FROGRESSIVE PUNK

There has been a change in guitarist since the release of the previous album, 'V Obshchikh Chertyakh', but apart from that it very much seems like business as usual for these guys. In my review for that 2015 album I said "here we can be listening to ska-style hardcore which drops into funk, or hard rock, or Can, or all of this at once with Fantômas also being an obvious influence. It is a mess." I still hold to all that, but here we are also getting much more a stoner influence (although rather worryingly I am sure I hear squeaky toys at one point as well). New guitarist Alexander Kosarenko has a very strong sound, but one still has no idea where the music is going as while it can be apparently heading in one direction that is just ploy to lure the listener into a false sense of security. Those keyboards and strong melodies will be gone in a second, and when they sound like they are off and running like a locomotive with no brakes they can turn on a dime and head off in a direction where there aren't even any tracks!

Through all this, it is somehow still compelling in a weird and twisted way. I have no idea what is going on musically, and my knowledge of Russian is non-existent, so the few sentences here and there mean nothing to me. They themselves describe their music as "Progressive Funk", hence the switch for the album title, but this is Faith No More in a weird dimension, where there simply are no rules. Complex, complicated, simplistic, basic, I still have no idea what is going on. The last album made no sense to me either and that is the same here, a musical maze with trapdoors and snares for the unwary so that just when it starts to become sane it disappears into another realm altogether. This is only for those who want their music to be weird, challenging and very, very strange. But I think I like it?

So, (P)rogressive Punk?

No, (F)rogressive Punk!

I grabbed this one 'cause I sure wanted to hear what (P)rogressive Punk sounded like...until I was awakened from the trance induced by this pastiche of comic/funereal/heavy/riff-alicious/galloping madness.

DETIETI, Dieteti, or Steady Eddie?

This Moscow, Russia based quartet- and a handful of musical co-conspirators- have been mucking about, lounging around, heaving to and fro, for sixteen fraught years.

It might take the listener that long to reassemble the nerve ends and split ends and lost friends that may accumulate in the wake of this psychedelic submarine trip (see liner notes).

Therefore Yes, A Concept

But don't hold me to it. The assorted whack-a-doodle titles, the rapid shifts in mood, tempo, and style, the seeming randomness of direction, argue AGAINST any central concept.

Yet, there it is. You can trust the liner notes. (Trust me)

Arguably, The Rhythm Section

Yes, the glue, the center, the basis for this musical mystery, this all-encompassing bizarre-ness- seems to be a pretty damn solid and inventive bassist and drummer.

To these ears, that resonant, tin-can, deep raspy bass simply grooving along and refusing to be flappable; accompanied by the crisp and canny drumming, hold the line.

Surrounding This, However

Now, what nouns and adjectives might the bemused reviewer set forth? What descriptions may befit, or failing that- befall?

OK. Ominous wind sounds. Gurgling toilet music. Comic-strip background music. Heavy metal guitars riffing. Whistling, sighing synthesizers. Chonking and plonking piano. Stripped back brass and woodwinds. Fuzzed out guitar leads. Voices that mutter, scream, sigh, declaim, and maybe complain- I can't be sure.

And a Really Cool Rhythm Passage

But I'm not saying where!

And oh yes, somewhere a spaghetti Western is looking for its theme song.

Let's Pause, Regroup, and Conclude

I'm not dissing this to say it is probably for "Collectors/fans only". There surely are those who find this fun and amusing and challenging- and I'm guessing most progressive rock folks won't be among them. Thus my rating of 2.5 subterranean stars.