Friday, July 26, 2019

Addicted- No Name Label Russia Overview (Disen Gage, Ciolkowska, Detieti, Free Tone, Grand Astoria, Pressor, Soom, Transnadeznost)


I was recently sent a huge batch of CD from this very eclectic Russian Label.  Some of these bands I have heard of before and had some music by like the Grand Astoria, Ciolkowskia and Disen Gage, all the others are totally new to me.

Ciolkowska
          

This band started off as an improvised instrumental trio and over the course of time has become a larger and more focused band. The band has released at least two albums on this label. I own one of their other albums. The latest one is called Avtomat Proshlogo. This band shares some members with Transnadeznost. This album was recorded live in the studio in 2018.  IT features a very eclectic mix of music and styles. IT keeps you on your toes as you don’t know what to expect. Some intense vocals start the album off and then it drifts into a very different vibe for the  2nd track, Earth with the ukulele taking the main lead and then into an almost DOOM like heaviness. Thereabouts starts with some nice percussion and a trumpet solo. The vocal is quite layed back and spacey to start.  A very cool track. End of Action sees the return of the trumpet but it is played in a very slow fashion and mixed in well with the melodic lines of the guitar. Nice use of some effects. At just about 2mins, the bass takes the lead and then the guitar  and ukuele have some cool trading parts. Intersting song with a bit of a Russian theme. The album also features a couple of obscure cover songs by Liompa and UdUbrenje, two bands I presume are Russian. At Trees Height is over 8mins and a bit faster and the vocals return. The track starts off quite happy but then the guitar gets quite intense with a lot of distortion, a new tone not heard yet on the album, the happiness returns. We are from Jazz starts with a sample in Russian and then the cymbals followed by the bass and then the trumpet take us into jazz land, for a different vibe. 108 brings back the Ukulele and a more dreamy spirit but occasional heavier guitars.  The closing track is one of the covers, About Lord and Buddha.

This is a very interesting and cool band. I am not sure what the western world would think about them. Check it out.




Disen Gage

Moscow scientists/musicians have returned after 8 years without a release. In May 15, 2019, an new album was digitally released by addicted label and later on CD.

The band was formed in 1999 by Yuri Alaverdyan and Konstantin Mochalov on guitars, Nikolay Syrtsev on bass guitar and Eugeniy Kudryashov on drums. In 2004 their recorded material reached the RAIG music label, which released it as the band's debut album “The Screw-Loose Entertainment”. In 2005, with the arrival of a new guitarist, Sergey Bagin who took the place of Yuri Alaverdyan the band turned from a guitar-oriented progressive rock to a challenging avant-prog group. As a result, in 2006 Disen Gage released its second album “Libertage” (RAIG) composed from spontaneous improvisations and third studio album “...The Reverse May Be True” (2008, RAIG), which stylistically blended the structural patterns with the improvisational freedom. 

After long silence the same participants released single “Equilibrium Trip” (Addicted label, 2016) and full album "Snapshots" which is whimsically balancing on a weird edge between psychedelic and romantic mood, between a krautrock improv and a soundtrack to a western movie. "Snapshots" CD was released shortly by Art-Beat in January 2017.

In 2016 Disen Gage turn their status from "rock-band" to "musician association" with a flexible crew of participants that led to a significant widening of their art. Thus, in 2017 "Hybrid State" – a science-art documentary, presenting a situation in which scientists make music in the course of an experimental procedure, and directly in the lab was created by Konstantin Mochalov, Anton Efimov, Daria Solovyeva and Alexey “Al Argus”. This self-titled soundtrack was released by dependent label BNiL in the same year. 

In 2018 Disen Gage consisting of Konstantin Mochalov and Anton Efimov experimented in music concrete, ambient and noise directions crafting the album “Nature” (Addicted label BNiL) from sounds of planets, trains and animals (including higher primates). Alexandra Semenova organically supplements this sound adventure with a video.




In February 2019 band released album “The Big Adventure” with traditional line-up to celebrate 20 years of existence.  This album features 8 tracks in a little over 40mins. IT starts off with Shiroyama, a slight Japanese influence in the guitar line and a bit spacey with some industrial like sounds mixed in as well. Adventurers changes the vibe totally and is quite happy Russian party vibe. Some great bass lines  on this track.  Chaos Point reminds me a bit of something Zappa might do. Some chaos for sure, mixed with some more heavy riffs. Later the focus is on the piano. Enough features some very nice cello playing and some intense lead guitar as well.  A lovely track that nicely counters the Chaos point!  All the Truth’s Meeting starts off quite funky and has this sort of Russian rhythm at the same time.  A quite happy one you could dance to! Selfish Tango brings in some interesting sounding percussion, almost like a vibraphone (one is not cited) and this one could be in a movie soundtrack. Carnival Escape has some spacey synths and sort of creepy horror movie vibe that slowly evolves and takes a radical turn into something with some jazz piano and then some intense guitar. Cool song. FIN ends the CD and features a lot of piano. Very good album. This is a great and interesting band. Not sure if they have even ever played outside of Russia.


