WAR AND PEACE, EPISODE VII

You know that this album is going to be a blast when you read the title: "War and Peace, Episode VII". The album is an instrumental fusion and funk affair that tells the story of zeppelin riding 19th century Russians led by Chingachgook from "The Leatherstocking Tales" battling Darth Vader and The Galactic Empire from "Star Wars". Yeah, it's that type of album.

Launching from a folk song replete with the saxophone that is the main vehicle for the jazz side of the work's equation, the music quickly picks up the pace, coming to be driven by a very funky bass that bends the rest of the instruments to its will. The sax remains light, jumpy, and playful, and peppy '70's prog style keys round out the main arsenal of the album. Guitar is a secondary affair for the most part, coming to a head, however, in tracks like "Steel Zeppelins For The First Cavalry Army", where they bring a power prog metal backbone to bear alongside the main instruments. Even forgetting the wonderfully crazy concept, this is a very fun record to listen to, focused on providing salvos of energetic and ever playful sounds and tunes just because. Progheads with a taste for fusion, funk, and varying styles looking for a simply pleasurable listen will find a lot to love here.

The second album from this Russian group, although here there seems to be more musicians involved (two bassists, two keyboardists). Nonetheless each track only features a five-piece of saxophone / guitar / drums / bass / keyboards. Like the debut this is all instrumental and generally speaking in a funky fusion vein. Compared to the last album this one seems more rockin'. The album opens with an acoustic guitar playing a chord progression very similar to the one in the Skid Row power ballad "I Remember You." "Morning In The Steppe" proceeds to have a sax solo over the guitar. "Dance Of Stormtroopers" starts out funky and fusion-y with slightly spacey sounding synths. The melody the sax reprises here and there is nice. Alternating sax and synth solos and a bass solo towards the end.

"Psycho" begins easy going and jazzy. The pace picks up with some sax/guitar unison runs. Those parts alternate with some great drumming and guitar playing near the end. "Pedlars" opens with military snare rolls and a 'happy' sounding sax. Playful organ joins in. Love the mix of sax and guitar after 2 minutes. Turns into a fusion jam with a drum solo. "Confession Of Samovar" has a nice syncopated beat with some great echo-y electric piano. Later on some unison guitar/sax work. Shredding guitar solo over halfway. "Steel Zeppelins For The First Cavalry Army" sounds at first like Aerosmith meets Dream Theater until the sax and organ show up. Gets very trad jazz sounding at times. Interesting organ solo later on.

"PIN-Code" is a highlight. It begins as hard fusion with some sax/guitar unison playing. Mellows out a bit with some slightly spacey synth soloing. More trad jazz sounding before it goes back to the hard fusion. This track features some great sounding synth and a killer guitar solo. "Chingachgook Vs. Darth Vader" starts out soulful and funky. The pace picks up with some interplay between sax and synth, the synth having a weird sound. Nice melodies on sax and guitar. Then instead of sax, organ and weird synth interplay. Features solos for sax, organ, guitar and bass. Overall an improvement over the debut. A nice album that will appeal to fans of the more rockin' and funky elements of modern fusion. You can purchase both albums on M-Artel's Bandcamp. I will give this 4 stars.

This is the second album from this Russian band, with a line-up which now consists of : Michail Levanov (saxophones ), Martinenko Paul ( guitar ), Vladimir Capyrin ) keyboards ), Victor Skating (drums ), Alexey Ryslavsky ( bass), Dmitry Maksimov ( bass ), Egor Dergachov ( keyboards ), and Natasha Levanova (muse). So, the only constant musician in this band is Michail Levanov. Anyway, the band still creates the similar musical style of their first album: very good Jazz-Rock / Fusion music with some influences from the seventies, mainly with the use of a Fender Rhodes Electric Piano and other "vintage" seventies keyboard sounds.

This album is described in their bandcamp.com website as: 'Unique Russian release - "tomfoolery in serious music". Built as a story about an event from alternative history - the war between Chingachgook Big Snake and the aggressors of Darth Vader from Star Wars'.

Track by track:

'Morning In The Steppe': an instrumental musical piece with acoustic guitars and a sax melody.

'Dance Of Stormtroopers': with some Funky music influences and some 'vintage' synthesizer sounds. It has very 'seventies' Jazz-Rock /Fusion musical influences, with some heavy parts too.

'Psycho ': a more slow musical piece, with maybe some SANTANA guitar playing influences and a Fender Rhodes Electric Piano.

'Pedlars ': it starts with some drums playing and a sax melody, with the later addition of keyboards, bass and guitar. The drums sound a bit like being playing a 'military rhythm' in some parts, also adding a brief solo towards the end of the song.

'Confession Of Samovar ': with some use of 'echoed' Fender Rhodes Piano and guitar, and the drums and the bass playing the 'backbone' of the rhythm, and with some sax and guitar playing melodies which interact with each other. Some parts of this song make me remember some KING CRIMSON musical influences from the early seventies, but I could be wrong.

'Steel Zeppelins For The First Cavalry Army ': with a main guitar riff maybe 'inspired' by LED ZEPPELIN, but with a very good combination of Jazz and Rock musical influences.

'PIN-code ': a musical piece with a contrast in 'quiet' and 'heavy' parts, and again with the use of some 'vintage' synthesizer sounds. It makes me remember some WEATHER REPORT musical influences.

'Chingachgook Vs. Darth Vader': a more Funky influenced musical piece, with very good rhythm guitar parts maybe influenced a bit by JAMES BROWN's music, but without losing the Jazz-Rock / Fusion musical style. It also has some good organ, guitar and bass solos. It also includes a "false ending" and some brief laughs and commentaries by the musicians!

This is a very good second album from this Russian band, maybe more heavy than their first in some parts. Very well recorded and mixed. All the musicians who contributed to this album are very good.