SURFIN' USSR

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!