Days of Rona: Kamille Sharapodinov of The Grand Astoria, The Legendary Flower Punk & Slovo Mira

Posted in Features on May 4th, 2020 by JJ Koczan

The statistics of COVID-19 change with every news cycle, and with growing numbers, stay-at-home isolation and a near-universal disruption to society on a global scale, it is ever more important to consider the human aspect of this coronavirus. Amid the sad surrealism of living through social distancing, quarantines and bans on gatherings of groups of any size, creative professionals — artists, musicians, promoters, club owners, techs, producers, and more — are seeing an effect like nothing witnessed in the last century, and as humanity as a whole deals with this calamity, some perspective on who, what, where, when and how we’re all getting through is a needed reminder of why we’re doing so in the first place.

Thus, Days of Rona, in some attempt to help document the state of things as they are now, both so help can be asked for and given where needed, and so that when this is over it can be remembered.

Thanks to all who participate. To read all the Days of Rona coverage, click here. — JJ Koczan

the grand astoria kamille sharapodinov

Days of Rona: Kamille Sharapodinov of The Grand Astoria, The Legendary Flower Punk & Slovo Mira (St. Petersburg, Russia)

How are you dealing with this crisis as a band? Have you had to rework plans at all? How is everyone’s health so far?

All my bands had to change plans to some degree. The one that suffered the most is The Legendary Flower Punk, we had to cancel the whole 16-shows european tour in support of the new record. Slovo Mira got problems of different character – LPs and CDs with the new album are now stuck in Estonia at our friend’s house and there’s no way we can get them until the crisis ends. Release date is 24th of April so there’s almost no chance we will pick them by that time unfortunately. With The Grand Astoria we were going to finish vocal overdubs for our new EP, planned for release during autumn 2020. Luckily, we still can do that at home. Hello neighbors! All my guys are feeling fine, I personally don’t know anyone who got the virus but we are taking the situation seriously anyway.

What are the quarantine/isolation rules where you are?

April 7 the so called “quarantine holidays” were prolonged until 1st of May by the president of Russia. I am leaving home once in three-four days to get the fresh bread and vegetables, trying to keep distance from the other people on the street and grocery

How have you seen the virus affecting the community around you and in music?

Mostly it’s a huge financial breakdown for all the artistic folks out there. So, I’d like to encourage people who are still getting paid to support their favorite musicians, bookshops, record stores or any other nice small local business ventures in the hour of need. There are tons of ways to do that so go ahead please!

What is the one thing you want people to know about your situation, either as a band, or personally, or anything?

I’d like to share some positive news concerning all my current music projects.

Three weeks ago it became clear that our voyage with The Legendary Flower Punk is not going to happen so I came up with this idea to make a virtual tour. We recorded 16 sets of music (each set as the complete show that we planned to play in the respective city, from Vilnius to Hamburg) live in our rehearsal room and we plan to publish them every day since 9th of April up to 26th. So next week everybody is more than welcome to our special live series bandcamp page for a daily dose of psychedelic jam rock:
https://theflowerpot.bandcamp.com/

We also just released a digital version of our side of the forthcoming split LP (Tonzonen Records, autumn 2020) with American band Magic Beans. Check here:
https://thelegendaryflowerpunk.bandcamp.com/album/astra-vidya-2

Nice studio video was shot for one of the split tracks:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GEHi50yg5Ps

The Grand Astoria is busy with the new album called From the Great Beyond due to release also during October-November 2020. It’s 35 mins of genre-bending music again, ranging from psychedelic art rock to obscure heavy metal.
Track listing is as follows:

1. From the Great Beyond
2. Wasteland
3. Njanatiloka
4. Anyhow
5. Us Against the World
6. Ten Years Anniversary Riff

You can check the live performance of “Us Against the World” here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8guZ4ZbPudw

And finally Slovo Mira, my most avant-garde group is about to release the new music via Tonzonen Records in the end of April. Here is the pre-order link with first single:
https://slovomira.bandcamp.com/album/what-happened-to-you-in-all-the-confusion

