Showing posts with label Soviet Union. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Soviet Union. Show all posts

Tuesday, 18 October 2022

Оризонт – "Оризонт(in Moldovan "Orizont")" (Melodia/Мелодия – С60-10691) 1978


 90% of all decent soviet music came from Estonia.The reason for this is geographical,just as it was for The Beatles.Access to the sea.In Estonia's case access to the right sea,namely The Baltic and the west,rather than being landlocked like Moldova.At best they could holiday on the Black Sea coast,which sadly meant being culturally locked in to the weird gypsyfied Eurasian way of doing things.That coupled with living in the wall-less prison of the former Soviet union,and missing out on the greatest renaissance of the arts since...well...er....the Renaissance.Leads us to explaining why this state sponsored slab of Moldavian library music Schlager Funk exists.
Indeed, we sophisticates of the west will laugh at the pure cheesy shitness of these records,but they do have a healthy vein of well recorded break-beats and ooodles of charm. One somehow feels sorry for them as victims of the distorted intellectual bollocks of Soviet Communism. Without some bespectacled political theorist reading Karl Marx's Das Kapital as reflected by a distorted funhouse mirror,This fucked up Funk would have never existed outside of the Eurovision song contest in the 1970's. 
The funniest part of all this is that the poor sod's left behind in mother Russia are gonna have to go through all this shit again thanks to the whims and insecurities of a Phil Collins lookalike with a marsh-mellow like complexion akin to the Pilsbury Dough Boy.The silly fuckers are gonna have to listen to Russian music again, and spend 50% of their state approved wages on a burger from "Tasty and that's IT!",the new national Burger joint.....sadly they've yet to come up with a Russified version of a McFlurry as of yet.
A sadly contemporary example of that silly Soviet trait of making dangerous and downright bad forgeries of western products,and then boasting that "we have Burgers too american pigdogs", just as they used to think that they had Funkier Music......even in Moldova?!

Tracklist:

1.Гайдуцкая Баллада6:46
2.Монолог3:44
3.У Мельницы3:22
4.Край Мой2:55
5.Калина3:01Ничего Не Оспорю4:44
6.Первое Танго2:48
7.Апрель3:37
8.Оризонт3:19

Saturday, 15 October 2022

Gaya – "Azerbaijan Vocal And Instrumental Ensemble" (Меlodia – 33 С60-06819-20)1976


Ukrainians, bless 'em, as much as they tried, did not have, what is commonly known as, 'The Funk', After witnessing centuries of, either,being targeted, witnessing,or gleefully taking part in, brutal atrocities on the Eurasian plate,their DNA is far too abstract and fucked up to embrace the joys of  dancing (unless its some lumpen folk dance). This explains why they and their Slavic cousins seem to have an overriding darkness as part of their shadowy aura's. 
I was once offered the chance to have my Aura painted by some new-age lady of questionable talents,but she gave up as i was, quote, 'Too Sceptical'.....er...yes?
These silly drawings normally comprise of splashes of abundantly happy colours,and basically everything's gonna be great. I imagine if she drew the aura of a Ukrainian,or a Russian, or anything serbo-croat for that matter,it would display a preponderance of monochrome drawn from the greyscale rainbow .
Now Azerbaijan doesn't have this genepool problem as, tectonically, it straddles the Asian and Eurasian plates. Although,they are mostly Turkish in origin,and therefore responsible for some very dodgy Genocides themselves,Armenians mainly...but at least they could dance eh?.
Yes they really are called Gaya!....a group name that could get you into serious trouble in modern Russia.
Any citizen found indulging in the undoubted delights of brown love,or doing carpet, would quickly be rewarded with one free flying lesson, without a plane, off the nearest tall building.
Gaya certainly had 'The Funk' ,but sprinkled with liberal quantities of grated cheese.....as the blatant lie "I'm Happy" seems to testify to,both in reality denial and funky naffness.
Another fun(?) song title for me is track 10,"I'll Find You",which is the catchphrase of the idiotic (David Ames) who wants to kill me for copyright infringements(?) on my copious Jandek posts in his self-appointed authority as The Corwood Rep's de facto minder.
FYI...i don't break copyright laws,all i do provide a link to the storage provider,(the massive Google)who is in fact the potentially culpable party,this has in fact been long established,and test cased during the Megaupload appeal.
However,copyright was not something that troubled any artist from the former USSR days,as they never got paid anyway,any profits were donated to the state,via the back pockets of of the local commissariat .But,alas,Yet another good source of breaks for your drum'n'bass project that no-one wants to hear. A crime that I have been responsible for in the not too distant past.
All we need now is a Moldavian Funk ensemble to add a cherry to a very unlikely cake.......you guessed it...it's up next!? 

