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Charlemagne Palestine & Grumbling Fur Time Machine Orchestra
This very odd session was recorded live at Café Oto back in June 2013, pairing Palestine with Grumbling Fur's improv/drone guise for a night of truly bizarre and uncharacteristic fare.  Aside from some occasional vocals, much of the throbbing rustic psychedelia of the excellent first half sounds almost nothing like Charlemagne’s previous work (parts of it even resemble an Acid Mothers Temple-style freak-out).  Then, of course, there is the second half, which sometimes sounds like Steve Reich out of his mind on amphetamines, bashing away at a piano in the middle of a Japanese orgy that disturbingly also includes several sheep and some singing toys.
Title aside, the unhinged lunacy of Ggrrreeebbbaaammmnnnuuuccckkkaaallloooww!!! actually takes some time to start manifesting itself, as the first half begins in fairly recognizable "Charlemagne Palestine" fashion:  he chant-sings an unusual and nasal melody over a mildly dissonant bed of harmonium and crystalware drones.  In fact, the only real indication that something unusual is afoot is that there is also a chopped-up and pulsing loop undulating around him.  At about the halfway point, however, Palestine's vocals disappear and the piece dissolves into a surreal miasma of recordings of sheep and menacingly dissonance string drones before itself giving way to something that sounds like a fantasia on a Romanian violin melody.  Notably, any sense of structure or purpose is largely gone by this point, but not in a bad way: the song just becomes some weird psychedelic soup of shifting vocals, farm sounds, electronics, tensely sawing strings, toy robots, maniacal vocal howls, and roiling lower-register piano.  Happily, it stays that way until the very end, resulting in quite a pleasantly bizarre piece of music that resembles a deranged mash-up of Acid Mothers Temple, My Cat Is An Alien, and Phurpa.  Any piece that I can say that about is definitely not a boring one.
The second half of the record consists of yet another side-long piece, albeit one in a somewhat different vein.  Thankfully, however, it kicks off with some lingering sheep noises, so the transition was not terribly jarring for me.  In fact, the second piece may even be a continuation of the first piece, but it fades in at a different place than the first half ends, precluding any possible continuity and mysteriously hinting at a portion of the performance that did not make the album.  In any case, the second piece simmers along for awhile as a surreal stew of barnyard noises and wordless vocal drones, but then all the sex noises start up and Palestine churns up a appropriately clangorous racket on his lower keys.  It only escalates from there and it becomes impossible to tell who is doing what anymore, as the piece builds into a cacophony of clattering drums, wildly ascending piano intensity, and plenty of very vocal Japanese women having orgasms.  To their credit, Palestine and Grumbling Fur suddenly revert back to quiet, blearily dissonant droning before it all becomes too overwhelming (arguably, anyway).  The trio has one last perverse surprise up their sleeves though, as the final (post-orgy) moments of the piece are devoted to a rousing crowd sing-along led by Charlemagne's singing toys (Mattel Sing-A-Ma-Jigs, to be specific, in case anyone out there is looking to faithfully cover Ggrrreeebbbaaammmnnnuuuccckkkaaallloooww!!! in its entirety).
I can certainly see why Important wanted to put this out, as it documents a truly bizarre and one-of-a-kind performance.  I certainly wish I had been there.  That said, only the throbbing and hallucinatory middle section of the first half stood out as particularly unique and wonderful for me.  The rest of the album is either too improvised-sounding, too heavy-handed (the orgy), or simply better developed and executed elsewhere on Palestine’s solo Ssingggg album to make a big impact (the farmyard sounds and the singing toys).  In essence, Ggrrreeebbbaaammmnnnuuuccckkkaaallloooww!!! mostly just seems like Charlemagne working through some of his ideas for his next studio album with a couple of talented accompanists gamely trying to keep up with his completely out-sized personality.  I would be very curious to hear what Alexander Tucker and Daniel O’Sullivan could do with a more formal, studio-based collaboration.  Still, this is quite likable for what it is (I normally hate live albums and I do not hate this).  Ultimately, this album is probably just for Palestine completists, but I bet they will probably enjoy it quite a bit.
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