That’s pretty much it. Looks like a lot of things are happening for me and I really hope that these turbulent times will pass quickly cos I miss the road very much! All the best for everyone in the world! Support each other with kind words and don’t panic.

https://www.facebook.com/TheGrandAstoria/
https://thegrandastoria.bandcamp.com/
https://www.facebook.com/thelegendaryflowerpunk
https://thelegendaryflowerpunk.bandcamp.com/
https://www.facebook.com/Tonzonen/
https://www.instagram.com/tonzonenrecords/
https://www.tonzonen.de
http://facebook.com/RobustfellowProds/
http://robustfellow.bandcamp.com
http://instagram.com/robustfellow_prods

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The Legendary Flower Punk Announce Spring European Touring

Posted in Whathaveyou on February 13th, 2020 by JJ Koczan

Psych-prog weirdos The Legendary Flower Punk will head out in April on a tour through Germany, the Czech Republic, and, well, more Germany. There’s a date in Poland and a date in Lithuania, but clearly the target here is German territory, and that’s fair enough, since their new album, Wabi Wu (review here), is due to release Feb. 21 through Tonzonen, which is based there. The band have a few shows in their native Russia booked as well, and they’ll be back through Poland on the way to Germany once more in August, this time to play the Aquamaria Festival. I wouldn’t be surprised if more touring surfaced around that appearance either, but then, I also wouldn’t be surprised if The Legendary Flower Punk put out another record this year, because being unpredictable is kind of how they do. They’re good at it.

There was a live video premiered here a little while back for the Wabi Wu title-track, but they’re also streaming the studio album in its entirety as of late last year, so I’ve included both below, because being thorough is how I do. I’m not as good at it as they are at being unpredictable, but I try.

From the PR wire:

the legendary flower punk

Psychedelic Rockers THE LEGENDARY FLOWER PUNK Announce European Live Dates!

New Album Wabi Wu out 21 February.

Started in 2012 as an obscure side project of Kamille Sharapodinov (guitarist of established Russian heavy psych proggers The Grand Astoria), The Legendary Flower Punk quickly became a beast of its own. The band mixes psychedelia, space rock, funky fusion and electronics in a joyful manner like no one else in the scene. Krautrock, Japanoise, and Jazz are also no stranger words in the vocabulary of the band.

The Legendary Flower Punk knows no boundaries. The unique sound of the Russian trio combines pure Psychedelic Rock with classic Prog Rock elements.

To celebrate the brilliant varied and exciting mix that is Wabi Wu, The Legendary Flower Punk is out in clubs to play it live on these dates:

15.03.2020 – “Les”, St.Petersburg (RU)
09.04.2020 – “Empty Brain Resort”, Vilnius (LT)
10.04.2020 – “2Kola”, Warsaw (PL)
11.04.2020 – “Tief”, Berlin (DE)
12.04.2020 – “KuZe”, Potsdam (DE)
13.04.2020 – “Werft”, Dresden (DE)
14.04.2020 – “Klubovna”, Prague (CZ)
17.04.2020 – “Divadlo Pod Lampou”, Plzen (CZ)
18.04.2020 – “P8”, Karlsruhe (DE)
19.04.2020 – “Space Meduza”, Berlin (DE)
20.04.2020 – “Anemone Studio Session”, Halle (DE)
22.04.2020 – “Dirty Dancing”, Osnabruck (DE)
23.04.2020 – “Potemkin”, Bielefeld (DE)
24.04.2020 – “Ruinebauer”, Bremen (DE)
25.04.2020 – “Sputnikhalle”, Munster (DE)
26.04.2020 – “Bar 227”, Hamburg (DE)
16.05.2020 – “Solar Systo Festival, St.Petersburg (RU)
28.05.2020 – “Massolit”, Moscow (RU)
29.05.2020 – “Papin Garage”, Yaroslavl (RU)
07.08.2020 – “Amore del Tropico”, Poznan (PL)
08.08.2020 – “Aquamaria Festival”, Plattenburg (DE)

https://www.facebook.com/thelegendaryflowerpunk
https://thelegendaryflowerpunk.bandcamp.com/
https://www.facebook.com/Tonzonen/
https://www.instagram.com/tonzonenrecords/
https://www.tonzonen.de