Tracklist:

1 Doesn't It Seem To You...
2 There's No Prettier Blossom
3 I'm Happy
4 Charming Girl
5 Aman Yar
6 Spring Song
7 Always With Me
8 Thrushes
9 Quickly, Quickly
10 I'll Find You
11 Mexico

Friday, 14 October 2022

Vodograi - "Водограй" (Мелодия – 33 С60-09399-400) 1978


Its a shame that we are going to be deprived of the Russian entry in the next Eurovision Song Contest. Held in the lively Ukrainian town of...Liverpool(?) substituting Kiev, for obvious reasons? However we will have another fine Ukrainian entry to make us all wonder if we're on the wrong side in this increasingly pointless war....er...i mean, Special Military Operation. The horrible winning entry earlier this year, was from.....you guessed it....Ukraine! An awful amalgam of Eastern European sub-hip hop with clothes resembling a car crash between The Black Eyed Peas and Teletubbies' Fuzzy Felt chic...with added Rapping...or raping if you're a Russian 'soldier'.
It got the sympathy vote of course, and cost the UK their first Euro-win since all the former Soviet republics were admitted in 1991.
So to compensate here's another Soviet Ukrainian attempt at cold war entertainment from groovy commie combo ,Vodograi.
This type of break-beat laden cheesy listening got me through the nineties (hard times musically),allowing a humanitarian corridor through all that 'orrible house crap leading to many a chill-out oasis in the depressing clubs and repurposed discotheques of local clubland.
The singing may empty an already empty room of all it's sub-atomic particles, but these cheesy grooves could even get a legless Russian Special Military Operation veteran dancing till his stumps bleed. Spelling out "Thanks Mr Putin" in his blood while swaying Ironically to the heartfelt and jawdroppingly unironic ballad called "For The Motherland".Ahh, the unbridled joys of Nationalism.

Tracklist:

1 Запроси До Танцю = Invite Me To Dance
2 Незване Моє Кохання = My Unexpected Beloved
3 Дiвчина Мила = Darling Girl
4 Путешествие = Journey
5 Несла Дiвчина Воду = Once A Girl Was Carrying Water
6 Тебе Назло = Just To Spite You
8 Вишневый Рассвет = Cherry-red Daw
9 Воспоминание = Memory
10 Родине = For Motherland
11 Голубой Вагон (Музыкальная Шутка) = Blue Car (Musical Joke)


Thursday, 13 October 2022

Vizerunki Shlyakhiv - "Візерунки Шляхів" (Меlodia – С60-06699-700) 1976


Funky Vizerunki Shlyakhiv was a folky,funky,but very latin sounding, 'Ukrainian vocal-instrumental ensemble',as described in Soviet newspeak, from the lovely city of Kyiv,.....yeah that place we now know is pronounced 'Keev' rather than 'Key-Ev', since they kicked the butt of the Russian invading force/farce earlier this year.
Dunno if any of Vizerunki Shlyakhiv took out any tanks,but they seem to resemble a bunch of handy chaps with State approved Flares to match.I have no doubt that these swarthy Slavs know the right end of a Panzerfaust 3 and how to use it.
There's a Ukrainian Folk tilt given to some of these smoking workouts that would please the local communist commissar bastard,backed up with a song about local commie hero Shcors to ensure no-one got sent for re-education in a Siberian gulag anytime soon.
State Label Melodia has rarely been cooler....which isn't saying much.Unless its referring to temperature of course.

Tracklist:

1. Пісня Про Щорса / Song About Shchors
2. Камінь Сонця / The Sunny Stone
3. Я Люблю Твої Тихі Затоки / I Love Your Backwaters
4. Гуахіра / Guahira
5. Коло Млина Калина / A Guelder Rose Grows By The Mill
6. Марійка / Mariyka
7. Весна I Ти / You And Spring
8. Била Мене Мати / My Mother Beat Me


Wednesday, 12 October 2022

Various Artists - "Soviet Ukrainian Funk" (Goat Goat Grooves – GG02) 2015


Steaming Hot Cold War Caucasian Jazzy funk from the Caucasus Back from the days before every Ukrainian band was a metal act,and Vladimir Putin was a joyless Stasi clerk Twat in Dresden. They were secretly Funky Mo-fo's;but,Funky as in Elevator's,libraries, and shopping centres, but nonetheless Funky.
Rather than try to work out whether these hieroglyphically named Soviet era musicians were actually Unkrainian and not Russian, or more commonly when it comes to music, Estonian.Here is a handy mixtape that has done the hard work for us,concentrating solely on our Ukrainian chums,gettin' the groove on, albeit in a TV cop-show library music kind of way,from the 70's and 80's.
Just to make it even more amusing for us Anglo-Saxon types, I have translated the Ukrainian tracklist into Chinese restaurant English,giving us such titles as "Let me, father, at the wedding","Oh, I will throw a beech on the pit", and the probably illegal in CCCP..."You Smiled?".
The Vladikavkaz peoples ministry of democratic Funk released a statement back in 1975 forwarded to the British gutter press:
"You Anglo-Saxon Western Pigdogs think you have a monopoly on 'The Funk'don't you with your arrogance? Well,we morose Eastern fuckers have got the funky rhythms too,bigger and better funky sheet than your capitalist freedoms could ever hope to equal.You have this James Brown agent, we have Nazariy Yaremchuk, you have zis secret Bootsy Collins weapon, we have Tatyana Kochergina, and Nile Rogers is no Yuri Bogatykov by any stretch of your western propganda's imagination.Directly as we speak,the Sofiya Rotaru Ensemble have been super-glued to a nuclear missile and sent to our Moon to perform a seriously funky version of her 'Hero of the Democratic Socialist Peoples Republic' award winning number "Ballad of two violins".We have fully loaded Kalashnikov's that say we're funkier than you,and are prepares to use everything at our disposals to prove it....we are NOT bluffinks!
Thank you for your time....what you have left, that is."
Back in the day,these records were the go-to place to find obscure beatz to sample the fuck out of. Luckily I have a couple of these, courtesy of the Ultima Thule record shop bargain bin section in the mid-nineties.....comin' up. 


