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Doomed City Release New Album Poetry of Simple Things

Posted in Whathaveyou on February 12th, 2019 by JJ Koczan

doomed city

Doomed City‘s first full-length under the new moniker — they used to be called 5R6 — seems to have been a while in the making. The Ukranian heavy rock four-piece released the single “Summer Break” last August and have newly followed up with the rest of the long-player, so I don’t know if the rest of the album wasn’t done or whatever, but Poetry of Simple Things, as it’s called, taps into hard and heavy rock and roll and has just an edge of metal to its proceedings. Perhaps it’s also telling that the record opens with “Your Opinion” and ultimately requests that you keep it to yourself. Can do, dudes.

I haven’t seen word of a physical release as yet, but it’s out now digitally, and you can stream it as well at the bottom of this post courtesy of Doomed City‘s Bandcamp, which also turned up the following info:

doomed city poetry of simple things

Doomed City – Poetry of Simple Things

Poetry Of Simple Things is a new album of Doomed City, the Ukrainian band formerly known as 5R6. The album was recorded in 2018 but it saw the light of day in 2019, 7 months after the band received the final master.

5R6 released several records, played a lot of concerts in Ukraine, toured Europe twice, but they played their last concert under that name in January 2018 closing the 5R6 chapter.

The name change was motivated by the changes in the band’s music. On “Poetry of Simple Things” you would rather hear distant echoes of Fugazi or Jawbox rather than influences of King Crimson or Tool as you probably would on previous albums. One of the things that stayed the same is that it is as always hard to classify the band’s music. The closest to doing so would be to say that it is alternative rock in a broad understanding as seen through the prism of each band member’s musical vision.

The diversity of Doomed City’s sound comes from the differences between personalities and vision of each band member and yet still there are more common points that it might appear at first glance. At the same time the album is not a random songs compilation, it is a panorama depicting the band’s evolution from the different angles.

1. Your Opinion 03:13
2. Bruised and Scarred 03:43
3. No Heroes 04:11
4. Not Enough 04:35
5. Will to Life 03:58
6. Charade 04:57
7. Summer Break 03:58
8. Just a Traveler 04:33
9. 61000 03:27

https://www.facebook.com/doomedcity.band/
https://doomedcity.bandcamp.com/

Doomed City, Poetry of Simple Things (2019)

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Various Artists, Electric Funeral Cafe Vol. 3: Journeys End and Begin

Posted in Reviews on January 17th, 2017 by JJ Koczan

electric funeral cafe vol 3

Look. The thing is immense. One can barely hope to give a decent accounting of a compilation in a review in the easiest of scenarios, but to attempt to sum up the scope of Robustfellow ProductionsElectric Funeral Cafe Vol. 3, which spans three CDs in its physical incarnation and tops out at an astonishing 48 tracks and four-plus hours of listening material when the digital bonus tracks are included from the Bandcamp version, the idea itself becomes silly. All one can really do is the same thing the listener likely does: make your way through it at your own pace, try to absorb as much as you can, and step back to admire the incredible amount of coordinating effort that must have gone into its making.

The latter is particularly impressive as what’s been touted as the final installment of the Kiev-based Robustfellow‘s Electric Funeral Cafe trilogy — nothing like going out with a bang — is bigger even than its predecessors, which came out in 2016 and 2015 and were “only” two discs apiece. The first two were broken down into component Electric and Funeral halves, arranged along this theme by discs. This edition works much the same way, with the Electric discs more focused on heavy rock and the Funeral disc dug into dirge-style doom and sludge, but adds the Cafe disc, on which one might be hear the Beatles-gone-electro-pop psych of Black Maloka, the Creedence Clearwater Revival-style boogie of Freeky Clean or the pure Doorsian meandering of The Jossers, along with more familiar names like Krobak (a Stoned Jesus side-project) or The Legendary Flower Punk (a The Grand Astoria side-project).