The Legendary Flower Punk, Wabi Wu (2020)

The Legendary Flower Punk, “Wabi Wu” live at Galernaya 20

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Quarterly Review: Mos Generator, Psychic Lemon, Planet of Zeus, Brass Hearse, Mother Turtle, The Legendary Flower Punk, Slow, OKO, Vug, Ultracombo

Posted in Reviews on January 6th, 2020 by JJ Koczan

quarterly review

I’d like to hope y’all know the drill by now. It’s the Quarterly Review. We do it (roughly) every quarter. The idea is 10 reviews per day for a Monday to Friday span, running 50 total. I sometimes do more. Sometimes not. Kind of depends on the barrage and how poorly I’ve been doing in general with keeping up on stuff. This time is ‘just’ 50, so there you go. You’ll see some bigger names this week and some stuff that’s come my way of late that I’ve been digging and wanting to check out. It’s a lot of rock, which I like, and a few things I’m writing about basically as a favor to myself because, you know, self-care and all that.

But staring down the barrel of 50 reviews over the next few days has me as apprehensive and how-the-hell-is-this-gonna-happen as ever, so I think I’ll just get to it and jump in. No time to waste.

Quarterly Review #1-10:

Mos Generator, Exiles

mos generator exiles

Worth it just for the Sabbath cover? Most definitely. As Mos Generator take on “Air Dance” from Never Say Die as part of the Glory or Death Records LP compilation release, Exiles, they blend the proggy swagger of later-’70s Iommi leads with the baseline acoustic guitar fluidity that makes those final Ozzy-era records so appealing in hindsight. It’s just one of the six reasons to take on Exiles however. The A side comprises three outtakes from 2018’s Shadowlands (review here), and guitarist/vocalist Tony Reed‘s Big Scenic Nowhere bandmate Bob Balch sits in on “Battah,” while a duly manic reworking of Van Halen‘s “Light up the Sky,” the Black Sabbath track and a live version of Rush‘s “Anthem” from 2016 make up side B. It’s a quick listen and it’s Mos Generator. It may be a stopgap on the way to whatever they’re doing next, but if you think about it, so is everything, and that’s no reason not to jump in either for the covers or the originals, both of which are up to the band’s own high standard of output.

Mos Generator on Thee Facebooks

Glory or Death Records on Bandcamp

 

Psychic Lemon, Freak Mammal

psychic lemon freak mammal

The distorted wails of Andy Briston‘s guitar echo out of Freak Mammal — the five-track/46-minute third LP from London’s Psychic Lemon — like a clarion to the lysergic converted. A call to prayer for those worshiping the nebulous void, not so much kept to earth by Andy Hibberd‘s bass and Martin Law‘s drums as given a solidified course toward the infinite far out. Of course centerpiece “Afrotropic Bomb” digs into some Ethiopian groove — that particular shuffling mania — and I won’t take away from the lower buzz of “Free Electron Collective” or the tense hi-hat cutting through all that tonal wash or the ultra-spaced blowout that caps six-minute finale “White Light,” but give me the self-aware mellower jaunt that is the 13-minute second track “Seeds of Tranquility” any day, following opener “Dark Matter” as it does with what would be a blissful drift but for the exciting rhythmic work taking place beneath the peaceful guitar, and the later synthesized voices providing a choral melody that seems all the more playfully grandiose, befitting the notion of Freak Mammal as a ceremony or at very least some kind of lost ritual. Someday they’ll dig up the right pyramid and call the aliens back. Until then, Psychic Lemon let us imagine what might happen after they return.