Detieti

Detieti was formed in 2004 in Moscow by bassist Mikhail "Han" Ivanov and drummer Roman Karandaev. Ivan "Vanish" Khvorostukhin, who had already played in the stoner-rock group Stone Cold Boys, joined the band soon. Initially, in the early years Detieti was almost homemade project and didn’t show a lot of activity. The first demo was recorded in 2010 with new band's drummer Viktor Tikhonov (Kshettra band). Sometimes Roman still participated in concerts and recordings as a vocalist and showman. The music of the band is an avant-prog, that has a foundation in mixing alternative rock, funk, psychedelia and punk rock. Mike Patton's projects, funk-metal, early Queen, improvisational music of different genres, comics, circus and 80's films can also be named as important sources of inspiration. 

Detieti transformed into a quartet with keyboardist Peter "Peyote-R" Bolotov in 2011. This line-up recorded two albums - "Ne eP" (2013) and "Detieti в общих чертях" (2015). Vanish quit the band in 2016, Alexander Kosarenko became the new guitar player. He brought in new colors to the band's sound. Detieti recorded the new album "Frogressive Punk" in the summer and autumn of 2017 and it was released in May 2018. 


This CD comes in a large sleeve, which features another smaller cardboard sleeve inside with the CD and a very strange story about villagers, frogs and a submarine. The song titles also seem to relate to this story. The CD features 9 tracks and like many of these Russian bands, they have a lot of guest musicians (5 in this case on different tracks). Cocaintro starts off with some voices, piano and then gets quite heavy and aggressive and then it gets happy and funky with some wah guitar. Lazy Madonna also features some funky wah guitar to start. Rasta Fear, you might though would have a reggae inspiration (a tiny bit of skank is thrown in) but it is quite heavy stuff with some really intense guitar at times.  The Dream of Woodland Animals changes the vibe completely and the band clearly had a lot of fun making this track with an almost country flavor with lots of animal sounds. Murat-Zlurad is a strange one. IM Pokh starts very spacey with a synth leading the way at the beginning almost like a space journey and then at 1.40 disentegrates into madness and then gets more intense and almost symphonic. Some horns come in and then it goes into some very strange stuff. Diemback features a lot of strange stuff as well and a more heavy sound.  In Latrine (Cocaintro revisted), is what the title says. Threeptile ends the album. This is a very eclectic band as they slide in and out of so many styles of music. I think Mike Patton and Mr Bungle is a good reference for this band.  I really was quite captured by the diversity and insanity. My wife did not like it much though!


Pree Tone



Pree Tone was born at the junction of mass-protests/clashes and war in Ukraine in 2014. They start rehearsing as trio in a small basement in the capital’s downtown. Very soon, in the beginning of spring, they recorded and released the first album ​Brights​. Listeners and critics mostly positively received the songs, so after a month they played the first show in Kyiv and received invitations to perform at two summer festivals.

During 2014 we released two more EP’s ​Wild Highs and ​Simmer​. In 2017, they released two albums ​D-A and ​L'Illustré and after line-up changes became a four-piece band. Brights and Simmer were released on tapes by ​freak friendly d.i.y​. Wild Highs turned into tapes by ​Swamp Meat and ​c'était cela notre amour​. D-A was released on tapes by​ ​Beaver house​.

During November they recorded a six-song album “Kiddy” which was released in August 2018 by dependent label BNiL on CD & ​Geertruida on tapes.  These tracks are quite long and starts off with Treasures of Fall. This is quite psychedelic stuff and reminds me of some UK psych bands from the 80s and features a quite dissonant guitar with a steady hypnotic groove with occasional sparks of madness..  Maze of 60 Ticks is a nice melodic track but with some intense guitar at times and a sort of spoken like vocal.  The mid section has some cool organ-keyboards and is quite psyched out. Safe and Sound is a bit more freaky and a sort of stoned vocal.  Nice layers of noisy distorted guitars but a melodic thread is maintained. They have a long trippy section that gets quite noisy as well. Token continues with a faster pace, rolling bass lines, quick drum fills and a slightly dissonant guitar line. A rocking track which finally comes down around 5mins to a mellow finish. Diadam is another fast paced one with a high energy and drive and psyched out guitar action. Bricks slowly fades up with a heavy guitar riff that is repeated over and over until the rest of the band joins and a drone synth adds to the mix and a slow dynamic builds throughout. A very nice psych record.


