I am not professing on being an expert on Furia. I have a few of their albums, which I love and have seen them live when they played London in 2018. It is pretty obvious even with a cursory exploration of their output that they are a unique entity and more than a little odd. However, nothing quite prepared me for dipping into the out-there lunacy that is W śnialni (In The Dream Room). Apparently, the Polish group “went on a journey through a labyrinth” and visited various places such as Wawel Castle and a painting studio near Spodek in Katowice (it was in the studio of artist Urszula Broll where the album was literally painted). This is metaphorically spoken of in a poem accompanying the album and wherever they wandered it has taken them a while, 6 years indeed since last album Księżyc milczy luty. Naturally I was expecting really big things from this and I can’t say I have particularly found them here, although this album has seemingly already garnered plenty of attention and praise.
I should explain. What we get here are two tracks and just under half an hour of music. The group describe their style as nekrofolk which due to its uniqueness they are quite entitled to do so. Stylistically they have always had a base of black metal about them although here that is pretty much dispersed of. What we do have is some serious experimentation and pushing of boundaries which is certainly not going to sit happily with everyone. To put it bluntly it sounds a bit like the players have gone into a rehearsal room and jammed the album out. There are no vocals as such but a constant narrative which sounds like they have invited in some of the local street drunks, plied them with strong Polish beer and let them argue among themselves. These people are in actual fact “actors involved with, among others, the National Old Theatre in Kraków and a miners’ orchestra.” As for their gabbling, it might make some sense if you understood Polish but even that is something, I am not particularly sure about.
Musically nothing much happens for a fair bit of the duration. The two tracks ‘Wesele w Śnialni’ & ‘Tancowały chochoły Wyjawienie’ which have something to do with weddings and dances possibly, are continuous without a huge definition between them. Its hefty bass meandering that we first hear eventually and you wonder if someone is tuning up and this is where my “rehearsal” comment comes in as nothing really progresses for some time. Lovers of drone may well have the patience for this but others may well just be clamouring for some actual “proper” music. 6 minutes in we finally get somewhere and riffs and drums form with cackling and muttering in the background as the “free form” musicians and their guests seem to get in the spirits (literally) of things. I guess it certainly does sound like Furia and is identifiable as being so but its unlike anything I have particularly heard before. Bass lovers will get on down as the instrument has a massive presence and despite everything after a few listens it does groove away and get beneath the skin. The tracks merge into each other via the spoken commentary and you have to wonder if punches are about to be thrown as the music itself fades in and out; improvisation is certainly what strikes as the modus-operandi here. Building around that throbbing bass and ever-wilder theatricality from the speakers it suddenly downs tools, traffic is heard in the background and we get what sounds like a lady talking on a radio. Finally, it all combusts into the nearest thing we have resembling a song in the last 5 minutes but even that is questionable as to what the hell is going on here.
So, after a 6-year wait is this going to appease fans of Furia? Hell, its hard to say really and all I can do is summing up is profess that an album borders on utter gibberish and pure genius it is definitely hard to review. I’m going to have to sit on fence with this and get splinters up my bum.
(6.66/10 Pete Woods)
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