As with the earlier volumes, the bulk of the inclusions here highlight the underground boom in the Ukraine itself. 38 of the total 48 groups involved hail from the Ukraine. Two more are from Russia (The Legendary Flower Punk and A Foggy Realm, also on the Cafe disc), and one each from Japan (Eternal Elysium, on the Electric disc), Finland (Loinen, Funeral disc), the US (Contra, Electric), Sweden (Suffer Yourself, Funeral), Belarus (Nebulae Come Sweet, Funeral), the UK (Sons of Alpha Centauri, Cafe), and Italy (Le Scimmie, Funeral). It’s easy to get lost in the sprawl of a release like this, certainly, but worth noting all the same that this is the first of the Electric Funeral Cafe offerings to branch outside the Ukraine itself, so even as Robustfellow ends the series, it does so by reaching into new territories, making the project all the more impressive. One imagines that if the label kept it going, it would only continue to grow.

ELECTRIC FUNERAL CAFE POSTER

Not that it’s lacking in its current form, of course. Pick your poison and it’s likely here somewhere, from the progressive heavy vibes of Stonefromthesky and Ethereal Riffian on the Electric disc to the deathly chug of Chainsaw Jack‘s “Crashing Waves” and post-hardcore-sludge of Nebulae Come Sweet on the Funeral disc to the ’90s-style psych of Vermilion Nocturne and beat-backed drone of Submatukana‘s “Genesis” — which boasts a sampled Bible reading amid creepy whispered vocals — on the Cafe disc. There are, of course, a host of bands here who aren’t so easily fit into one category or another, as Dreadnought foreshadow on the Electric disc some of the screaming that will be a running theme throughout most of the Funeral disc, and the huge Ufomammut-style roll, push and echoes of Soom on Funeral do likewise for Cafe, but each piece of Electric Funeral Cafe Vol. 3 offers something distinct from the others, and so the themes are not only ably established, but solidified while jumping from band to band, city to city, country to county, atmosphere to atmosphere.

And as ever for a worthy various-artists release, Electric Funeral Cafe Vol. 3 presents a number of curios warranting further investigation. In particular, Lviv’s 1914, who lead off the Funeral disc with “8×50 mm Repetiergewehr M95” would seem to have a fixation with WWI — remind me to tell you sometime about how it was the fall of Western Civilization; unless you’re European, in which case you already know — and Lucifer Rising on the Electric disc blend modern buzz tone with classic blues rock thrust, but there are a swath of such interest-piquers as the comp plays out, and the real challenge lies in not being overwhelmed by all of it.

Much to the credit of Robustfellow and to the benefit of the acts contributing, everyone is given a genuine chance to ply their sonic wares, whether that’s a sub-three-minute death-doom rumbler like Monmuth‘s “Vail Seven” or the nine-minute heavy post-rock rollout of Stonefromthesky‘s “67,” which makes sense in a if-you’re-going-to-do-it-and-it’s-already-huge-then-don’t-skimp kind of way, and if the tradeoff for that is there’s a lot of music to dig into, it’s the kind of issue a listener should probably be thankful to take on, even if it requires multiple rounds to get through the front-to-back experience — a four-hour listening session is a rare gift in these busy times. Bottom line is Electric Funeral Cafe Vol. 3 will be there, whether one wants to take it as a whole or in pieces — as a document of Ukrainian heavy, yes, but also the scene’s will to reach outside itself and include others in a creative conversation — and as that movement continues to flourish and progress, such an impulse can only help broaden a scope already shown here to be considerable. And by considerable, I mean staggering.

Various Artists, Electric Funeral Cafe Vol. 3 (2017)

Robustfellow Productions on Bandcamp

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Robustfellow Productions website

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Electric Funeral Cafe Vol. 3 Compilation Due Next Month

Posted in Whathaveyou on December 14th, 2016 by JJ Koczan

If you’ve had the chance to check out the prior two installments of Robustfellow Productions‘ compilation series Electric Funeral Cafe, you already know they’re massive things. Huge in terms of the sheer amount of music they feature, and with a strong focus solely directed on the Ukrainian heavy scene, they bring to light some acts who those of us outside the region might not necessarily run into on a daily basis. Electric Funeral Cafe Vol. 3 is no different, but it’s worth noting that in addition to the good dose of acts from Kiev and Lviv it provides, it for the first time pushes international and boasts bands from the US, the UK, Belarus, Finland, Japan and Sweden included, so this final installment in the series — which comes with seven more tracks if you get the digital version — is by no means limited. Fitting for the mission of the series that it would expand even unto its conclusion.

