Country Falls by Husky Rescue (RIDCD012)

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tough one this. i have to come clean, i lived in finland for 14 months. when i lived in that beautifully dark, light, warm, cold (delete as applicable) country the music i was subjected to was predominantly of the american rock persuasion, luckily i found a club that was willing to experiment with the new burgeoning scene later known as 'baggy', so i managed to survive my time there. the only local bands that ever meant anything in that period were the garage band stylings of 22-pisterpirkko, and the gloriously over-the-top leningrad cowboys, both of which provided entertainment and an insight into the finnish psyche.

now 14 years later, my past comes back to haunt me as i receive this from a eclectic finnish collective via the brighton catskills label in its beautiful pete fowler-esque cover art depicting an alternative cartoon world of nature, mountains and vast vast stretches of ice (inner sleeve). subsequently, this dual aspect of the cover art (splashes of colour matched against the stark extremes of the finnish winter) are depicted within the sounds that the husky collective make. primarily this is very laidback, pleasant coffee table chill out pop music, with zero 7 and air being the primary reference points, along with a hint of the long forgotten (but hugely loved by me !) one dove.

the instrumentation is sublime, with most songs being controlled by a whispering beauty called emma, harmonised along with the added layers of lap steel guitars, tambourines, flutes, organs, electric pianos which are all blended in a beautifully delicate acoustic-electro enhanced setting. highlights include the electric piano and synths overdose on 'city lights', air-esque vocoders on 'gasoline girl', the chunky beat driven breakdown in the middle of the massively orchestrated 'rainbow flows', the moody twanged guitar soundtrack of 'sleep tight tiger' recalling classic scenes from david lynch's 'twin peaks', interestingly after the 10 listed tracks there is a 'hidden' extra which really pulls the listener back in, with the opening spoken dialogue of the 8 minute extra 'the good man' depicting scenes of broken superhero boyhood dreams to a lonesome harmonica before the band decide to join in and flesh out the 70's thriller mood.

i will admit there is a tendency for the album to just drift over you, as the mood is constantly downbeat (other than the slight groove-esque 'summertime cowboy'), there is nothing that grabs you and shakes you out of the sonically induced slumber, making the second half of the album virtually an unknown section even after several listens, which is a shame as there are some wonderful pop gems spread throughout the album.

perhaps all this makes this album a perfect extended duvet session soundtrack to keep the harsh winters at bay ..