Psychic Lemon on Thee Facebooks

Drone Rock Records website

 

Planet of Zeus, Faith in Physics

PLANET OF ZEUS FAITH IN PHYSICS

There’s a context of social commentary to Planet of ZeusFaith in Physics that makes one wonder if perhaps the title doesn’t refer to gravity in terms of what-goes-up-must-come-down as it might apply to class hierarchy. The mighty, ready to fall, and so on. Songs like the post-Clutch fuzz roller “Man vs. God” and “Revolution Cookbook” (video premiere here) would seem to support that idea, but one way or the other, as the later “Let Them Burn” digs into a hook that reminds of Killing Joke and the dense bass of eight-minute closer “King of the Circus” provides due atmospheric madness for our times, there’s a sense of grander statement happening across the album. The Athens-based outfit make a centerpiece of the starts and stops in “All These Happy People” and remind that whatever the message, the medium remains top quality heavy rock and roll songcraft, which is something they’ve become all the more reliable to deliver. The more pointed perspective than they showed on 2016’s Loyal to the Pack suits them, but it’s the nuance of electronics and arrangements of vocals and guitar on cuts like “The Great Liar” that carry them through here. If you believe in gravity, Planet of Zeus have plenty on offer.

Planet of Zeus on Thee Facebooks

Heavy Psych Sounds website

 

Brass Hearse, Oneiric Afterlife

brass hearse oneiric afterlife

Experimentalist keyboard-laced psychedelic goth your thing? Well, of course it is. You’re in luck then as Brass Hearse — an offshoot of once madly prolific Boston outfit Ice Dragon — unveil three new songs (plus an intro) with the Oneiric Afterlife and in 10 minutes work to unravel about 30 years of genre convention while still tying their material to memorable hooks. “Bleed Neon,” “Indigo Dust” and “Only Forever” seem simple on the surface, and none of them touch four minutes long, let alone “A Gesture to Make a Stop,” the 26-second introduction, but their refusal of stylistic constraint is as palpable as it is admirable, with a blend of folk guitar and dark-dance-party keys and percussive insistence on “Bleed Neon” and a ’60s Halloweeny rock organ line in “Only Forever” that’s complemented by low-end fuzz and a chorus that would rightly embarrass Ghost if they heard it. In comparison, “Indigo Dust” is serene in its presentation, but even there is a depth of arrangement of keys, guitar, bass and drums, and the skill tying it all together as a cohesive sound is not to be understated. A quick listen with a lot to unpack, it’s not going to be everyone’s thing, but those who get it will be hit hard and rightly so.

Brass Hearse on Thee Facebooks

Brass Hearse on Bandcamp

 

Mother Turtle, Three Sides to Every Story

mother turtle three sides to every story

The first of three tracks on Greek progwinders Mother Turtle‘s fourth LP, Three Sides to Every Story, “Zigu Zigu,” would seem to cap with a message of congratulations: “You’ve listened to three musicians indulging themselves with some kind of weird instrumental music.” It then goes on to question its own instrumentalism, because it has the words presently being spoken, continuing in this manner until a long fadeout of guitar leads to the funky start of the 15-minute-long “Notwatch.” Good fun, in other words. Mother Turtle maybe aren’t so weird as they think they are, but they are duly adventurous and obviously joyful in their undertaking, bringing chants in over drifting guitar and synth swirl in “Notwatch” before building to a crescendo of rock guitar and organ, ultimately dominated by a solo as it would almost have to be, before intertwining piano lines in 16:46 closer “A Christmas Postcard from Kim” lead to further shenanigans, vocal experimentation, plays on metal, holiday shimmer, and a fade into the close. At 38 minutes, Three Sides to Every Story doesn’t at all overstay its welcome, but neither is it an exercise looking for audience engagement in the traditional sense. Rather, it resonates its glee through its offbeat sensibility and thus works on its own level to craft a hook. One can’t help but smile while listening to the fun being had.

