Rational Diet

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艺人: Rational Diet
语种: 英语
厂牌: AltrOck
发行时间: 2007年01月01日
专辑类别: 录音室专辑

专辑介绍

by Dave Lynch

Its repugnant and genuinely ugly cover art notwithstanding, avant-prog listeners of the 21st century nurturing a Rock in Opposition jones will probably find a lot to enjoy in the eponymously titled CD by Belarus experimental rock sextet Rational Diet released by the Italian ArtrOck label (Yugen) in 2007. It becomes immediately apparent on "From the Grey Notebook, Pt. 1" that guitarist Maxim Velvetov has a serious Roger Trigaux fixation, with repeating figures and a sustained burning tone straight out of Present's Triskaidekaphobie/Le Poison Qui Rend Fou. "Stop, Kolpakoff!" suddenly enters more chamberesque territory, however, with percussion dropping away (appearing only intermittently thereafter) and greater emphasis placed on Cyrill Christya's violin, guest Alla Pustchina's cello, and particularly Vitaly Appow's bassoon. (Rational Diet want to stop Kolpakoff -- a reference to a character from Dostoyevsky's The Idiot? -- while Gogol Bordello offer "hats off" to him.) The music remains complicated and sometimes harmonically astringent, yet for the most part rhythmically insistent for long stretches of the disc, mixing elements of contemporary composition and even free improv with the type of avant-prog that should catapult fans of Western Culture-era Henry Cow and early Art Zoyd and Univers Zero into dark heaven. And Appow's occasionally wild bassoon soloing seems heavily influenced by Unrest-era Lindsay Cooper, a fine antecedent indeed. However, said listeners might be put off somewhat by the spoken (and sometimes ranted or chanted) word interludes that intermittently intrude upon the often inspired instrumental convolutions of reeds, strings, keyboards, accordion, and more, thanks to the contributions of guest vocalists Cyrill Yelshow, Maria Lagodich, Andrew Bogdanow, and Oleg Gorbatiuk, whose recitations include the work of a pair of "Russian avant-garde poets." (Belarus is a former Soviet republic that has been strongly aligned with Russia and the government has thus far resisted any fledgling movements toward the sort of Western-supported "Orange Revolution" that has produced mixed results at best in neighboring Ukraine. From the album it is unclear to the English-language speaker/listener where the bandmembers stand on such matters, if they take a public stand at all -- although the sometimes declamatory vocals suggest at least a tone of political vehemence, and a website photo of Rational Diet shows them performing next to a very conspicuous peace sign.) At times, the music becomes a platform for the poetry, and unless you're experienced with the language, you're out of luck in comprehending what the vocalists are going on about. And, truth be told, the final dramatic sung vocal in the concluding "From the Grey Notebook, Pt. 2" flirts dangerously with the sort of overly dramatic pomp that RIO bands were supposed to be rallying against back in the day, although perhaps some irony is intended in the song's distinct flavor of a revolutionary anthem. Weirdest of all, perhaps, are the moments in "An Order for Horses" and "Don't Swing a Wheel" in which music and Lagodich's chant-singing are combined in a way that might suggest to some listeners Henry Cow or Art Zoyd providing avant rock support for a Gathering of Nations powwow in Albuquerque, NM (seriously, one suspects Belarusian and even Turkic folk influences here). For RIO aficionados, the saving grace is that Rational Diet remains an instrumental album most of the time. Those with a hankering for often dark and complex modern chamber rock played with rhythmic drive and even urgency should find a lot to enjoy here -- if they can get past that horrific cover, that is.

Rational Diet

专辑介绍

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