Coming up for Air---Terrarium---Пятиугольный Грех (Pentagonal Sin)--Boris Grebenshikov's Ambitious Psychedelic Classic!

I've been listening to Terrarium, a Boris Grebenshikov project, whose only album is Пятиугольный Грех, seeming translated as Pentagonal Sin. Boris is from the legendary group Aquarium one of the first underground groups that appeared during the Soviet era.

Though I really am enjoying this album, I just realized now that this was recorded in 2000, and not 1976. In the back of my head I was wondering how an album of this quality and sophistication like this could have been recorded back then. I have my answer now, because it was not.



I would say it is inspired by 60's music however, and more than a little wacky. I've heard the album described as a Russian Sergeant Pepper, which I feel is a little cookie cutter. There are a lot of disparate things thrown into the mix here. Despite this, Пятиугольный Грех has the feel of a concept album--it may or may not be, but there appears to be a lot of coherence to the album as a whole.The fact that it was recorded in 2000 may explain why I was looking at this a little differently. If this had been recorded 20 or 30 years earlier, I would be hailing this as an eccentric masterpiece. Don't get me wrong, this is an excellent album that is consistently entertaining. The fact that all these disparate influences seem to fit together so seamlessly is a testament to the musician involved here.

The first song on the album Январский Романс (January Romance) sounds more like something from Gilberto Gil than Lennon-McCartney, like Russian Tropicalia. Электрическая Птица, or Electric Bird has a middle eastern with balalaika flavor to it plus a female choir and what almost sounds like an attempt at Tuvan throat singing with a passage of Jew's Harp. Excellent!



On the other hand Зоя И Соня (Zoe and Sonia) has a bit of a Tom Petty vibe to it. The album is filled with odd touches, birds chirping, alarms clocks going off, eccentric noises. There is an irreverent sort of fun that I associate with the proceedings. Even География, though it does contain the Penny Lane style horns you find in places on the album, has a patriotic martial feel to it. You can associate a lot of things here beyond the Beatles, though certainly Вести С Огорода (Lead from the Vegetable Garden) is pretty much Beatles/Syd Barrett fare. And Не Синхрон (Don't Bite) is full of George Harrison styled guitar leads. On the other hand, Китайцы Не Хотят (The Chinese Don't Want) has a Latin vibe to it, and Моллой Пришел is clearly a stab at spaghetti western music.



Пятиугольный Грех  is a terrific album overall. The kitchen sink is thrown against the wall, and most of it stuck, and in a cohesive manner. Grebenshikov is definitely an artist with an inquisitive ear, and it is very evident in the variety of song choices on this album. And it sounds like they had a lot of fun making this! I know that I thoroughly enjoyed this too!




                         

Like a Version: Mumiy Troll-Western Dreams from Russia

Mumiy Troll---I don't know if their music is really my cup of tea. It sounds to me to be fairly MOR sounding rock and roll. I know that they are a very popular group in Russia. They seem to have won tons of awards in the Родина. Maybe my poor Russian language skills are causing to miss something in the lyrical content. Maybe there are some things about the music that are so intrinsically Russian that they don't translate well to an American. The singer has an almost cabaret-like charisma about him. But the music doesn't have the edge that I like.

But I found this cover interesting, because it seems to me to be a very Russian take on a bittersweet all-American sixties classic, from an entirely different perspective, with new meaning. An old Mamas and Papas song, ala Russe, a bonus track from Comrade Ambassador.




It seems as though the band is involved in a lot of worthy social causes, like dealing with the AIDS epidemic, and environmental issues in Russia. They have also created the first social network in Russia, Ikra.tv.

Not sure whether these guys are my thing musically, as I mentioned earlier. But I know that a huge country with such a fantastic literary tradition is making great music someplace. I'm searching for more Russian Rock music. I'll probably have some posts in the future with my findings. But for now, I'll be listening to this album some more. Sometimes some of my favorite albums were non-starters the first time I heard them. Maybe after a few more listens I'll come around a bit.

Kandinsky Art Exhibit at Burger King....sort of

I was in a foul mood at work a few weeks ago and needed to clear my head a little, so I went out to lunch. Normally, I'm not a big fan of fast food, but once every six months or so I feel the need to eat something greasy and unhealthy. Believe me, I have read Fast Food Nation by Eric Schlosser, so I know this urge is irrational, just as all smokers today know that cigarettes do in fact kill.

So I went to a nearby Burger King. Home of the Whopper. We're a nation of Whoppers.

After I ordered and got my meal, I went to find a seat. But something seemed a little odd, and it took me a little bit of time to figure it out.

The whole fast food restaurant was filled with Kandinsky prints! That's one of the artists that really stood out to me when I first visited the Museum of Modern Art in New York. I had heard the name before, having studied Russian/Soviet history a bit in school. But when I saw his works for the first time, I could see that he was a man who was onto something special, and I feel the same way about Marc Chagall.

