Robustfellow 2016
Стало еще только хуже
Sweet psychedelic sludge from Ukraine: pessimistic yet strangely entertaining.
There’s gloomy conceptuality about this band who strictly stick to cassettes when it comes to physical releases but defend their digital corner in a cyberspace on a download base, and remain faithful to lowercase rendition of titles as if trying to substantiate their name – translating from Russian as BEEN NOTICED. Indeed, it’s hard to ignore the boogie undercurrent of “шифровал” cast to a stoner setting which, as the slow smolder of opener “глазницы” seems to suggest, is a default one here, yet a jazzy piano ripple under singer Khleb’s chthonic riffs evaporates the heaviness to turn it into a different type of murky miasma.
Bulging with Iv’s bass, the five pieces on display are prone to unexpected tempo changes that keeps one on their toes despite the multiple platitudes – when lyrics crawl from under the noise, that is – and parping sax only adds to the overall hallucinogenic effect, while occasional air of innocent paranoia could have hung above Manson-stricken City of Angels. Still, even with a hefty organ layer as a means of solemnity, the 20-minute desperate dirge “молчаливый космос” doesn’t fare well, whereas the tribal patterns of “в один конец” fail to enliven its trance-inducing spoken word and clanging of the chains until a flute takes it all on a folk field and then down a SABBATH shaft. Once there, the electronica-tinctured fest c”они” is unfolding in a mad swirl of rhythm, so the album’s title – meaning “It became even worse” – drowns on a dancefloor. Weird it may be, but that’s the core of it all: the grave groove. Get up and cry the tears of joy, then.
***4/5
