- [ news : discography : music : live : links ] -

VARIOUS ARTISTS "Extreme Music from Russia"

Review by Aural Pressure (20.10.2004):

The Susan Lawly record label doesn't just release all the old / new Whitehouse releases but is a curator to the music of the past that has defined a generation through their Anthology releases and the music of the present with the 'Extreme Music' series. The first Extreme Music release showcased the talent from Japan and was followed by Extreme Music from Africa and Extreme Music from Women. All were essential purchases for those with any interest in how Extreme Music had grown up and come of age. Now at last the eagerly anticipated Extreme Music from Russia has arrived and the wait was most definitely worth it.

Those of you who think Extreme Music is a one trick noise pony has obviously never heard any of the series as the talents on display there blow that preconception right out of the window. EMFR continues with this tradition of redefining what constitutes Extreme Music by showcasing some of the most important musicians to come out from Russia and their interpretation and evolvement of this music. Sure there are moments of holocaustic brain frying thanks to i5067.70 and Comforter but I dare anyone not to be moved by the tracks by Volga, Kryptogen Rundfunk, Samka and The Podryyaniem Boys who take this genre into new levels. These to me are the stand out tracks from a recording brimming with talent and new ideas but you'll find your own favourites as taste is a very personal thing. All the other contributors are equally brilliant in their own individual way and style and aren't there just to make up the numbers. A special mention must be made to the informative and glossy booklet which is a fascinating read and emphasises the great attention and care and:dare I say it:love that went into this project. EMFR is a slight misdemeanour and should really be called 'Great, uncompromising, and unusual music from Russia' instead. Like all previous EMF releases EMFR will open your eyes:and ears:to a world you may never have known existed. Don't you dare call yourself a purveyor and fanatic of music unless you add this to your collection.

EMFR is a totally indispensable and essential recording that has continued with the fine tradition first started with EMFJ. The next instalment in the ongoing series will be EMF China. Roll on that and the next Anthology release. They can't come quick enough for this reviewer.

ANM.

Review by The Wire (#249, 11.2004):

Put together for Whitehouse's label, Extreme Music From Russia (Susan Lawly CD) promises a hard, unforgiving ride over hostile terrain and it doesn't disappoint. Anyone who has accompanied Ms Lawly on her similar trawls of Japan and Africa will have an idea of the kind of sonic souvenirs she's likely to bring back from difficult places going through difficult times. As Judith Howard's sleevenotes clarify, this compilation journeys farther afield to explore noises from the presently troubled Belarus republic (the confrontational Ambassador 21), the Ukraine (Pichismo), Latvia (Error) and Lithuania (Gintas K), as well as the Russian centers of Moscow and St Petersburg. For the most part, the compilation centres on pretty hardcore noise but over the 15 tracks here the range of expression within noise's bandwidth is astonishing, and some of it is indeed as "extraordinary challenging and beautiful" as Judith Howard says it is. From Moscow, Volga's "Rose" sets a heartrending female vocal and its distant echo at the heart of slowly rising barrage of bowed strings and percussive clunks. This track is bookended by the gay duo Podryvaniem Boys, who cut their electronics with a deliriously silly sabre dance, and the bleak reflections of ED.S. Elsewhere you get Kryptogen Rundfunk's deadly precise outline of an "Old Recipe For Modern Society", Vetrophonia's "Poem For Orgasm" and the ugly/beautiful, affecting "Music For The Kids Without Any", by Tea Man With Tea Gum, who claim to be noise clowns. Sicknoise slapstick? Now there's a concept worthy of the West's development money.

Review by Diffusion (26.01.2005):

A polished and compliant musical adventure this is not. This is much dirtier than that. This is rebellion and pent-up frustration captured in its outburst. Seventy minutes of tweeter piercing, deeply overdriven, underground lo-fi. Fifteen tracks hand-crafted, not so much with care and precision but with expressionistic urgency. Insert the black disc and turn up. St. Petersburg composer Pavel Alexandrov, tragically killed in a recent car crash, cuts open the airwaves with sweeping tinnitus-resonances and distorted bass hits. VU meters are flat out, full throttle. Initially, the aural onslaught is perhaps a little overwhelming, creating an astonishing sense of self-awareness, of 'what will the neighbours think!'. But the pleasure [if that is the right word] of such a composition comes through exceeding usual thresholds. Once immersed fully in the barrage of sound, self-awareness instead becomes a loss of self. The intensity finds me almost induced in a hot flush as peak level indicators ride relentlessly into the red zone. When they abruptly subside, the ears, and indeed the body, are left in a state of awe.

Thankfully the CD also explores more subtle aspects to the 'extreme' mode of creation. Moscow's 'Volga' contributes an elegantly haunting, largely vocal track entitled 'rose'. Accurately described as 'ethno-electronic', radical echo-manipulation and homemade instruments are the focus here. The track's duration, like most on the compilation, is pleasingly concise, clocking in at just over 5 minutes. Any longer and I feel that the heady impact of many of these tracks would give way to dreary overstatement.

One aspect that fascinates me about Russian composition is its instantly identifiable nationalistic edge. Even within these works, it remains. 'The Podryvaniem Boys' utilise a traditional Russian song sample, looped over and over to quaintly kitsch effect. Apparently it's been a 'surprise hit in underground noise-dance clubs' according to the informative liner notes.

Susan Lawly has three other 'Extreme Music From:' compilations available; Japan, Africa and Women. If the breadth and diversity of character that this compilation shows represents the standard to which the others have been created, they too should be on the wish-list of any person enthused by these subversive musical movements.

DJC de la Haye.

Reviews in Russian: http://kr.radionoise.ru/rus/va_extreme_press.html
Review in Italian: http://www.musicboom.it/mostra_recensioni.php?Unico=20041124200138
Review in German: http://www.westzeit.de/rezensionen/?id=4093