Mother Turtle on Thee Facebooks

Sound Effect Records website

 

The Legendary Flower Punk, Wabi Wu

The Legendary Flower Punk Wabi Wu

It is something to consider, perhaps as you dive into the nine-minute “Prince Mojito” on The Legendary Flower Punk‘s Wabi Wu, that the band started as a psych-folk solo-project. Currently working as a core trio plus a range of guests, the Russian troupe make their debut on Tonzonen with the brazenly prog seven-tracker, totaling just a 44-minute run but with a range that would seem to be much broader. Alternately jazzy and synth-laden, technically intricate but never overly showy, pieces like the bass-led “Azulejo” and the penultimate “Trance Fusion På Ryska” present a meeting of the minds with founding guitarist Kamille Sharapodinov at the center of most compositions, he and bassist Mike Lopakov and drummer Nick Kunavin digging into nothing’s-off-limits textures from fusion onward through New Wave and dub. The abiding rule followed seems to be whatever moves the band about a given track is what they roll with, and though The Legendary Flower Punk has evolved well beyond its origins, there’s still a bit of flower and still a bit of punk amid all the legends being made. Good luck keeping up with it.

The Legendary Flower Punk on Bandcamp

Tonzonen Records website

 

Slow, VI – Dantalion

Slow VI Dantalion

With the follow-up to 2018’s V – Oceans (review here), Belgian duo Slow rattle off another 78 minutes of utterly consuming, crushing, atmospheric and melancholic funeral doom like it’s absolutely nothing. Well, not like it’s nothing — more like it’s a weight on their very soul — but even so. Issued through Aural Music, VI – Dantlion brings the two-piece of guitarist/vocalist/drummer Déhà and bassist/lyricist Lore B. once again into the grueling, megalithic churn of self-inflicted riff-punishment that’s so encompassing, so dark, so deep and so dramatic it almost can’t help but also be beautiful. To wit, second track “Lueur” is a 17-minute downward journey into ambient brutalism, yet as it moves toward the midsection one can still hear melodic elements of keyboard and orchestral sounds peaking through. There is letup in the lush finale “Elégie,” but to get there, you have to make your way through “Incendiaire,” which is possibly the most extreme movement of the seven inclusions. Though frankly, after a while, you’re buried so far down by Slow‘s glorious miseries that it’s hard to tell. The world needs this band. They are what humanity would sound like if it was ever honest with itself.

Slow on Thee Facebooks

Aural Music on Bandcamp

 

OKO, Haze

oko haze

Adelaide, Australia, newcomers OKO present their debut EP in the form of Haze, a 14:44 single-song outing that sees the instrumental three-piece of guitarist Nick Nancarrow, bassist Tyson Ruch and drummer Ash Matthews tap into organic heavy psych vibes while working cross-planet with Justin Pizzoferrato (known for his work with Elder, among others) on the mix and master. The resulting one-tracker has a clarity in its drum sound and clean feel that one suspects might speak of more progressive intentions on the part of OKO in the longer term, but as they are here they have a sense of tonal warmth that serves them well across the unpretentious span of “Haze” itself, the winding riff inevitably bringing to mind some of Colour Haze‘s jammier work but still managing to find its own direction. I hear no reason OKO can’t do the same, regardless of the influences they’re working under in terms of sound. Further, the longform modus suits them, and while future work will inherently develop some variety in general approach, the natural exploration they undertake on this first outing easily holds attention for its span and is fluid enough that, had they wanted, they could have pushed it further.

