It's not too often you hear of National Service interrupting a young musician's career in these supposedly casual and enlightened times, but in the case of enigmatic young Finnish singer/ songwriter Mauri Heikkenen (aka DROWSY) that's one of the contributing factors in ensuring his debut album "Growing Green" has taken almost four years to compile since the arrival of debut single "Careless Me" at the tail end of 2001.
However, you get the feeling that it's the mysteries of nature and the splendid isolation of Mauri's hometown (the obscure village of Joutseno) that inform "Growing Green" rather than long hours spent on polishing rifles in the barracks or whatever the Finnish army do in peace time these days. Drowsy's music is intimate, fragile, close-miked and sometimes almost unbearably personal. He's (very loosely) linked with furtive'n'fried kindred spirits such as Syd Barrett, Plush's Liam Hayes or - at a push - Elliott Smith circa his first two albums - but really Drowsy's strange, somnolent music is the product of a curious imagination all his own.
Mind you, the spectre of Elliott Smith looms surprisingly large over opening track "Some Cursing". You wouldn't expect a sparse, tortoise-speed strum to be accompanied by the opening lines : "You are all whores and I hate you all" sung in a voice like an obscene phone caller, but them's the jolts in Drowsy's strange world. It's jarring and unsettling, in the way Elliott Smith would pour swear words into heartbreaking early tracks like "Christian Brothers" and even lurches forward in a similarly determined fashion with a shadowy bassline for company.
Elsewhere, Heikkenen's muse is distant and wintry, like on trembling, piano-led tunes like "Harmless", or acoustic framed slivers like the title track and the acid campfire chord shapes of "Yellow Leaves & White Trees", where the recording is so downhome and close-miked you're almost squeaking up and down the frets with him. Occasionally, he ushers in a little additional colour (like with the gentle accordion on the childlike "Careless Me"), and even allows some low-key pop to bubble beneath "Bright Dawn" thanks to beats, a perky bassline and some nicely amateurish harmonica. The fact the track also indulges in some bizarre lead guitar (Graham Coxon straps on his Fisher Price anyone?) only adds to the weird warmth inherent in Heikkenen's work.
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Besides, there's also a likeably dark humour at work and play beneath the stoned and sleepy folk, which adds an additional dimension. "I Died Of Death", for example, proffers a title Bill Callahan would surely be turned on by, and if not, surely the line "I think, as I eat an orange, this is what death should be" would get him every time. The fact it's delivered in heavily accented English making Mauri sound like a junior Tom Waits once again only helps to pile on the arcane charm.
Drowsy's music is sometimes remote and sparse and when he drifts through sleep-deprived moments like the curious "Plim Plom Autumn Song" you begin to feel he's too much of an acquired taste. However, these feelings are generally only momentary, and in the main you come away from "Growing Green" having enjoyed this introspective, secretive music greatly and hoping it can be coaxed and nurtured into something truly beautiful in the future.
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