I feel like the first line below under specifications really says it all: 41 bands, 9 countries, three discs, over three and a half hours of music. Sold.

Release date is Jan. 21. Here’s info from the PR wire:

electric funeral cafe vol 3

V/A – ‘Electric Funeral Café vol.3’

Formats: 3xCD in Deluxe digipack & Download
Catalogue # RBF 016 | IHR005
Label: Robustfellow Prods. & Iron Hamster Recs.
Release Date: 21 January 2017

Specifications:
– 41 bands from 9 countries on 3 CDs lasts for more than 3,5 hours
– Including 23 special tracks that you hardly hear anywhere else
– Plus 7 bonus tracks on digital version on bandcamp
– The final chapter of EFC trilogy
– Deluxe ltd.ed. that will consist of EFC vol.1,2,3
– Launch Party 21.I.2017 @ Winter Mass [“Monte Ray Live Stage”, Kyiv, UA]

Artwork design by Zinkovskaya Oksana
Design and DTP by Marsym Gavronsky
Made in Ukraine | 21.I.2017

List of robust bands involved in EFC vol.3 from A to Z:
1914 [Lviv, UA]
5R6 [Kharkiv, UA]
A Foggy Realm [Moscow, RU]
Atomic Simao [Kyiv, UA]
Bichkraft [Kyiv, UA]
Black Maloka [Kyiv, UA]
Borum [Kyiv, UA]
Chainsaw Jack [Kharkiv, UA]
Contra [Cleveland, OH, USA]
Dreadnought [Ternopil`, UA]
Drunk Diver [Lviv, UA]
Eternal Elysium [Nagoya, JP]
Ethereal Riffian [Kyiv, UA]
Filthy Rich Preacher [Cherkassy, UA]
Freeky Cleen [Kyiv, UA]
Krobak [Kyiv/Kharkiv, UA]
Katakomba [Kyiv, UA]
Le Scimmie [Vasto, IT]
Les Gendarmes [Kyiv, UA]
Loinen [Karjaa, FIN]
Love’n’Joy [Kyiv, UA]
Lucifer Rising [Kyiv, UA]
MAUT [Ivano-Frankivsk, UA]
Monmuuth [Dnipro, UA]
Nebulae Come Sweet [Minsk, BY]
Night on Fire [Zhytomyr, UA]
Ningen-girai [Cherkassy, UA]
Nödutgång:Självmord [Poltava, UA]
Obriy [Uzhgorod,UA]
Octopus Kraft [Drohobych/Lviv, UA]
Onsager [Khmelnitsky, UA]
OwlCraft [Cherkassy, UA]
Risin Sabotage [Kyiv, UA]
Small Depo [Kyiv, UA]
Sons Of Alpha Centauri [Kent, UK]
Soom [Kharkiv, UA]
Space-man [Lviv, UA]
stonefromthesky [Kyiv, UA]
Straytones [Kyiv, UA]
Submatukana [Dnipro, UA]
Suffer Yourself [Kyiv, UA/Linköping, SWE]
The Curse Of Wendigo [Kharcyzk/Kyiv, UA]
The Jossers [Kalush, UA]
The Legendary Flower Punk [St.Petersburg, RU]
Trip Inside Me [Kyiv, UA]
Tungu [Chernihiv,UA]
Vermilion Nocturne [Kyiv, UA]
Warningfog [Kyiv, UA]

http://robustfellow.blogspot.com/
https://robustfellow.bandcamp.com
https://www.youtube.com/user/TheRobustfellow
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Various Artists, Electric Funeral Cafe Vol. 2 (2016)

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5R6, Islands: Off the Ledge

Posted in Reviews on August 5th, 2016 by JJ Koczan

5r6 islands

It starts out unassuming enough with a quiet two-minute intro, but even the title of that track — “The Ledge” — seems to bring out ideas of jumping off into something vast. Sure enough, that’s basically how it plays out as 5R6‘s Islands gets underway with the circular progressive riffing of “Potion” The four-piece of guitarist/vocalist/keyboardist Igor Zubko, guitarist Kiril Brener, bassist Ievgenii Zinchenko and drummer/backing vocalist/keyboardist/noisemaker Dmytro Zinchenko (one assumes the rhythm section is related) hail from the Ukraine’s fertile heavy underground, in Kharkiv, which along with Kiev about six hours away by car has established a base of bands who cut a wide swath through various styles, creatively open but set in their purposes.