OKO on Thee Facebooks

OKO website

 

Vug, Onyx

vug onyx

Vug are not the first European heavy rock band to blend vintage methods with modern production. They’re not the first band to take classic swagger and drum urgency and meld it with a pervasive sense of vocal soul. I’m not sure I’d tell them that though, because frankly, they’re doing pretty well with it. At its strongest, their Tonzonen-released sophomore outing, Onyx, recalls Thin Lizzy via, yes, Graveyard, but there’s enough clarity of intention behind the work to make it plain they know where they’re coming from. Such was the case as well with their 2018 self-titled debut (review here), and though they’ve had some lineup turnover since that first offering, the self-produced four-piece bring a character to their material on songs like “Tired Of” and the penultimate boogier “Inferno” before closing with the acoustic “Todbringer” — a mirror of side A’s “On My Own” — that they carry the classic-style 39-minute long-player off without a hitch, seeming to prep the heavy ’10s for a journey into a new decade.

Vug on Thee Facebooks

Noisolution webstore

 

Ultracombo, Season 1

Ultracombo Season 1

As the title hints, the Season 1 EP is the debut from Italy’s Ultracombo, and with it, the five-piece of vocalist Alessio Guarda, guitarists Alberto Biasin and Giordano Tasson, bassist Giordano Pajarin and drummer Flavio Gola work quickly to build the forward momentum that brings them front-to-back through the 23-minute five-track release. “Flusso” and opener “The King” feel particularly drawn from an earlier Truckfighters influence, but Guarda‘s vocals are a distinguishing factor amidst all that ensuing fuzz and straight-ahead drive, and in “Sparatutto” and the closer “Il Momento in Cui Non Penso,” they seem to strip their approach to its most basic aspects and bring together the tonal thickness and melodicism that’s been at root in their sound overall. The subtlety, such as it is, is to be found in their songwriting, which results in tracks that transcend language barriers through sheer catchiness. That bodes better for them on subsequent outings better than a wall o’ fuzz ever could, though of course that doesn’t hurt them either, especially their first time out.

Ultracombo on Thee Facebooks

Ultracombo on Bandcamp

 

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The Legendary Flower Punk Premiere “Wabi Wu” Live Video

Posted in Bootleg Theater on August 8th, 2019 by JJ Koczan

the-legendary-flower-punk

What began as a side-project from The Grand Astoria‘s Kamille Sharapodinov has and clearly still is expanding, as The Legendary Flower Punk has gone from exploring hippie psych textures to full-band-and-then-some progressive space rock. This Fall, the outfit will release Wabi Wu through Tonzonen Records, the follow-up to 2016’s Zen Variations, which will feature not only Sharapodinov and Michail Lopakov, who founded the project together, but a range of others including a swath of guests on keys and other arrangement elements. I haven’t heard the full thing yet — I don’t even know if it’s done — but they’ve got a live-in-studio video of the band as a four-piece playing the instrumental title-track “Wabi Wu,” and it sounds pretty awesome as far as album-teasers go.

You ever want to see what a locked-in band looks like? Just watch The Legendary Flower Punk play “Wabi Wu” in this clip. They’re not putting on a show. There’s no audience. This is just about four players in the room, facing each other, headphones on, experiencing the joy of something they’re making together. As regards the video, it’s a little unclear at first where Sharapodinov is in relation to the rest of the band, but it works out sooner or later, and indeed, it’s everybody just playing through the song. But look at their faces as they go. They’re concentrating, to be sure, but they’re also having an absolute blast. It makes the funky prog groove that much more infectious to see them so dug into it, and it’s an utter pleasure to watch someone so much enjoy what they’re doing. If you were going to be in a band, you would want to feel this way about it.

I don’t know how much “Wabi Wu” will ultimately speak for the album that bears its name when that arrives, but its sub-seven-minute uptempo push is right on and ready for digging, so do like they’re doing and enjoy it for what it is. When I hear more about the album release, I’ll post accordingly.

“Wabi Wu” was filmed at Galernaya 20 Studio in Saint Petersburg, Russia.

Have fun:

The Legendary Flower Punk, “Wabi Wu” live at Galernaya 20 premiere

Filmed on 17.01.2019 at Galernaya 20 studio by Julia Melikhova.
Live version from the album “Wabi Wu”
To be out in November 2019 via Tonzonen Records (Germany).