Tracklist:

SIDE A:

Intro - MC Alex Pervin (aka Sahlim Quick)

01. Viburnum - Three trembitas
02. Nazariy Yaremchuk - Ozovysya
03. Arnika - Let me, father, at the wedding
04. Sofiya Rotaru - "Chervona Ruta" - Ballad of two violins
05. Kobza - Vodogray
06. Smerichka - Vodogray
07. Ensemble "Vodogray" - Three trembitas
08. Sofiya Rotaru,"Chervona Ruta"-Pisnya will be a part of us
09. Smerichka - Two Rings
10. Sofiya Rotaru, ensemble "Chervona Ruta" - Fairy Tale
11. Kobza - Na Ivana Kupala
12. Sofiya Rotaru, ensemble "Chervona Ruta" - Two rings
13. Nazariy Yaremchuk - You smiled?
14. Kobza - Oh, I will throw a beech on the pit
15. Kobza - Dudaryk
16. Nazariy Yaremchuk - When the blue mountains fell asleep

SIDE B:

Intro - MC Alex Pervin (aka Sahlim Quick)

01. Tatyana Kochergina - Play, Violin, Play (cut)
02. Patterns of the Ways - Circle of the Kalina Mill
03. Vodogray - Maiden Mila
04. Kobza - Wait
05. Arnika - Spring (fragment)
06. Vatra - How I Slept on the Seine
07. Arnica - How I Slept on the Seine
08. Vodogray - Puteshestvye
09. Kobza - Ishov Kobzar Clean Field
10. Vodogray - Vospominanie
11. Patterns of the Paths - Guajira
12. Yuri Bogatykov - Quiet Water
13. Arnika - Silver Ships
14. Vatra - Verkhovyna Lullaby
15. Arnika - Lviv Evening

Tuesday, 11 October 2022

Various Artists – "Music Of The Ukraine" (Ethnic Folkways Library – FE 4443) 1951


Its got sleeve art like a Swans album,adorned with a black and white photo of what appears to be soviet Ukrainian relatives of Blitz era Spandau Ballet,yet it sounds like the soundtrack to "O'Brother Where Art Thou? 2", and showcases a glaring error, much repeated by us ignorant Westerners, referring to Ukraine as 'THE' Ukraine....It's just 'Ukraine' in fact, no 'THE' involved,or,indeed, needed.
There must have been a sizable influx of Ukrainians ,fleeing pogroms or revolution to the Appalachians in the first half of the 20th century,as this Ukrainian Folk could easily be some weird bluegrass from Harry Smith's anthology of American Folk. It's just lacking a few Toothless Donbas Dumbass Hillbillies,or some moonshine damaged hick called Blind Lemon Shevchenko dueling balalaika's and banjo's with Dock Boggs. There was certainly no British folk that sounded like this anyhow......not enough senseless slaughter going on in those sceptered isles it seemed, at least up until the potato famine that is; after which the terrors of Irish pixie dancing music were deliberately exported to the fledgling USA by the British governments attempt to starve Irish Dancing out of the empire for good.....then Michael Flatley happened and now its too late to do a Potato Famine two....we're stuck with it!
I'm struggling to locate any contemporary Ukrainian music that isn't generic and western via Moscow leaning.....but this shits weird! Get it before Putin erases the tapes and removed anything vaguely Ukrainian from the planet,while moaning about 'Cancel Culture'. Betraying a very well hidden literary intellect, this jawless,joyless, dwarf,intellectually and physically,desperately accuses the British Government of trying to cancel Harry Potter! That bunch of twerps are responsible for many things, but tragically not cancelling all things J.K.Rowling.They couldn't even get that right!? I honestly despair of them. Tax cuts for the Rich funded by eye watering borrowing requirements,and sweeping welfare cuts for the poor,yet they don't have the balls to cancel Harry Potter!??? What is this world coming to?.......a heavily irradiated ending it seems?.....but at least Harry Potter will cease to exist along with the rest of us? Happily there's a bright side before the Electromagnetic wave of thermonuclear destruction wipes all hard drives and all data that proved we ever existed......but if those who inherit humanities position as super selfish food chain toppers,and string two extra brain cells together, ever find an intact copy of "Music Of Ukraine" hidden in a lead lined nook somewhere....with a record player of course? Then they are gonna have a funny idea that there may have been a mysterious civilization who, once upon a time, left this molten highly radioactive landscape to the next bunch of self-destructive morons.
Just like those mysterious chaps on Easter Island...what was going on there then?

Tracklist:

1. Gutsul Kolomyika Dance-Song – Oleska Suyhodolyak With Bagpipe Acc.
2. Kozachok Dance-Song – Ivan Martishchuk With Bagpipe Acc.
3. Huculka Dance – Carpatho Ukrainian Village Orchestra
4. Country Dances – Carpatho Ukrainian Village Orchestra
5. Wedding Melodies – Hutsul Ensemble Of Folk Musicians
6. Hutsulka And Kozachok Dances – Hutsul Ensemble Of Folk Musicians
7. Folk Song - The Wind From The Field
8. Folk Song - One Half Of The Garden Blossoms


