Grumbling Fur - Furrier (CD, Vinyl LP)

Does fur grumble? Here it does anyway. This is another collaboration featuring Finnish people (as well as English ones) - what is it with the Finns this week? Anyway, two of the collaborees are Daniel O'Sullivan (Guapo) and Alexander Tucker (Alexander Tucker). Oh, and on the Finnish side Jussi Lehtisalo (Circle). What they have concocted is drifting psychedelic improvised...um...shit that occasionally comes together rather remarkably to a whole. Particularly impressive is track 7 (I don't have the titles, sorry) where the kraut grooves are married with stunning choral vocals that sound eerily like Roland Orzabel from Tears for Fears but are more likely to be Tucker or one of his mates. The vocals overlap beautifully bringing a great crescendo to the laid back Can-like fare. Elsewhere there are some superb musical interludes surely concocted out of stoned jams where the music takes on an ambient peace not too far away from Rothko and the like. I'm also reminded of the American 'space rock' of the mid '90s; Landing, Azure Plane, the Burnt Hair label as well as more recently Leeds's own Frozen Geese who at times perfect this type of semi-improvised cavernous kraut rock groove.