At first I was pretty surprised, and then I found it all pretty comforting. It certainly made my day a lot more than a greasy burger and fries. Why these paintings were there and who made the decision to fill a fast food joint with early 20th Century Russian abstract masterpieces remains a mystery to me. But I'm sort of torn. My head tells me to return again soon, but my heart says, hey buddy, watch the cholesterol!

Tundra Only Happens When Its Freezing---Grazhdanskaya Oborona--Siberian Punk Rock

Сельско-Хозяйственная Выставка. If you say it loud enough, you'll only sound precocious. Yes, after years of taking Russian language these are the only magical words I know. Agricultural Exhibition to all of the Cyrillically challenged out there. My Russian professor created dialogues for us to listen to in language lab, which were at a fairly elementary level. But one of the lessons had the Agricultural exhibit phrase in it and it was in stark contrast to the simple vocabulary up to that point. It was a running joke with some of us. But despite the inability of my mouth to repeat the phrase at the time, it has stuck with me and become part of my lexicon as I enter upon my remaining days of pre-senility.

But as I am finding out, as far as the Russian Language goes is, that as for me, Pushkin has apparently left the building. I was never great at it, could read the language a little, but it's funny how years of inactivity can make you forget pretty much everything. I became interested in Russian language and Culture after reading some Dostoevsky. I put off reading Crime and Punishment for a very long time, but just like a Russian Novel, I tore through the novel in a feverish surreal state, bedridden with the flu. I was hooked and read tons of books, Gogol's Dead Souls, Turgenev's Fathers and Sons, Goncharov's Oblomov, Bulgakov's The Master and Margarita, Andrei Bely's Petersburg. And so on. And Russians I have found to possess a great love of literature, and in particular poetry, which many Americans would find baffling. Anyone who has read Russian poetry (or heard someone recite!) in the untranslated original form can attest to its beauty and unique descriptiveness. One of my Russian Professors inquired whether American students studied Pushkin much. One of my classmates replied, "Well, Pushkin isn't so big these days here". I thought she was going to cry. And you know, I don't blame her sentiments really. Because we were all missing out, believe me.

From my visit to Leningrad in the 80's. What a country!

So I'm trying to talk about an 80's Punk band from Omsk, Siberia, Гражданская Оборона, or Civil Defense.(Grazhdanskaya Oborona). Aka ГрОб (Coffin-Grob). The band is comprised of Egor Letov on guitar, vocals and bass, and drums and Kuzya Yo on bass, guitar and vocals. Egor Letov is a legend in his country and also a controversial figure. He died in 2008 at the age of 43. I can't imagine it was easy being a Punk Rocker in the USSR. You must possess a great bravery. Dissent could have a high price, could destroy your life, and destroy your family and friends lives also. Or maybe things are so bad you feel you have nothing to lose. From what I can find out Letov was institutionalized at some point in the mid-80's, after Поганая молодёжь Poganaya Molodyozh "Rotten Youth" was recorded. That's what would happen to people who criticize the system over there. If you transgress, you must be a madman (or woman). My Russian is terrible, but I hope that I don't offend, maybe just elicit some laughter.

From what I am hearing Yegor reminds me a bit of Joe Strummer. Many of the songs are pretty Clash-like to my ears. Or even Wire. The recording quality is pretty lo-fi as you might expect it to be, as Citizen's Brigade had to fly below the radar of the authorities. The raucous title track and opener Rotten Youth, is very much in this style, as is the excellent Nye Smeshno (It's Not Funny). Or Khvatit! (Enough!) and Ya Voyduman Naproch (I made it up completely?).

One of the things I like here is that he brings his personality to the table here, and also there is a distinctive Russianness in some of the songs. Like Klalafuda klalafu. I don't know what this means at all--it sounds like some kind of slang or a spoof of a person's name. In the same style is Poyezd Maluyu Zemlyu (Train To Small Land?) Mama Blya (Mother Whore?) and Ctarost, Ne Radost (The Old, Not Happy). Letov even delves into Reggae a bit here with Mama, Mama...

This is a fairly short recording about 36 minutes long. The third time through and I'm enjoying it more each time. Clearly these songs parody and criticize the Communist regime. But from what I am learning about the artist, he was a person who was not afraid to step on some toes and that continued long after the demise of Communism and the USSR. They say that at some point he changed course and became nostalgic for the old regime he excoriated. Perhaps he was just continuing to be a provocateur, slamming the post-Soviet world in a way that was sure get a reaction from the new powers that be. Maybe he felt it was all a case of meet the new boss, same as the old boss. His way of saying, it was bad then, but even worse now. But that is mere speculation on my part.



One thing that I can say is that this is a pretty good album, one that I would probably call a great album if my Russian was not so rudimentary. Under the circumstances that Поганая молодёжь was recorded I would say that this album was a great achievement. It had to have pissed people off, and raised a concern that songs like this could have an effect on the next generation, the Rotten Youths and Hooligans the album is titled after.