Monday, 1 June 2020

Clara Rockmore ‎– "The Art Of The Theremin" (Delos ‎– DEL 25437) 1977


The first electronic instrument was ,of course, the Theremin, as created by Russian inventor,and Stalin Prize winner, Léon Theremin in 1920.Originally he called it by the less egocentric titleage of "The ætherphone", which I kinda like? A musical instrument for the modern era, as it involves no physical contact,and is therefore free of viral transmission drawbacks.It was also the result of Soviet sponsored research into proximity detectors....so electronic music is another thing we have to thank Communism for it seems?
Theremin also invented the drum machine, before he inadvisedly returned to the USSR in 1938.....some say he was kidnapped by the NKVD, which would explain a lot.
Anyhow, he had a glad eye for the ladies, and despite being turned down for marriage several times by the Lithuanian object of his desires, Clara Reisenberg became his Theremin virtuoso prodigy,and proceeded to tour america from coast to coast hulking her clumsy theremin around with her during the 1930's. She married into money,hence the Rockmore name, and continued pumping out a bunch of wobbly creepy classics to the public for fifty years or so,finally getting into a recording studio by 1977....et voila....this album was released.'Haunting' is the adjective frequently used when the Theremin is involved,and by jiminy it certainly is.Interpreting classical works by Rachmaninov, Stravinsky, and Tchaicovsky....in fact anyone russian it seems, in that spooky portamento style that is the trademark of the Etherphone.Clara Rockmore, although not a musical innovator herself as such, was indeed, the First Lady of Electronic music.
Apart from inventing the Drum Machine, Theremin's other talents included a fancy line in espionage and spying equipment,my favourite being 'The Thing',which was a listening device hidden in a replica of the Great Seal of the United States carved in wood. In 1945, Soviet school children presented the concealed bug to the U.S. Ambassador as a "gesture of friendship" to the USSR's World War II ally. It hung in the ambassador’s residential office in Moscow and intercepted confidential conversations there during the first seven years of the Cold War, until it was accidentally discovered in 1952.
Nice one Leon.

Tracklist:

1.Vocalise 3:46
2.Song Of Grusia 4:16
3.The Swan 2:56
4.Pantomime 3:45
5.Hebrew Melody 5:23
6.Romance 4:47
7.Berceuse 3:08
8.Habanera 2:42
9.Berceuse 4:14
10.Valse Sentimentale 2:06
11.Sérénade Mélancolique 7:39
12.Chant Du Ménestrel 3:58


Wednesday, 13 November 2019

Кола Бельды / Kola Beldy ‎– "Белый Остров / White Island" (Мелодия ‎– С60 27841 007) 1989


Never really been a big fan of ethnic,slash,'world' music......I blame Peter Gabriel for that, and all those  middle class Womad festival fans, whose very existence seems to remove any point in making,writing about, or listening to music at all. The very thought of millionaire urban folkies exploiting the impoverished musicians of a third world country to win a 'Grammy' for their theft, makes me wanna bash my own brains in. Specifically, I'm thinking Paul Simon here.....what a bastard he was/is!?
High in the 'Bastard' stakes, along with Simon, is Coca-Cola, but replace the 'C' with a 'K' and we get super-bizarre Nanai tribe member and trad folk singer Kola Beldy.
In 1986 he was awarded the title of 'Meritorious Artist of the RSFSR' (Russian Soviet Federative Socialist republic!?);we've all got one of those.....haven't we???He had a number of Soviet-era permfrost themed hits, most famously with the top ten smash,  "I will take you to the tundra", hmmmm yes please???......you don't get hits with titles like that in the UK.....well....I suppose we did have "Snooker Loopy",which you sure as hell wouldn't find in the Soviet Charts of the time.You wouldn't think that Chas,of Chas'n'Dave, was in Gene Vincent's backing band in the early sixties now would you?

The awards kept coming for Kola,winning "Award no.2"(that's the name of the award NOT his second award!) at the 'Sopot International Song Festival' in 1973....what "Award no.1" was, and who won it,remains a closely gaurded state secret to this day.
This album, has any number of bizarre sounds augmenting Kola's ethno-operatic fusion,which adds greatly to its score on the 'weird' scale.Certainly one for the coveted 'Other' section in the record shop.
Luckily, politics and common sense stopped Paul Simon from making a 'collaboration' with Mr Beldy, and just good luck saved him from Peter Gabriel's insidious clutches.The Iron Curtain had its uses after all?

Tracklist:

1 White Island (Saami Song)
2 Master Of Forest (Mansi Song)
3 A Seagull (Dolgan Song)
4 Return Home (Chukchi Song)
5 To The Ocean (Yukagir Song)
6 A Hunter (Evenki Song)
7 Fisher-woman (Evenki Song)
8 Holiday (Eskimo Song)
9 By Dog Sledge (Hanti Song)
10 My Darling (Hanti Song)
11 Greeting (Ulchi Song)
12 Strange Girls (Nanai Song)
13 Kmali Chinekh (Itelmen Song)
14 Emaron Island (Nanai Song)
15 Toasting Song (Yakutian Song)
16 Snowy Tundra (Saami Song)
17 My Little Reindeer (Evenki Song)
18 Fisher's Song (Nanai Song)


