On a damp, wet night at Dingwalls, Grumbling Fur took the stage performing their ritualistic opening set, oddly paired with an Adam Green acoustic gig. In a swift five-track set, the duo entertained the crowd with their digital paganism, with quite an array of instrumentation.
Sitting behind a table, the Slender Man-esque Daniel O’Sullivan took care of synths, violins, backing tracks and the “rhythm” section, which consisted in multiple percussive instruments that resided on said table amongst statuettes of Ganesh and a rabbit. Like a blonde Green Man, Alexander Tucker alternated between bass and guitar, joking and bantering with O’Sullivan. Vocally twins, the duo created wide rural soundscape interrupted by dreary synths and grumbling bass lines, while their chanting voices droned throughout the tracks. The violin and guitars were free to expand and swivel sensuously, piercing the oceanic wall of sound created by the synths and backing tracks.
Grumbling Fur were able to put the audience in an awe-induced contemplative mood: With a track like ‘The Ballad of Roy Batty’, they moved the crowd, chanting and clapping their hands with the potency of a football stadium crowd, while operatically articulating the ‘Tears in Rain’ soliloquy from ‘Blade Runner’, forever altering the public’s memory of the classic monologue, and instilling a new one of a choral and inclusive voyage.
