SURFIN' USSR

Almost 13 long months passed since I found out about this wonderful norwegian band and suggested them into the Archives, and I'm glad that they're finally here!

I was already a fan of balkan and gypsy music (Goran Bregovic, Emir Kusturica & The No Smoking Orchestra, Mahala Rai Banda, etc.), because of the energy and complexity that these styles show. However, I was already looking for something even more challenging within these styles (to play and listen), and I luckily found out about Farmers Market in Last.fm while browsing Mike Patton's Ipecac label site.

It's amazing that Farmers Market was founded by Trondheim Conservatory students as a free jazz quintet, and evolved into a unique blend of balkan, bulgarian music and jazz, which I enjoy so much.

"Surfin' USSR" is the band's fourth album (after a live one, a studio album and another released under Stian Cartensen's name), perhaps it's a concept album, or the song titles are conceptually inspired in a somehow hilarious 'occidental view' of the now defunct USSR, just like if comedian Jakov Smirnoff himself had suggested the names of the compositions.

The album shows the band in an excellent shape, playing compositions that feature lots of sudden breaks, incredibly weird time signatures and musical scales.

It's also incredibly eclectic, always from a Balkan/Bulgarian base, the songs range from vocal pieces such as Yagoda or the amazing Dissident Harmony Sisters' Camel Call and surf-rock? in the first part of the self-titled song to incredibly wild jazz-tinged pieces like Red Square Dance or a weird version of Gerry Mardsen's Ferry 'Cross The Mersey, with vocals sung in... Bulgarian? (if somebody knows, please let me know); and anything in between.

Fans of Balkan, Bulgarian and extremely challenging virtuoso musicianship should not miss this amazing album.

It's of the most original things I've ever heard, and I strongly recommend it, and if you are not convinced enough, just look for the song Surfin' USSR in Youtube, there is a jaw-dropping version in which they play with Trondheim's Radio and TV orchestra that will probably stun you and leave you with need for more.

Five trips to Hell and Baku!

One of the greatest discoveries I've made on these Archives. Farmers Market loves mixing all sorts of genres in a fusion framework to hilarious and excellent results, and this is shown here to maximum effect. Here they mix jazz, surf rock, Slavic folk music, and all sorts of other tidbits into a side splitting piece of strange, parodic, and wonderful music. They build off of parodies of the classics of surf rock and Bond themes - notably, of course, the two title tracks, and "Lodtschitze Mini Maritza", which has strings that clearly take off from "You Only Live Twice". The track titles often belie the funny nature of the music, with gems such as "One Day, Son, All I Own Will Still Belong To The State" and "Anyone Who Remembers Vladiwoodstock Wasn't There". The sound revolves from folky to jazzy to rocking all in a single track. Very energetic, too. And all brilliantly played. Just one of the greatest albums of all time, this is a spectacular and humourous romp I recommend to everyone. Serf's up!

FARMERS MARKET is yet another wacky band emerging from Norway and SURFIN' USSR seems to be the album of choice by many fans and the only one i've heard so far simply because it is so raved about. The band started out as a free jazz quintet fresh out of the conservatory in Trondheim but soon unshackled themselves from all traditional norms and started to incorporate rock, pop, bluegrass, classical and their signature adoptive sounds such as Balkan and Bulgarian folk music. Throw in some surf guitar, some progressive time signature mind bleeps and you got an interestingly weird band on your hands. Yep, the kind i relish and seek out constantly!

While this band covers many genres the main gist here is energetic Balkan folk music with a couple tracks heading to Bulgaria for inspiration. One thing is for sure. These guys can really play their instruments with a technical prowess unmatched in most fusion arenas where rock meets jazz with ethnic world influences vying for control. Between the jagged rhythmic patterns that stop and go at breakneck speeds and the lovely melodic developments of the traditional scales and instruments leading the musical pack, i'd be tempted to give this a whopping five stars like many have due to the excitement generated in some of the cream of the crop deliveries on this one.

FARMERS MARKET unfortunately, to my ears, suffers some disappointing attributes that don't get me as excited as this album as many others have made it out to be. First and foremost it's inconsistent. It starts off strong on Parts 1 and 2 of the title track with energetic surf guitar ceding to Balkan folk instruments and scales usurping any Western musical agenda. The main instruments are the kaval, a chromatic end-blown flute that is the famous sound of the Balkans and Turkey as well as the gaida which is a type of bagpipe most popular in Macedonia and Bulgaria. The execution of these instruments is quite well performed but as a major connoisseur of Balkan gypsy music i have to state that i find them simply copying the styles of existing folk music of the region and not really adding a lot to it except for speedier chops and exaggerated time sigs.