Tuesday, 12 November 2019

Дос-Мукасан / Dos-Mukasan - "Дос-Мукасан" (Мелодия ‎– С60-07677-8) 1976



Freaky Psychedelic combo's from Kazakhstan didn't need long hair,beads and lashings of LSD 25, to make weird as fuck music. In a land remote enough from Moscow for nuclear testing, the wastelands around the townships were littered with the carcasses of  space junk and failed missle tests.The river behind the band in the album cover swhot was likely highly radioactive or lifeless from chemical spillages further upstream. Large swathes were uninhabitable, poisoned by disgarded rocket fuel, by the time Borats' homeland became independant.Perhaps it was the copious amount of chemicals splashed around the habitats of a seemingly expendable people that ,once ingested, created a drug strong enough for Dos-Mukasan to dress in those way-out uniforms;or was that the standard issue for the Kazaki space programe?
Listening to track one "A Hungry Steppe", this bunch of crazy kids didn't need no rocket to get into orbit, just give them some musical instruments and they'll take us all there.
Trouble is that by track 4 we're splashing down in the Caspian sea again,firmly back on liquid Earth.
Apparently this is thee most saught after Melodiya album by record collecting nutjobs,and I can see why. Certainly the opening track is funky enough to have been 'discovered' by unnamed trendsetting DJ's at certain cheese obsessed night clubs in London; but the ethic psychedelic prog fusion is a heady enough mixture to power anyone's personal rocket.Dispite its inconsistancy it's a weird as fuck(Shit! Did i say that twice!?),and will certainly impress your more pretentious chums into asking you what that music is....then your 'cool' is in severe jeopardy once you try to pronounce it!.....don't ask me i'm as clueless as your pretentious friends.

Tracklist:

A1 Бетпак Дала = A Hungry Steppe 7:35
A2 Ахау Бикем = Magnificent Girl 3:58
A3 Аяулым = My Gentle 4:54
A4 Ляйлым шырак = Dear Leilym 2:05
B1 Туган Жер = Motherland 4:40
B2 16 Кыз = 16 Girls 2:57
B3 Куа Бол = Be A Witness Of My Love 4:11
B4 Сулу Кыз = Beautiful Girl 3:17
B5 Куанышым Меным = My Joy 2:55


Monday, 11 November 2019

Фирюза/Firyuza ‎– Фирюза/Firyuza (Мелодия ‎– C60-13215-16) 1979



More from Funk capital of the USSR ,Ashkhabad,Turkmenistan. From the time before Life-President Saparmurat Niyazov took over and banned everything,but not before he renamed 'Bread' after his mother.I dunno if he tried to rename the David Gates soft rock combo 'Bread' also after his mummy,or tried to get his sister in on the act?
However,Firyuza was a Turkmenian ethnic/prog/jazz/fusion instrumental band, founded in 1979.They won the coverted first prize at The Sixth All-Union Entertainers Competition in Leningrad, thus gaining the privilege of an album release on distinctly ungroovy state label Melodiya.And its as good as their wild image on the front cover.Heavy on the use of the fiddle,it sounds not unlike a mixture of The Dirty Three,the Dirty Harry soundtrack, and the less dirty, Mahavishnu Orchestra.
I notice that Melodiya didn't release a second album,or maybe it was that they were imprisoned by Turkmenistan's de facto dictator and were never seen again?
Great Image, Great music.


Tracklisting:

A1. Ashkhabad
A2. "Kray Rodnoy" Native Land
B1. Chapycsuar
B2. "Dialog V Aule" Dialogue In The Village


Saturday, 9 November 2019

Гунеш = "Gunesh" Ensemble* ‎– Вижу Землю (I See Earth)" (Мелодия ‎– C60 21197 007) 1984



In a country in which Opera,Ballet and Circus's were banned for 'not being Turkmen enough',I doubt the sophisticated Jazz Fusion of the Gunesh Ensemble would have been too popular with Turkmenistan's dictator and self-declared president for life 
Saparmurat Niyazov. Released ,on Soviet state label Melodija, just before Niyazov took absolute power in 1985,I don't think the great man would have been tapping his feet to the syncopated rhythms of this funky combo.Which would explain why they 'disappeared' shortly after Niyazov ascended to the throne of supreme ruler.
A regime rivaling North Korea in its madness, the life President even had all the months and days of the week renamed with the Turkmen national symbols, as described in his autobiography the 'Ruhnama',which was compulsory reading for all citizens,who were regularly tested on its contents.He also had the word for Bread changed to his mothers name,and banned dogs!This album should have been called "I Rename Earth after myself".They don't make 'em like this anymore!?As one of the world's most totalitarian, despotic and repressive dictators. He promoted a cult of personality around himself which left little room for such groovy pop ensembles as Ganesh.So I dread to think what happened to the upwards of sixty various members of this ensemble over the years? Hopefully they escaped to Russia which looked like a democratic utopia in comparison to the land of the Turkmen.
Dig thosz 'fro's.....I don't phink da president like you very much boyz!?

Tracklist:

A1 Байконур = Baikonur 5:02
A2 Бу Дерды = Bu Derdy 7:44
A3 Восточный Экспресс = Oriental Express 3:32
B1 Ритмы Кавказа = Rhythms Of The Caucasus 8:25
B2 Ветер С Берегов Ганга = Wind From The Gang 4:32
B3 Вьетнамские Фрески = Vietnamese Frescoes 4:20


Friday, 8 November 2019

Menuets ‎– "Dzeguzes Balss" (Мелодия ‎– С60-11303-4) 1979




Soviet Prog recordings on the terminally uncool state label Melodija,could always be relied upon to have some amusing sleeve notes, and this prog classic is no exception.
And I quote....:

"Amidst cars, engines and girls
Feeling cold on street corners
Amidst roaring, growling, whistling-
Is it raving or a hello-
the call of cuckoo."

