CD: Grumbling Fur – Furrier

Calling Grumbling Fur a supergroup would be pretty over the top, but the name does corral five distinctive musicians that usually follow their own paths. There’s a pair of Finns from the legendary drone outfit Circle and the challenging metallers Panic DHH. The three Brits include two members of the jazz-inclined experimentalists Guapo and the wyrd folk artist Alexander Tucker.

The individual tracks on Furrier, this one-off collective’s album, were culled from a day-long improv jam held in south London. Jams are usually flabby excuses to show some chops, but Furrier is spartan and focused.

 

Furrier’s mood music was wrested from the jam and made coherent by Grumbling Fur’s Daniel O’Sullivan (Guapo) and Antti Uusmaki (Panic DHH). They’ve done an extraordinary job. It’s a dark, sombre album, summoning the intensity that Finland's music can be imbued with.

A distant rumbling opens the album. It builds, then fades in and out. As it increases in volume, it sounds like a waning and waxing bassoon playing deep in a cave. Intermittent electrical beeps feed in. A cymbal taps. This glacial, lonely sound submits to a gentle wash that underpins a pastoral rippling. Then, the grinding descends. Sounds layer upon each other and give way to the next, with Furrier unfolding like a Kosmiche cousin to Pink Floyd's More soundtrack. This deeply psychedelic experience is closer to German Seventies explorers of inner space like Popul Vuh or Ash Ra Temple than any of the participant’s usual music or outlets. Furrier is a total trip.

Visit Kieron Tyler’s blog

• Find Furrier on Amazon

Watch the video for Furrier’s “Under Fur Moon”

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