I'll sit on the bed: the hotel passions of "Dictaphone" and document management of "STUFF"

The middle of spring brought with it not only crazy weather changes, from snowfalls to the July heat, but also several equally crazy — but in a good way — releases, mostly by domestic performers. The most interesting albums of April that could have passed you by are in the Izvestia review.

"Dictaphone"

Makarov Hostel

Anton Makarov, a multi-instrumentalist from Zhukovsky near Moscow, came with a lot of baggage for his 30th birthday. He has done joint tours with Western legends Midge Jura (Ultravox) and Hugh Cornwell (The Stranglers), worked as a producer on albums by Russian legends Oleg Garkusha from Auctioneer and Nike Borzov, and even through his own projects, which were well received by critics and the sophisticated public. The fifth LP of his main group, "Dictaphone", may perhaps become a breakthrough for the general public.

Makarov chose a rather bold move for the current times, recording a concept album that references the name of no less than the Morrison Hotel, and the sound and lyrics to the domestic underground of the 80s of the last century (which, as one domestic critic aptly noted, "were our 60s"). Almost all the parts of the instruments (except the drums) were recorded by Anton himself in his studio in Zhukovsky — which, of course, brings to mind the image of another musical workaholic, Prince (and, it should be noted, in some places Makarov's guitar slightly resembles the style of the great American). Almost all of Mamonov's own compositions hit the target, and the choice of songs for covers is simply perfect — the opening song of the album "Soyuzpechat" by Mamonov and the ending "Old Hotel" by Khavtan and Kavalerian exactly fit into the musical and lyrical canvas of this opus magnum by the former prodigy. For special connoisseurs, there is a subtle musical joke about "Anastasia T.", who has long been known to everyone as Suzy Q.

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"THE THING"

"Passport"

The hurricane "art-punk cabaret" from Ivanovo continues to amaze the audience. On her fifth album, the incomparable Anastasia Klimova and her accompanying band of hooligan virtuosos presented songs that are a little more intelligible to the hard ear of the "general public", but no less snide and musically sophisticated than the former experiments with funk, jazz and musique concrete in the shell of the Soviet restaurant pop of the 70s.

Starting with the album's opening track "Pterodactyl", "THING" doesn't stop having fun, although the fun is, frankly, a bit gloomy ("A new subspecies of Hominid / Crooked hands, incoherent speech / He will wipe out the competitor in the dust / Pterodactyl"). Nevertheless, songs like "I Choose" or "The Fly" would easily capture the hearts of visitors to perestroika discos — and perhaps even modern ones, which are more modern. Sparkling accompaniment, equally evocative of The B-52's, Lena Lovich, and in some places, it's scary to say, even something in the spirit of Magma, coupled with Anastasia's almost hysterical vocals, will not force the dead to come to the center. However, perhaps his too.

Aneuma

Flesh & Bone

The Spanish "metal" scene, unlike the French, not to mention the German, is not very well known in the world, however, judging by this release, it deserves close attention. The team from the God-forsaken Asturian village of Puerto de Vega (population 1,401, according to the Spanish-language wikipedia) is releasing its third album — and, admittedly, the work on freshness of sound and power turned out to be not just "on the level", but, perhaps, above the average European death metal.

Laura Alfonso's vocal abilities are still not quite up to the exemplary guttural growl of the legendary Sabine Klassen; however, she is clearly not trying to imitate anyone, but quite successfully creates her own style. Like the rest of the band, the Aneuma compositions clearly contain elements of almost every conceivable direction of "heavy" music, skillfully mixed by the Asturian team into an organic "cocktail".

William Sheller

The Mass

William Scheller, a French composer, singer and arranger with the Anglo-Saxon name, composed a mass for his friends' wedding in the early 70s, not very well known here, but highly respected in his homeland (suffice it to say that he had been making arrangements for the legendary Barbara for many years). It was released in a small print run on vinyl under the name Lux Aeterna, it was reissued several times (especially in Japan, where the Sheller has a cult status), but in principle it has long become a philophonic rarity in any format — and, most offensively, it was completely absent from all streaming platforms. In February of this year, Scheller's opus was recorded by the orchestra and choir of the Department of Musicology at the University of Burgundy (conducted by Teotime Dijoux) and is now finally available to the general public.

Musically, Scheller's syncretic mass is certainly an outstanding monument of its time. It combines the symphonic heritage of Western music, elements of psychedelia, the emerging new age, rock and roll energy, and minimalism, which was in fashion in the early 70s. But unlike most experiments in combining "serious" music with rock, which were once much more commercially successful, Scheller's composition has aged much more nobly and sounds surprisingly modern — despite the fact that the performers have not deviated one iota from the composer's original idea.

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Eluveitie

Ànv

The Swiss folk metal heroes survived an almost six-year pause between albums, having managed to update the line—up during this time - instead of Annie Ridiger and Nicole Ansperger, multi-instrumentalist Lea-Sophie Fischer joined the band, successfully combining both the violin and the wheeled lyre in her arsenal.

The permanent leader of the octet, Kriegel Glanzmann, has not lost the ability to produce growling so deep that the walls and hamstrings shake, and his partner Fabienne Erni has her angelic timbre, favorably demonstrating the melodic talents of the pair. Otherwise, everything is the same - energetic guitar riffs and hurricane blast beats are combined with acoustic instruments, including bagpipes (Scottish and Irish), bodhran, mandola, harp and the aforementioned wheeled lyre. However, unfortunately for old fans, the folk component in Eluveitie's music has somewhat faded into the background and the album listens like an almost standard European melodic child, albeit with a violin and a little nervously.