Poet Māris Čaklais and composer Imants Kalniņš pose this question in
the title-song. Well, yes, what is this "call of cuckoo" in our noisy and impetuous age! And what is Menuet?
The leader of this amateur pop group Jānis Blūms says that Menuet means four guys from Jūrmala. Right! If four students from the Jūrmala high school No 4 - brothers Alberts and Raimonds, Bartaševičs as well as Adrians Kukuvass and Juris Sējāns - had not in 1968 set up their group, there would be no Menuet today. Then, also, it would hardly have survived to this day without participation in the TV contest "Show Your Skill" in 1969 when Jānis Blūms undertook the management of the group. There would also be no Menuet without the other musicians - Inese Paberza, Baiba Sejane, Juris Ulakovs, Leons Sējāns.Or without rehearsals, competitions, festivals and many other things.But first of all the Menuet we know and admire has come alive due to soft rock songs by Imants Kalniņš."


Well,I couldn't have written anything better myself!? I for one would love to see the rest of the acts on "Show Your Skill", but it seems no clips exist!? Like the BBC did regularly in the sixties,Soviet State Television likely erased everything immeadiately after broadcast. So now we are deprived of that Cossack Ventriloquist,Boris the Whistling assembly line operative,Vladimir the Dancing Coal Miner, and that essential soviet accessory,the Kulak impressionist,who did an uncannily accurate Ronald Reagan.
This Latvian prog group that emerged out of Jūrmala high school No 4 back in '68,thanks to sucess on "Show Your Skill",managed to make this rather operatic style prog classic ten years later.
And NO the title doesn't translate as "Disguise your Balls"!!!!?
However,one must recommend the closing ,and snappily titled "Raganas Dziesmiņa Pēc Sprieduma Pasludināšanas", as being very good indeed....especially for an 'Amateur Pop Group'.Very skilful.


Tracklist:

A1 Dziesmiņa Dziedama Pusčetros No Rīta
A2 Viņi Dejoja Vienu Vasaru
A3 Dzeguzes Balss
A4 Septiņas Skumjas Zvaigznes
B1 Piedod, Piedod, Piedod Man!
B2 Dziesma Par Florīdas Smiltīm
B3 Dziesmiņa Par To Gadījumu Ar Džordāno Bruno
B4 Raganas Dziesmiņa Pēc Sprieduma Pasludināšanas

Thursday, 7 November 2019

Various Artists ‎– "Red Wave — 4 Underground Bands From The USSR" (SNC Records ‎– SNC 4018) 1986



Awwwww, bless 'em.
If you had grown up in the political equivalent of a cupboard you'd make music like this too.
Assembled from the snippets of information assimilated from the west,primarily Zer Beatles and blue jeans, somehow the underground bands from the USSR managed to all sound like inoffensive post-new wave antipodean hitmakers 'Men At Work'.
One does have a regular fantasy about how good it would be ,creatively, if one could be isolated from the various advancements, or regressions, in the musical/art world.Free from the oppression of what is cool, and what is acceptable.
The reality is,after your isolation, one ends up, somehow, as an inferior version of Men At Work!!!
It seems that originality doesn't come from the abscence of influence,but sprouts naturally from informed plagarism.The default position seems to be a forgettable blank space.....return to factory settings.
So the moral of this story is,don't bother making any art,genuine 'Outsider's' excepted,unless you know your art history.Knowing what NOT to do is, as,if not more, important than knowing what to do.That what is not!A kind of limited unlearning is the way,as long as you don't erase the parts of history that should not be repeated, like Genocide, and ...well....Men At Work????

Tracklist:

1 –Aquarium - Ashes 3:10
2 –Aquarium - Tonight 4:35
3 –Aquarium - Dance On The Edge Of The Spring 4:22
4 –Aquarium - The Thirst 3:52
5 –Aquarium - Dreams Of Something Bigger 4:27
6 –Kino - Saw A Night 3:00
7 –Kino - Films 3:27
8 –Kino - City 3:43
9 –Kino - Wake Up (It's Love) 2:47
10 –Kino - Streetcar Headed East 2:23
11 –Alisa - Experimentator 4:25
12 –Alisa - We're Together 2:37
13 –Alisa - Dr. Boogie 3:43
14 –Alisa - Bad Boy 3:15
15 –Alisa - Juice Squeezer 3:10
16 –Alisa - Come On Me 4:55
17 –Strange Games - Metamorphoses 2:30
18 –Strange Games - Chorovod Song 3:50
19 –Strange Games - No Telephone 2:45
20 –Strange Games - Egocentrism 4:20
21 –Strange Games - If You Think 3:15


Wednesday, 6 November 2019

Various Artists - "Soviet Synth Wave Vol. 3" (2019)


