STRUCTURA TORTURA

It's 29th of December now, my birthday, and I'm writing review on my own album. Life is wonderful, isn't it? :)

Okay, first of all, THEY made me do it. They've seduced me saying things like "even Stiven Wilson himself rates his albums!" etc. I'll try to be as sceptic and objective as it possible, hence the mark is 4,5 stars.

We've met each other via Net. Vitaly is from Yekaterinburg,which is in cold Siberia, and I'm from Sverdlovsk, Ukraine, and we have couple of thousands miles dividing us. But that's nothing when you long to present your music to the world. So, Vitaly printed split's pressing (33 copies only), and I began to send them in any place where they could be appreciated. Ironically enough, now, when we have 2 or 3 copies left, I'm beginning to recieve REAL purchase requests with money proposals! Sorry, pals, we're running out of them and I dunno what to do...maybe, just to upload that split legally on our web-site.

Back to music. We've presented nearly half-an-hour of material from each project. My tracks are all long, moody and mellow. Vitaly's approach is of another kind, he writes really wonderful tunes, sometimes electronica/indie-leaned, but never boring. Oddly enough, I usually can play most of Post-Rock tunes, heard from other band, since the first few listens. I just turn the audiosystem on, listen, and then play what I've heard. But in KRIKSTON's case I simply sit with my jaw dropped, wondering how the hell he did it!

"Structura Tortura" starts with "Amnesia", one of my favourite tracks, with MONO-inspired intro (crying violins and tremolo guitars), mid-part in 6/8 with that spontaneous solo, that I usually call "Santana" (ha-ha! :) ) and marching tragic/dramatic coda in 7/8 with its main moving tune, that has come to me this summer, when I was musing sitting on the bench in our park...and suddenly this melody came. Yep, this happens sometimes. Then "The Diary of the Missed One" follows, known as "Album's Preview" from KROBAK's MySpace page. This is not an independent track really, this is album's medley, besides it has some parts that won't be featured on the album!!! I mean I've re-recorded some of them, so with this track you have this unique opportunity to watch how the music ideas RE...I meant, PROgress :) "The Fried Bull's Watlz" (the second part of "The Fried Bull's Blues", which is 20 min originally) is somewhat a homage to Krautrock, but in "my own special way" (c). Built around simple yet groovy riff, this track hypnotizes the listener with its monotonous drummachine beat and haunting guitar effects (no synths were used!!!). Additional note is that all violins/string sounds used by me on this split were programmed except for violin solos in "Amnesia" coda (they were played by a musical techaer from my local school, thanks a lot, Marina Vladimirovna!!!)

Then KRIKSTON's part follows. This is wonderful, that we both share the same passion (MUSIC!!!) but have different idols and preferences. I mean, if my background was ...ermm, proggy, then Vitaly's one is indie/shoegaze stuff. I'm just digging this kind of music now, and I've already found loads of interesting bands here, so I'm pretty thankful to Vitaly for such an introduction!

"Art Saves/Kills", clocking around 12 minutes, is the most complex and progressive track of the whole record, and that was a massive surprise even for me!!! I can hardly compare it to something, but you can make your own mind towards it by downloading it from our split's site. All the following tracks ("Fly In A Glass", "After The Rain", "Come With Me On Wires") are available for free download on KRIKSTON's LastFM page, so don't hesitate to check them as well! "After the Rain" is definitely my favourite, with catchy yet mellow guitar line, very SIGUR ROS/late MOGWAI in feel! Besides, Vitaly has (self)-released his debut EP recently, so if you've become interested in his stuff, write him via our site!!!

With KROBAK representing dark epic side of Post-Rock and KRIKSTON from both guitar and electronic sides, "Structura Tortura" becomes an essential hour of Post-Rock wandering through contemporary post-Soviet independent scene. Highly recommended...and I hope there will be more pressings soon ;)

Regadzz, Igor

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