SO(ZNANYE)BITYA

The title means "Consciousness of Being". With a title like this I was expecting something with an ethnic and esotheric flavour like Swadhisthana or the excellent "Path of Sathiam". Some "indo" elements are present, but since the first track it seems to be in a disco in Moscow, with girls dancing on cubes and bosses smoking cigars.

The opener "Live" is quite trivial. Without the two short indian contaminations it would be a perfect soundtrack for a Dolph Lundgren's action movie.

With "Pre Scriptum" we are back to the industrial noise of his first albums. Not a bad track but the three previous albums are on a different level.

"Moget Bit" is electronic pop. The melodic line has some connections with the "Tatu" (I'm not an expert of Tatu's music, I have just seen a couple of videos).

The first notes of "Poluraspad" are more promising. The industrial noise is over and if it wasn't for the distorted voice it could be a pop song from the 80s. I think to David Bowie's production of that period.

"Il Mia Incanto" tries to have an italian title but it's gramatically wrong (it should be "mio"). The melodic and clean guitar and the slow tempo seem to demonstrate that Senmth was looking to the Mediterranean area. The result is quite good but this is not Senmuth. Vangelis, maybe?

"Rani Proslogo" has a pop start then falls into death metal, stops and restarts. Inconsistent.

"Symbol Mgnovenii" is unstructured. The guitar riff is good and the keyboards sound like Vitalij Kuprij bat there no internal coherence. It just comes and goes.

"Ozhidanie" is not much different but has at least the structure of a song. I have to say that I'm probably too negative because of the excellent previous albums.

"Napast" has a symphonic intro. Few promising seconds and we are suddenly back to the average Senmuth's stuff. Nothing really bad also here, but neither too good.

My feelings about "A-310-F-OGYP" are controversial. This slow piano doesn't do anything special. The violin (we are always speaking ov virtual instruments of course) adds some flavour. I enjoy this track even if it seems more newage than post-metal.

"Kletka" is probably the best track. The keyboard intro a-la Vitalij Kuprij (not so fast), a good guitar and the distorted voice not so disturbing as usual makes it enjoyable enough.

"Current Unconscious" is on the same line. Not properly newage but close.

Finally "Positiv" comes back to the disco-techno of the first track.

I have read in the only other review currently here a reference to Muse. I agree and I could add Placebo, too. It's an electro-pop album below the usual level. There's plenty of things better than this in Senmuth's discography.

For fans only.