Having lived my young adulthood throughout the 1980's, and am now listening to the pain that my compatriots in the Soviet Union had to endure behind that silly ol' Iron Curtain thingy, I can now fully appreciate how fucking WEIRD pop music was between 1983 and 1989.
Of course at the time I hated all this shit,and could look down on it all because I liked Coil,Einsturzende Neubauten and The Birthday Party,....what a twat was I?
Secretly to myself, I thought that a Flock of Seagulls, Classix Nouveaux, Japan, Simple Minds and the like were rather marvellous. All this stuff sounded even more ridiculous in the 90's when 'real' drummers made a come back,and guitars were played properly again......how fucking boring was that shit? Especially that ridiculous Brit-Pop torture.
Well, you know how kids start listening to music via their parents record collections?.....it was jaw dropping to hear teenagers playing 80's Futurist pop in the early 2000's. It all goes round in circles they say....well they're correct....whoever 'they' are,but 'they' are apparently genius's.,or geni?
Like Punk never happened 'They' said, but this stuff was a direct result of the 'Punk' ethic.....in other words it was 'Punk',but weirder.
Amid the massive gated snares, Simmons electronic kits, digital synthesis,cavernous reverbs,warbley vocals and fretless basses lay something beyond normal comprehension,something genuinely weird....how did it come to this.How did Kajagoogoo happen?
Luckily for any English speaker,listening to this Soviet Wave stuff,the truly terrible lyrics that came with the package are incomprehensible.Something that made the Western Futurists harder to listen to or take seriously.
Simon Le Bon being the new romantic laureat of terrible poetry......"You're just about as easy as a Nuclear War" said the Bard of Brum.
Its no coincidence that Duran Duran were formed not too far from the birthplace of William Shakespeare, the worlds most famous West Midlander,followed by the next most famous West midlanders,Duran Duran;just pipping Black Sabbath,Slade,and half of Led Zeppelin for second place.
Yep,prepare yourself, Duran's debut album was a truly great record!?

Tracklisting:

01.
Rock-September "Discorobot"(1982)
02.
The Time Machine "He was one of the first"(1983)
03.
The doctor "The moon in the sky..." (1985)
04.
The airport "To stay children"(1984)
05.
Activity zone "I fly like a fireball" (1986)
06.
The Model "Again 25"(1987)
07.
Edward Artemiev "Picture No. 7"(1978)
08.
Ubermannequin "Nightporter"(1987)
09.
Michail Muromov "The Earth will return in May"(1985)
10.
Dynamic "The light of your windows"(1984)
11.
Rondo "Ring off"(1986)
12.
Igor Talkov "Lifebelt"(1989)
13.
The class "Great!" (1989)
14.
Boris Deart "Ecology" (1991)

Tuesday, 5 November 2019

Various Artists - "Soviet Synth Wave Volume Two " (2019)



Like a wave of electronic tanks sweeping across the Kursk salient,pushing aside the far superior German Synth wave, the Soviet synth forces ejected the inovative manoeuvres of the Neue Deutsche Welle,and ignored the East German equivalent, to produce an unstoppable tsunami of eurovision contest inspired electro-schlager.
They cleared their territory of the invaders,and like the aftermath of actual Battle of the Kursk, the Russian forces stopped at the Elbe,leaving the west to their over-rated qualities of good taste,free speech and fashion sense. Dooming this wave of incredibly naff nonsense to fester in the gulag of iron curtain pop,until now.
These communist electro-protagnoists found it very difficult to avoid the stomping beat of Cossack culture,best demonstrated by the opening track,which sounds like both a kids action TV series about our Cossack chums, and a winning entry at Eurovision in 1994.
Back in the eighties there used to be a male vanity product called 'Cossack', which was basically,hairspray for men.......no it wasn't a popper for fucks sake, I said Hairspray!
Presumably, it didn't work on womens hair?
I did,however, use Cossack to maintain my Sidney Vicious hairstyle,even though it cost more than ladies hairspray, to avoid embarassment.
I'm told that Sid was also a 'Cossack' man?
Check out this advert for this classic male grooming product,which inevitably involves a bloke,dressed as a Cossack of course, on a horse, kidnapping a young blonde lady,for what reason I shudder to imagine!(Click Here)

Tracklisting:

1-The Cossack Song -Sector Gaza
2-Nautilus - The Nentre
3-I Haven't Noticed - Theatre
4-The Telephone - Primus
5-Давайте созвонимся! (Lets Call Up) - Forum
6-Going Crazy - The Electro Club
7-B2 - Argo
8-Anything You Want - Technology
9-Simple Words - Arrival
10-The Time Calls Me - NRG
11-Surrealism - Goodbye Youth
12-Romantic Express - New Collection
13-The Robot - Interview
14-The Aesthete - Bioconstructor

DOWNLOAD some wave surfing ussr HERE!

Sunday, 3 November 2019

Various Artists - "Soviet Synth Wave Volume One (1980-88)" (2019)


The Soviet approach to making pop music was very similar to their apprach to architecture,as featured on the accompanying photo with this compilation. Brutal,formulaic,structually unsound ,with humans reduced to nothing more than an after-thought. There are no Yazoo's, Pet Shop Boys,or Gary Numanski's on here, just a jumble sale of imported music tech let loose in the hands of young(the 35-45 demographic) socialists with little or no idea of how to write a catchy tune......sounds good huh?
This all sounds like a whole music culture based on catching a brief snippit from a western radio transmission of a post Vince Clark Depeche Mode tune,merged with a three second snatch of a Classix Nouveaux track.
However, the Mumii Troll track is a urainium tipped classic.
Yep, leave the timeless electro-pop hits to those pale eye-liner wearing English Kids, and leave the Russians to do what they do best.....clearing a room.

Track Listing:

01. Alisa - Experimentator (1984)
02. Nautilus Pompilius - Eta muzyka (1985)
03. Nochnoi Prospect - Ansambli (1986)
04. Nikolai Kopernik - Liudi mira (1985)
05. Alians - Govoriashchaia golova (1984)
06. Agata Kristi - Vtoroi front (1988)
07. Mirazh - Okolo polunochi (1987)
08. Kino - Poslednii geroi (1985)
09. Televizor - Chelovek iz vaty (1985)
10. Zvuki Mu - Yezhednevnyi geroi (1987)
11. Mumii Troll - Saionara diska (1987)
12. Avia - Urok russkogo yazyka, par (1986)
13. Pop-kombinat - Telefonnyi robot (1987)
14. Zodiak - Zodiak (1980)

DOWNLOAD these dancefloor emptiers HERE!