5R6‘s debut album, Islands, basks in a prog metal that owes some of its more intense moments to thrash, but is no less comfortable proffering post-grunge harmonies in “Gasping for Breath” or Nirvana-style jangle and rawness on “The City of X” than it is in the furious chugging in the second half of “Potion.” It can be a strange mix at times, but for Islands, which is released by Robust Fellow Records, that’s very clearly the intent. 5R6 careen through their seven-track/43-minute runtime and ultimately succeed in bringing these stylistic disparities to common ground, and it’s precisely because of this that their debut — recorded at Studio O! in Kharkiv over the course of 14 months by Alex Aizatsky and Dmytro Zinchenko (who also mixed) — succeeds as well as it does.

Over a bed of tense guitar notes and ambient noise, Zubko asks in the first two lines of the album, “I am standing on a ledge/Should I jump with arms oustretched?” He very clearly makes the decision to do just that as the speedier and more intense “Potion” takes hold. One of Islands‘ longer tracks at 7:27, it starts with an almost secondary intro behind “The Ledge,” but no question that the leadoff cut brings an immediate sense of atmosphere to bolster the proceedings that follow. Teeth-clenched riffing opens up a bit in the chorus before shifting into a section of Megadeth-esque speed-chugging in a preview for the apex of the song still to come. They make their way back through the verse and into an intricate bridge over tom runs and back through the chorus before reverting back to that same headbang-worthy groove, which this time carries the song out with a couple shouted final lines. “This River” is shorter and offers a less frantic vibe overall, starting off quiet and moving fluidly through introducing a kind of prog-grunge with its foundation in the creative drum work of Zinchenko.

5r6

A distinctly ’90s feel is pushed even further in the midsection of “This River,” which features one of the record’s best hooks and brings in heavier crash late before finishing melodic and leading smoothly into centerpiece “TV Snow,” the shortest (intro aside) song on Islands at 4:58 and a more straight-ahead thrust initially that breaks just before two minutes in to a stretch of minimal guitar and drums and spoken word/sampling that leads once more into a heavier surge, more bounce in the riff, but pushing toward the apex efficiently and paying off the first half of the album in the process as it makes way for the final three tracks.

That trio of cuts — “Gasping for Breath,” “The City of X” and closer “Islands” — all top seven minutes and very much have a side-B spirit to them in terms of how they expand the palette from what 5R6 are doing in the first four. Even though my copy of Islands is a CD and Robust Fellow‘s tape version seems to either move or eliminate “Gasping for Breath,” this split is evident as that song follows the pattern of opening gradually before shifting into heavier fare while also introducing more complex vocal arrangements. “TV Snow” previewed some of that, so the change isn’t out of nowhere, and it makes sense that 5R6 would work some Alice in Chains influence into their already potent brew. Perhaps most effective because of its more patient roll, “Gasping for Breath” leads to the straight-up grunge jangle and punkish forward thrust of “The City of X,” which plays a back and forth initially in quieting down to make room for the verses before resuming the rush for the chorus.

Past its halfway point, the song works through a bridge and back to the hook before an ending instrumental section takes hold at 5:26 that carries the last two minutes to their final fadeout, feeling a little tacked on, but serving atmospheric purpose all the same going into the concluding title-track. Granted, “Islands” would seem to have a difficult task in summing up the record that shares its name, but 5R6 don’t necessarily seem interested at the end in tying up loose ends that have already been tied up so much as pushing the limits further. In so doing, they wind up with a fitting summary anyhow. A single linear build plays out from the ground up and pushes through a finish that’s never out of control but still suitably vibrant, and the album ends quietly, as thoughtfully as it began.

If you were looking for a central theme to Islands, thoughtfulness would be a good start. As 5R6‘s first full-length, its cohesion and complexity would seem to signal that the band are not only willing to put clear time and effort into developing their material and level of performance, but that they have a burgeoning ability to balance aggression and fluidity in a way that makes their songwriting richer. That can only bode well going forward.

5R6, Islands (2015)

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5R6 on Bandcamp

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Robust Fellow on Bandcamp

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