FUREKÅBEN

Although I cannot know that under what condition they did sessions and recordings, there is extraordinary weird atmosphere with some religious speckles - discrete from the "real" world methinks. Guess they always have raised their morale in a transcendental meditation or in smoke of pot around Hans the Guru in sessions or recordings (sorry if it's not correct). Certainly it's magic I know ... in the first track "Instrumental", male and female scat carries the sunflower song toward the top of heaven with heightening their (and the song's) spiritual power. All instruments including voices are completely whacked out, as if they should have been under mind-expanding condition, but mysteriously there is something rigidly united around them. We can find just the same flavour in the following "Mandsang", with a drunken (but comfortable) flute solo. Only for me Hans' voices can sound something of incantation cursed (because he sang in indistinct Danish? Exactly addiction to freak-out acidity I suggest. Even the last "Christine" can keep this weirdness in core mind. These three incantations drug ... err ... drag on fortunately.

Even Acid Folk freaks may be divided into two - like and dislike. Cannot find any artists similar to them easily ... and I love them of course.

Furekåben were a Danish underground band from the start of the 70s, which never really managed to break through the radio air waves, and that is probably why this record, along with their debut, today is considered to be quite the cult collector´s item here. Some of its players did go on to perform in other more successful gigs, such as Hans Vinding who went on to lead Hyldemor, that grew to be a somewhat big name inside the rock n´ roll sphere of Denmark.

Furekåben were like many other acts of its day - they frowned upon war, gender roles and big corporations eager to make a quick buck off the hard working artists. So naturally this outing consisted of many of those ingredients which pigeon-holed the so called hippie bands: Lots of jamming, words like: The sun went down - the judge rose to his stiff drumstick legs.... Can´t you not see, that you´re just as transparent like me?

-And lastly, and what also makes the outing a bit more credible to the agitators of the day, Furekåben produced this album themselves. Speaking of which, the recording went down at a place called Huset (The House), which to this day still is a cultural focal point to the inhabitants of Copenhagen. The album was done live, and to my knowledge there are no overdubs. What makes this really cool, and what furthermore solidifies this as being proper live stuff, is when you at some point can pick up children´s voices from the background. True hippie stuff this is!

As a Dane myself, I can really appreciate Hans Vinding´s lyrics, as they´re often very picturesque - containing skewed imagery and pre-conceptive notions of society. They´re elusive and to the point all at the same time, and to me that is a feat in itself.

The music is largely based around acoustic instruments, such as guitars, saw(I think I hear one at least...), violin, cello, flute, all sorts of percussive instruments like chimes, bongos and eggs. Now that I´m on the subject of eggs, then let me lay down the setting for you guys out there. Imagine trying to squeeze musical patterns and din out of a yolk. That contour less, bleared, squishy, pulpous and slightly impalpable yellow solid liquid - yep that is what I´m referring to here. The music is very much like that, and you get the feeling that these guys and girls had spent all day up to this session smoking weed from a 7 foot bong - looking overhead to the clouds passing by - thinking: Hey why don´t we make a record that is as fluffy and formless as those anti structures up there? Just floating and oozing - passing by like soft velvety cobwebs of nothingness in sideways free-fall.

And sure enough they did. Especially on the opening cut aptly named Instrumental, there is a feeling of music that resembles a yolk subtracting and bulging slowly in and out to a non-existent rhythm section. With moaning choral outbursts from women and men alike - the ghostly atmosphere of this track is more than anything hovering and far, - let me rephrase that, very very far from grounded. Sounds like thick gooey phlegm descending from your tongue in what seems to be an eternity. (To those of you who don´t know me: That description was clearly a compliment on my behalf.) Yes there is a novelty factor to this album, because it sounds so out there, but once you get past that, you´ll probably catch some of the magical moments on here, just as I have. These are scattered throughout and appear like brief moments of the most wonderful evanescence.

So if you´re looking for the next best thing to jello egg yolk music and melting sorbet, you might want to check out the gelatinous sounds of Furekåben, that most likely will have you quivering like a kitten run amok. 3.5 stars.