Grumbling Fur - Furrier [Aurora Borealis - 2011]First of all, I listened to this CD while looking at pornography and eating wonderful lasagna so my judgement could have been clouded and warped by the over-stimulation of senses. “Furrier” is the product of hours of improvisation by Daniel O' Sullivan (Guapo, Miasma & The Carousel Of Headless Horses, Aethenor, Mothlite), Anti Uusimaki (Mothlite, Stargazer's Assistant), Alexander Tucker, Jussi Lehtisalo (Circle), Dave Smith (Guapo, Stargazer's Assistant) and Arrtu in some London studio. What this English/Finnish alliance did here fits surprisingly well as soundtrack for silenced porn movies, and I think somebody ought to tell them. So thank you guys, you made some cheap porn a lot better!. The album is a good blend of psych-kraut synths, finnish metal vocals, free jazzy percussions, noisy moments and an overall not-so-authentic 60s feeling. It reminds me a lot of the more industrialized performances of Faust or late hippiefied Boredoms. It's quite clear that the tracks come from long improvisation sessions: sounds and patterns are elongated and dilated, with melody just seldom kicking in. Use of vocals is quite interesting, ranging from brutalized finnish speech to moments of black-metal style shrieking or tibetan monk-like chanting. Electronics are seemingly all analog and work well as glue keeping the other instruments together and just sound plain good for the whole album. While I didn't find anything wrong during all the listening experience, I feel there's something missing. It definitely sounds nice and feels nice, but somehow all the elements don't mix up to something that will stick in my mind for more than a few days. At roughly 50 minutes of length, “Furrier” is a pretty nice and pleasurable ride if you're a kraut head, while being nothing groundbreaking or excessively new. Perfect for somebody for whom this kind of music is extreme enough, or for the people out there that demand to choose their own soundtrack muisc for porn(& pasta eating). Nicola Vinciguerra
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