FurFour

With Furfour the duo has altogether eschewed contemporary psychedelia’s hackneyed reliance on drones and heaviosity, and in doing so have made a powerful case for catchy tunes as a vehicle for mind-expanding music.

If you need something to invigorate your soul and send you on a journey then look no further.

Furfour finds the duo at their poppiest: even though they create songs from improvised sounds, there’s an engaging, hypnotic charm to tracks like “Milky Light” and “Heavy Days” that’s strongly reminiscent of Eno’s pop side.

On Furfour, Grumbling Fur prove once again that they have the chops to inhabit multiple worlds at once: they're natural songwriters, but also aurally astute sonic innovators. This record delivers on both levels.

There's something disarmingly joyous about it with only hints of the darker music that they also create. [Oct 2016, p.99]

Their electro-acoustic psych-soundworld can't disguise crisp earwormers. [Oct 2016, p.109]

The music they make together is remarkably coherent. Crowded as it is with instruments and ideas, Grumbling Fur doesn’t sound like a collision of sensibilities.

he duo of Alexander Tucker and Daniel O’Sullivan come closer than on any previous effort to reconciling the two halves of their musical personality. [Oct 2016, p.52]

The duo's sad, passionate vocals readily recall peak-era Depeche Mode, but the instrumentation is much more organic, and the production is far more atmospheric and multi-layered, even verging on hallucinatory at times.

Furfour is not an album that will change the world. Tracks come and go leaving only occasional ear worming melodies and are largely bereft of sing along moments. It is, however, quite possibly the most interesting listen you’re likely to get all year as each play will reveal something you didn’t catch before and for that reason alone, it’s one that needs to be heard over and over.

Furfour is packed with widescreen synthpop ballads like this [“Acid Ali Khan”], which is either a misstep or an admirable commitment to aesthetic consistency, depending on your taste.