which the viola perseveres forward. Sadly the Ten Remix of Small Fires never seems to get away from its opening of the sounds of an orchestra warming up. The main Small Fires theme is lost somewhere in the background, whilst a regular electronic beat seems to only serve as a vehicle for a violin / viola that sounds like it is trying to warm up to something, but it never really warms into anything and fades out disappointingly.

Final track is the Lee J Malcolm remix of HHV, whilst the album version used a cello theme played played off against a rapid electronic drum beat and harmonic vocals before the crashing electronic mass left for a cello ending, this remixed version twists that cello sound into something higher pitched and throws drops of electronic glockenspiel notes over the top, before exiting into the gentle noise of tapping and semi-warped bleeps that have a real calming feel and hark towards the ambient Icelandic sounds of Sigur Rós.

Solely on this EP release, anyone new to Juffage or who enjoy music that is expressed as a patchwork of interwoven multi-instrumentalist sounds will be well advised to check out debut album Semicircle. For fans of Juffage the Small Fires EP does offer some rewarding reworkings (although not all of it works) of two album tracks.

Reviewed by Jimbo Walsh.

Juffage’s Small Fires EP is out on 7 November 2011, with album version of Small Fires available to download now from Juffage’s bandcamp page. Juffage is also embarking on a nationwide tour in October so head over to his website for more details.