The Legendary Flower Punk on Thee Facebooks

The Legendary Flower Punk on Bandcamp

Tonzonen Records on Thee Facebooks

Tonzonen Records on Instagram

Tonzonen Records website

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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

Robustfellow Productions on Thee Facebooks

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
https://www.facebook.com/RobustfellowProds/
http://vk.com/robustfellow

Various Artists, Electric Funeral Cafe Vol. 2 (2016)

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The Legendary Flower Punk Releases New Album Zen Variations

Posted in Whathaveyou on November 10th, 2016 by JJ Koczan

the-legendary-flower-punk

From the moment the project was named, it was clear that The Legendary Flower Punk had the potential to be kind of all over the place. And what began as a solo vehicle for The Grand Astoria guitarist/vocalist Kamille Sharapodinov has played out that scenario to its most enticing effect yet on the new album, Zen Variations. Self-released by the band — yup, a band — the new full-length veers through deeply progressive krautrock experimentation. One could argue Sharapodinov‘s guitar is its guiding force, but the tracks, each of which is a “Zen” of one kind or another — much needed — toy with arrangement in a way that even The Grand Astoria at its boldest has yet to do.

Though as Sharapodinov took the time to explain, the two acts are also growing closer together in terms of lineup. Could the future belong to The Legendary Astoria? I guess we’ll have to wait to find out where it’s all heading. You won’t find me daring to speculate.

His words, more info on the new album, the lineup and upcoming tour dates for The Legendary Flower Punk follow, as culled from the internet and from Sharapodinov directly:

the-legendary-flower-punk-zen-variations

The Legendary Flower Punk – Zen Variations

“These tracks were written during last year and were stage tested during the tours we had in 2015-2016,” explains The Legendary Flower Punk guitarist/founder Kamille Sharapodinov. “The project now is The Grand Astoria’s de facto instrumental family outfit, since it includes TGA’s current drummer and the very first TGA bassist (the one who recorded the first album with us and then left). The music is jam-oriented and we are writing it together, which is the main difference from TGA where I write all the music alone.”

The Legendary Flower Punk, Zen Variations tracklisting:
1. Earthquake Zen 08:58
2. Urban Zen 07:46
3. Party Zen 05:11
4. Subway Zen 04:09
5. Warfield Zen 04:09
6. White Magick Zen 06:47
7. Christmas Zen 08:27

The Legendary Flower Punk is going to hit the road the release of new CD! Check the dates below.

The Legendary Flower Punk on tour:
12.11 Zelenograd (RU) “cinema”
13.11 Kaluga (RU) “garage”
19.11 Vilnius (LT) “Narauti”
20.11 Warsaw (PL) “2Kola”
22.11 Berlin (de) ” deep reason ‘
23.11 Hamburg (DE) “227 Bar”
24.11 Halle (de) ” ha7″
25.11 Karlsruhe (de) “Akk”
26.11 Würzburg (DE) “Cairo”
27.11 Nuremberg (de) “Artichoke”
28.11 Leipzig (de) “Mespotine sessions”
03.12 St. Petersburg (RU) “Zoccolo 2.0”

The Legendary Flower Punk is:
Kamille Sharapodinov – guitars
Mike Lopakov – bass
Nik Kunavin – drums, percussion

The Legendary Flower Family:
Danila Danilov – synth (3-6), metallophone (1)
Denis Kirillov – acoustic grand piano (7), flute (7), fender rhodes piano (1)
Ravil Azizov – clarinet (2, 4)
Vladimir Ermolov – trumpet (1, 3, 5)
Ekaterina Kulagina – saxophone (2)
Slava Lobanov – trombone (2, 5)
George Nefedov – balalaika (1)
Alexander Karelin – mixing and mastering
Sophia Miroedova – artwork

https://thelegendaryflowerpunk.bandcamp.com/album/zen-variations
https://www.facebook.com/thelegendaryflowerpunk
https://www.facebook.com/TheGrandAstoria/

The Grand Astoria, Zen Variations (2016)

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