There are several tracks on here that are pure gold. "Anyone Who Remembers Vladiwoodstock Wasn't There!" is not only a clever title but has the coolest funky bass line with an almost Klezmer type of feel making me think more of the Sinai peninsula rather than the Balkans. "To Hell And Baku" is another golden moment with a thrashy metal type of intro before breaking into a hyperactive Balkan folk riff that incorporates some killer guitar and off-kilter proggy time sigs. "From Prussia With Love" is another highly energetic proggy number with a clean jazz guitar keeping the rhythm and a highly caffeinated kaval taking the energy to new levels creating one of the coolest tracks on the album complete with the way cool accompanying percussion of the Indian tambura, bongos and freaked out bass line which is followed by the outstanding "Red Square Dance" which is my favorite track with the traditional Balkan folk on full speed going on here. The kaval is just off the hook in the prog department delivering stunning hooks and this sounds sort of like a traditional Balkan band gone maaaaaad!

While those highlights are worth the price of admission there are also some tracks that totally rub me the wrong way. First up is the uninspiring cover of Gerry & The Pacemakers "Ferry Cross The Mersey" which here becomes "Lodtschitze Mini Maritza" which sounds totally out of place on this album, the mediocre "The Dismanting Of The Soviet Onion Made Us Cry" which is rather insipid and rather dull and the other out of place track here "Steroid Train Trip" which sounds like a Bela Fleck and the Flecktones reject with it's banjo inspired jazz-fusion approach. What really irks me most about this album is that it has two totally incongruent tracks that are basically Bulgarian vocal folk music tracks that are typical of the region and much better done by the international superstars Le Mystere des Voix Bulgares or also known as the Bulgarian State Radio & Television Female Vocal Choir.

Overall i don't feel this band has learned how to seamlessly blend all these styles together in a way that the much better disciplined Secret Chiefs 3 has managed to blend such disparate influences into a new kind of whole. Spoiled am i with their ability to do so but FARMERS MARKET's SURFIN' USSR simply sounds like it's trying to take on too many styles and influences too fast resulting in a stilted delivery as the album unfolds. Where it's great, it is astounding but where it fails, it feels like a major let down leaving a lopsided disappointing feel as the final result. This is the only album i've heard by them and i certainly haven't written them off but if this album represents their peak then i'm afraid they don't stand a chance in the eclectic global fusion world where bands like Secret Chiefs 3, Atomic Ape and a whole new school of newbies are taken global fusion to new levels and beyond. An intriguing album that falls short of expectations but there are certainly some exciting moments on this one. 3.5 but rounded down because of the inconsistency

Besides having the best song titles, hands down, of any album EVER, their is some absolutely stunning music here. Fast "punk jazz" with an undeniable Slavic flavor, the music here reminds me of Markus Pajakkala's 2017 Brutopianisti album, only far more engaging. The music obviously, and intentionally, imitates (or parodies) known styles and motifs from Western music--with none more than the Dick Dale-led California surfer music scene of the 1950s and 60s--but also spy music styles and themes used in James Bond and other spy films of the 1960s and 1970s. All the layers here seem infected by the rapid-fire staccato and tremolo-crazy styles pioneered by Dale's style, though Eastern European and Middle Eastern (even Romani and klezmer) sounds , scales, and charts are also all-pervasive. Definitely a jazz combo as instruments like accordion, horns, banjo, and all kinds of percussives and traditional folk instruments are central and layered throughout every song, the music even spans the breadth of the 20th Century with nostalgia exhumed from the early jazz of the 1920s, the Big Band jazz eras, and the Django Reinhardt-type of Gypsy Jazz.

If you like your music lively, fast, technically wizard, jazzy, predominantly acoustic, upbeat (generally), cerebral, and to give you a smile on your face, then this masterful album would definitely be worth your checking out. It may not be the type of music you want to listen to every day, but for that change of pace, ear- and eye-opening listening experience, you needn't go any further than this album.

A/five stars; a masterpiece of a very specific sound and style that definitely belongs in the Folk-Jazz-Rock Fusion category. Incredible artistry and cohesion from the collective.

P.S. Just get your jollies from reading those titles! Genius!