The Grand Astoria

        The Grand Astoria needs no introduction and is one of Russia’s most productive and eclectic and interesting bands. They have released many albums on this label over the years. I am a big fan of this band and have almost all of their output.  Some of their albums like The Might Few and Punkadelia Supreme are really amazing records.



The band is celebrating 10 years in 2019 and has been touring all over Europe.  The band has recorded their 7th album and plans to release it in the fall of 2019\early 2020. Check out a new song below from 2018..




Pressor

The band was formed in 2008 in Kostroma, Russia under the name Leaden Sky by guitarist, vocalist and main songwriter Stanislav «Zoiner» Vasiliev in collaboration with bassist Ilya Beschastnov (they already played together from 2006). Guys mixed funeral doom with death metal. Also in 2008 Stan and Anton Khmelevsky played together in black metal band Nocturnlands, where they recorded first tracks together. In 2009 Anton joined Leaden Sky on lead guitar. At the same time Leaden Sky were joined by drummer Viktor Grigoriev. With that line-up guys started to move from funeral doom to sludge, first writing "Cheerful Song" (now you may know it as 'Grave Full of Weed' track from first EP). Now the band resides in St. Petersburg and has another EP released in 2018 called Weird Things.  It is 4 tracks and lasts about 20 mins.  Heavy State starts things off with a spaced out doom vibe.  The spacey synths really make this instrumental doom quite trippy. The title track is an angry song with a very aggressive vocal and heavy bass line that drives it. The tuned down guitars really are nasty.  Later the track slows down and it reminds me of Ministry. Hexadecimal Unified Insanity, is another Doomy mutherfucker with the return of some psychedelic sound additions.  Tripping Deep ends the EP with another tripped out psych doom track. Reminds me a bit of Domovoyd at times. Not for the timid.






Soom

            

            Soom are from the Ukraine and started off as a stoner sludge band in 2013 and has released at least 7 items and are one of the more heavy bands on this label. Experimental sludge band from Kharkiv (Ukraine) testing acid metal by their own way: going deeper into lo-fi, under-underground, noise and industrial. You still can find traditional stoner doom riffs and Ukrainian melodies, but please beware, it's not relaxed walking in the sun, really weird and creepy things happening here.

Their latest CD (has a name in Russian letters) and is 10 tracks spread over 70 mins. The main tracks are all quite long with a few shorter pieces.  The digisleeve is a great package with a booklet with all the words in Russian and some interesting imagery.  The opening 7.5min track starts very slow and spacey with different string instruments, some bass, percussion and the flow of the ocean. At the very end you get some flute and then a spoken word. Great number but what happens next is some just nasty sounding sludge music with a massively distorted guitar and bass but they come back to some clean tones now and then in specific interludes. Dark stuff. After a short interlude track of 1min with a spoken word vocal, the longest track at over 13mins starts. This one has some more melody to it but the same overall heavy, sludge sound. Track 4 is very psychedelic at times the way they mix the vocal. The band is a three piece Amorth, Tomrer and Kova, who play all sorts of instruments, it would appear unless I miss the credits in the CD for extras. Anyway, this is a DARK record but also with some variety. A tough 74mins listen but check it out. You can hear the entire album below. 



Transnadeznost

Transnadežnost' first emerged at Kamennaya Sreda’s regular parties in the DaDa club in St. Petersburg, Russia on 12/24/12 with Alexander Yershov on guitar and Vladimir Gurov on drums. Soon Max Zhuravlyov has joined the band on bass and synths, and the first demo Shamantra/First Arab Astronaut was recorded.

On 02/23/15 No Name label (Moscow) released Kailash/Ladoga EP with Natasha Bogulyan on drums and TaSha supplementing band's sound with theremin.

On 12/27/17 the split  Huldra/108 with Ciolkowska band was released, followed by "Monomyth" , the debut album featuring David Aaronson on drums, Nikolay Vladimirovich on bass, Alesya Izlesa and Alexander Yershov on guitars. The album marks the band's switch from jams to regular more composed songs and features 6 instrumentals and one song with vocals by Egor. Pachamama starts things off and has a bit of a GONG vibe to it. Some interesting delays on the guitar give it his spacey feel at times. Some intense playing as the track grows. The next two songs date back to 2015 and have a more jammy feel at times. Star Child and Day/Night (the last track), change the vibe a bit with the addition of the trumpet by Aleksey.   I enjoyed this album very much. If you like instrumental music, this is a good one to check out.


https://noname666.bandcamp.com


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2 comments:

  1. Found this post because I similarly just came across this label, which blew my mind just a little. Haven't gone through all the material yet, but some of it I definitely really love, and I'm also impressed by how varied the releases are. Your article is helping me navigate all of it a bit. Much appreciated!

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  2. I think I got a similar bundle to you. Very interesting music going on in Russia right now.
    https://tudortelescope.blogspot.com/2020/09/addicted-to-russia.html

    ReplyDelete