Sunday, 13 October 2019

Jaan Rääts ‎– "Marginaalid" (Мелодия ‎– C10-16031-2) 1981


You're never more than a few feet away from a Rääts, so they reckon.
Indeed, there's a classical composer hiding out in every kitchen,especially in Estonia it seems.
Nearly every decent experimental composer in the former Soviet Union seemed to come from this gloomy Baltic state....which explains a lot of the music's famed bleakness.
In comparison to Rääts multitudinous other works, side B is positively joyful.Thanks to the influence of much younger chum Sven Grünberg, formerly of prog band 'Mess', who lent him his synth collection,and played on it.
Side A is a typically uber-heavy Jaan Rääts style experimental neo classical piano piece.A pity he didn't do two sides of experimental electronica,but, hey,at least we get to be thought of as 'Intellectual' when we're overheard playing "24 Marginal Notes For The Piano".......once!

Tracklist:

A 24 Marginal Notes For The Piano, Op. 65 (28:27)
B Electronic Marginalia, Op.65-a
Featuring [Electronic Realization] – Jaan Rääts, Sven Grünberg (22:07)


Saturday, 12 October 2019

Erkki-Sven Tüür ‎– "Oratorio Ante Finem Saeculi / Symphony No. 2" (Мелодия ‎– C10 27187 009) 1988


Not many ex-prog rockers got to work with the USSR State Symphony Orchestra Of The Ministry Of Culture (on tracks: B1, B2), but Erkki-Sven managed to get given the nod.There's nothing the USSR's Ministry of Culture would like more than one of the Soviet Unions youngsters getting into writing the odd symphony,so Erkki leaving his degenerate past behind in favour of neo-classical compostion would score him plenty of privileges;one being access to their rich depth of classical musicians and the use of the odd Symphony Orchestra.
On side A he only has the use of the Estonian Symphony Orchestra and the Estonian Philharmonic Oratorio Choir to get his ideas across.
There's a bit of the 'Omen' soundtrack about it, think Jerry Goldsmith, and probably some Bartok and Stravinsky influences?
Whatever, its rather brilliantly bleak and creepy.A horror movie soundtrack in the waiting......if it hasn't been used already?
Would have been better released as In Spe's third eponomously titled Magma influenced album in my opinion.It did get him signed to ECM after the wall came down, so here a career maketh.

Tracklist:
Oratorio "Ante Finem Saeculi" (1985) (for soloists, mixed choir and orchestra)
A1 Tempus I
A2 Tempus II
A3 Tempus III
A4 Tempus IV 


Symphony No. 2 (1986-87) (for symphony orchestra and tape)
B1 Vision
B2 Process


Friday, 11 October 2019

In Spe ‎– "In Spe" (Мелодия ‎– C60 23199 000) 1985


In Spe's second album had the same eponymous title as their first,which is a tad confusing,but it can add to sales as its possible to buy the wrong album, then buy the other to rectify your glaring error. It was a popular tactic for Peter Gabriel's solo work,and even The Plastic Ono Band's debut, which had two versions each by John and Yoko respectively, that had the same title and the same cover(with subtle differences).
The main man from the first 'In Spe' album, Erkki-Sven Tüür,had left to persue a career of artistic fulfillment as a proper neo-classical composer. So the remaining members had to try and do a crash course in neo-classical prog.Which to a large extent they achieved,despite the dodgy concept of the Typewriter as part of a concerto...in 'D'!?..whether that was the letter 'D',or the sound of the machine was in 'D', or if there even is a 'D' on a Russian cyrillic keyboard,its not explained.What is sure,however, is that they were never heard of again......read into that what you may.

Tracklist:

Концерт Для Пишущей Машинки Ре Мажор/
Typewriter Concerto in D

A.1 Allegro Vivace E Marcato 5:45
A.2 Largo Molto Tranquillo 6:10
A.3 Allegro Agitato 5:27
A.4 Finale 0:50
B1 Ощущение Вечности 6:03
B2 Рондо Сломанной Руки 4:34
B3 Не Будет Предано Забвению 3:48
B4 Vallis Mariae 3:30

Wednesday, 9 October 2019

In Spe ‎– "In Spe" (Мелодия ‎– С60 19367 001) 1983


More Estonian Prog, with leanings towards the Neo-Classical trend of Estonian modern composition that augmented the record collections of many a social climber in the nineties;filed next to 'Le Mystère Des Voix Bulgares' and Arvo Pärt's 'Tabula Rasa'.
In Spe contained one Erkki-Sven Tüür as composer-in-chief.Later to be seen hob-nobbing with all those serious chaps on ECM. Was even pretentious enough to use the word 'Symphony' in the titles of his neo-classical outings,including the opening suite on side one.
All that aside, this is a classic of Estonian prog, and may even be the best symphonic prog album to come out of the Soviet Union.

Tracklist:

1.Симфония для семи исполнителей/Sümfoonia seitsmele esitajale/Symphony For Seven Performers

1a Ostium 4:27
1b Illuminatio 6:35
1c Mare Vitreum 8:30
2.Antidolorosum 4:47
3.Солнечный челн 9:00
4.Борьба сфер 7:20