Ruiz!, the moniker adopted by Sheffield based Catalan multi-instrumentalist, songwriter, producer and vocalist Hugh Ruiz Rober, is out with his first album ‘Mind Games’. Last year, Ruiz had no idea he would ever pen a song and now he’s come out with a complete thirteen track album that’s been entirely DIY. In terms of the sheer ludicrousness of having someone craft a well mastered, meticulously composed, and sonically fluent album out of nowhere, ‘Mind Games’ is impressive as hell. But, that seemingly impossible technical feat aside, Ruiz! has a style to remember. It’s one that’s entirely unmanufactured, the raw focus and drive that catalysed the Sheffield residing artist was one completely organic and innate. Writing songs about life, love, and all the in between, Ruiz takes these universal themes into genres of dark rock, psychedelia, electronica, and rock n roll.
‘Mind Games’ is genre neutral in the truest sense of the term. Ruiz is unshackled in a way many artists are not, his inexperience as a seasoned or professionally trained musician almost lends itself to his funky energy that transcends conventionality. At one moment electronic pop, at another a more traditional punk rock tune, he is his own style.
From the opening track, which is lead by an unruly and strange bass riff, Ruiz!’s rock influences shine through vividly. On ‘Blue Mediterranean’, Ruiz!’s guitar skills are showed off with a renewed vigour. ‘What makes you think much more of this, why would you think I can take any more of this’. Although he dubs himself as an electropop artist, it’s actually the punk rock side to Ruiz that comes out most strikingly in the opening tracks on ‘Mind Games’. Of course, there are tracks on this album where the majestic electronic talents of a more cinematic producer come out. For instance, ‘Please Baby Please’. is strikingly dark, with an ominous background that is as intimidating as it is overwhelming to listen to. The thunderous guitar coupled with an ever looming presence on the drums creates a shockingly frightening cinematic soundscape.
But it isn’t all doom and gloom on ‘Mind Games’. ‘Let the Sun Shine’ is a playful summer bop of a tune that’s got a classic indie/coming-of-age film air to it. It’s partially nostalgic, wholly entertaining. The closer, ‘Planet Psyche’ is downright weird. It’s the emblematic oddity on the project, filled with strange and seemingly irregular intonations and beat switches. But it’s in this weirdness that Ruiz! thrives. You can’t expect normality, you have to embrace the strangeness of his craft. And, in the final minutes of the closing track, you can’t help but be pulled in on Ruiz’s wild ride.