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Dury Dava Premiere Self-Titled Debut LP in Full

dury dava

Athens-based experimentalist jammers Dury Dava release their self-titled debut album today through Inner Ear Records. Take a seat. Get your head sorted. Strap in. Me, I’ll pour another coffee. But you do whatever you need to do to prepare yourself for a bit of a journey, and by “a bit” I mean the record is 69 minutes long, so actually it’s less “a bit” and more “clear your calendar.” But fair enough, since you probably wanted to do that anyway.

Dury Dava are real-deal far out. Not we-have-a-delay-pedal-and-a-keyboard jams — though yes, they’ve got both — but sprawling krautrock composition-ishes infused with Greek and Turkish folk influences and instrumentation, resulting in a progged-up vision manifest across 10 tracks not afraid to get heavy in a garage sense every now and again, as on “Triptych” or “Satana” or the winding later “Ataxia,” but by no means beholden to the expectation of that or anything else. Songs vary wildly in arrangement and course, from high-drama art rock pieces like “Ela Pali Na” to the Mediterranean cosmic psych-folk of the 12-minute “34522,” which appears late in the record but still ahead of the 13-minute “Tarlabasi,” which feels like a companion even with the shorter “Ataxia” between them and the reality of the split between sides C and D of the double-vinyl.

dury dava dury dava“34522” takes cues from Doors and Chrome and classic Greek psych, while “Tarlabasi” answers back with gorgeous dream-toned guitar and wah bass and a laid back vibe that still holds some funk in its procession ahead of subdued, gentle closer “Kane Ligo Alithina.” The set opens with “Afriki,” and indeed there’s some element of Afrobeat to the groove in various spots throughout, but with flourish of clarinet and the proto-space rock launch in the second half of the subsequent “Triptych,” there’s clearly no one style or genre claiming Dury Dava‘s sound, the five-piece using multiple angles of approach toward a single coherence manifest in longer form works or the barking, percussion-laced “Zoupa,” which somehow reminds in its vocal melody of Donovan in those moments where the freakout is held at bay momentarily, or the dilruba-laced side B closeout “Kalokairi,” which resolves in a gorgeous guitar solo atop a drifting progression that stays mostly quiet but for some vocalizations accompanying. It’s as gone a lead-in as “34522” (which, by the way, is a postal code for Istanbul) could ask for.

Dury Dava, as the live-tracked output of a relatively new band begin in 2016, is more than just an encouraging debut. From a group whose sound is a conglomeration of traditions from folk to pop to rock and back again, it is a deeply individualized starting point for what will hopefully be an ongoing creative growth. The fact that the lineup of Karolos Berahas (bass, keys, synth), Giorgis Karras (electric guitar, dilruba), Dimitris Mantzavinos (vocals, electric guitar, bouzouki), Dimitris Prokos (clarinet, synth) and Ilias Livieratos (drums, percussion) are able to come together in this way and be able to craft such a sonic blend without losing themselves in the process only deepens their prospects and gives them all the more of an identity in the meantime. It is not necessarily an easy record on first listen, but even if one digests it one side at a time, the results are more than worth that effort.

I’m genuinely honored to host the stream today on the occasion of the album’s release. Please find it below and enjoy:

Dury Dava is a five-piece band from Athens, Greece. Their debut self-titled album was recorded live during several sessions in the second half of 2018 at Hobart Phase Studios, aka the mossy basement of an unwitting suburban home in Athens, the very rehearsal space where the band members first met over three years ago. In part it represents this very union and subsequent formation, and brings to the world, for the first time, upwards of 70 minutes of their original music.

Several compositional trajectories are employed, drawing inspiration from a wide variety of places. Their music pays tribute to the raw grit of 60’s psychedelia and 70’s krautrock, and fuses elements from the Greco-Turkish musical traditions such as odd rhythms and folk dances with a punk mentality, resulting in an amalgamation of contemporary experimental rock with heterogeneous throwback underpinnings. What it lacks for in discipline, it compensates for in energy and spontaneity.

The music was written by Dury Dava:

Karolos Berahas (bass, keys, synth)
Giorgis Karras (electric guitar, dilruba)
Dimitris Mantzavinos (vocals, electric guitar, bouzouki)
Dimitris Prokos (clarinet, synth)
Ilias Livieratos (drums, percussion)

Out on double LP and digital album on May 10th via Inner Ear.

Dury Dava on Thee Facebooks

Dury Dava on Bandcamp

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Inner Ear Records website

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