«Merger and Acquisition» — review by smtf.lunarpages.com
Review of the Mumiy Troll album Sliyaniye i Pogloshcheniye 2005
There is no doubt about it — Mumiy Troll have made their strongest album so far! The title Merger and Acquisition , which one would naturally associate with the business world, is meant to be understood in a wider sense and this is reflected directly on the musical level, both in terms of a merge of elements from Mumiy Troll`s back catalogue, as well as that of a wide range of references to other bands and artists.
Mumiy Troll, a group which during the Soviet era was labelled «one of the world`s most socially dangerous bands» by the political leadership, have gone from an early breakthrough in the eighties as an experimental underground band to a popularity in Eastern Europe that has reached Beatles-like proportions. An estimated 100 million records sold and tours throughout Eastern Europe, Asia, U S A, Germany and Denmark, one can`t help but to ponder if the time has come to conquer the Western hemisphere for the Vladivostok band. They certainly don`t lack musical resources of their own, should they choose to take on such a project and Merge and Absorption could be the perfect stepping stone in this context.
Regarding the influences from the band`s musical past, virtually no previous record has been fully ignored, but the emphasis mainly stems from three periods — the rythms, playfulness and brilliant simplicity associated with the rockapops period from the earliest records, the heavy and sometimes dangerous guitar and beat arrangements from «Ikra» and «Tochno Rtut Aloe», and finally, the variety of Ilia Lagoutenko`s vocal expression and the use of the chanson genre from the previous album, Pokhitityeli Knig. Having said this, one might think that «Merger and Acquisition» would be a safe way of cashing in on past successes, but nothing could be further from the truth. Each track has its own fresh identity and vitalizing energy, the past is used as a giant mixer out of which comes a brew of innovation and creativity.
This is true for the album as a whole as well. «Merger and Acquisition» is a carefully planned musical concept album in the classic sense of the word, where the individual numbers are held together by a common idea, which makes the whole greater than the sum of its parts. The Beatles´ «Seargent Pepper`s Lonely Hearts Club Band» is of course forever the prototype for this kind of album, so when Mumiy Troll alludes on Sgt. Pepper by using a similar kind of murmur that opens that album at the intro of this one, it can be seen as a bold statement of their ambition level.
The murmur then turns into a string intro played by a children`s philharmonic group. The intention with this was to capture the spontaneity that only children can bring about in a natural way according to Lagoutenko, but the doom laden, sometimes almost nerve-wracking result rather makes me think of This Mortal Coil (if anyone remembers this marvellous project group of the early 90`s with members from Cocteau Twins and The Pixies) and some Hitchcock melodramatic movie theme music. Then it`s finally time for the album`s first real track, «Prosti, Kiska!/Sorry Kitty», and for anyone who has heard the original «Sorry Angel» (which also exists in an English version) this is more or less somewhat of a shock — although by no means an unpleasant one.
While the original was clad in a dark, heavy arrangement with powerful guitars and drums connoting despair, the listener is here met by a strolling, toy-like synthesizer (which is capturing everything of the naiivity that the string intro was supposed to embrace, with a melancholic twist to it) and the vocals of Ilia Lagoutenko formerly so in tune with the musical sentiment of the original, has now been replaced by an improvident tam-tam-dam singing. The over all irony of the track is ingeniously carried out by the band, and I have no problem with regarding the two versions as separate compositions, each brilliant in their own right.
Then we have «Banzai», which relies heavily on its rythmical, driving guitar play which escalates both in terms of tempo and density towards the end of the song, paired with Lagoutenko`s cheerful vocal. The group`s new, fifth member, recruited from the Russian jazz elite, here plays a keyboard strongly reminiscent of Manfred Mann`s Earthband, which spices up the arrangement.
«Xishnick/Predator» is supposed to be inspired by Western movies and no doubt there is a richness of sound-effects emphasizing this: horses, rattle snakes and an occasional coyote can be heard. Nevertheless, for us the strongest impression comes from Pink Floyd of the mid 70`s and this is combined with synthesizers from the mid 80`s, say typical Eurythmics or Depeche Mode from that period.
«Strahu net/Without Fear» is a captivating cocktail of guitars that alternate between heavy rock riffs and funky experiments blended with synthesizers that must have been sampled from so different sources as Soft Cell`s «Tainted Love» maxi single and Jackson Five`s «Can You Feel It». The most important reference though, is by no doubt the children`s choir that chants rebelliously in the chorus in the same manner as that of Pink Floyd`s «Another Brick in the Wall». This track immediately captures the listener and is highly addictive.
As hinted by in its title «Koralli/Coral», the song dwells on one of Mumiy Troll`s favourite themes — the sea. It differs from most of the other songs on the album by being free from eclectic references in the manner we have seen above and this is the typical sound of older, classic rock groups like DDT or Aquarium. In any case it is strategically placed on the album, allowing the listener to catch his breath between the more experimental tracks.
«Privatization» displays a backdrop of droning synthesizer and almost sitar-like guitar against which lagoutenko`s vocal is placed, accompanied by a variety of keyboard sounds. The lyrics are supposed to be a love song, dressed in analogous, economic terms.
«Takbivaetnesluchanio/No coincidence» is definetely a favourite of mine. It is composed by two very different parts indeed and alternates in a brilliant manner between the two throughout the song. First we have the nostalgic part governed by a tango sentiment. Lagoutenkono sings in a chanson style which is emphasized by a beautiful, over worldly accordion synthesizer. The shift to a high-tech, catchy, very rythmic, futuristic boogie twist, quite danceable, would seem almost impossible to make, but Mumiy Troll succeeds with a seldom heard grandeur.
«Yantary/Amber» has an interesting arrangement in that that around Lagoutenko`s typically Russian «la-la-la-vocal» it weaves a synthesis between your ordinary 80`s fat synth sound and rocky guitars, sometimes with the underlying sense of threat, the trade mark of Iggy and the Stooges. The melody is one of the album`s weaker, though.
«Iris» is an interesting combination of modern techno, funky bass and the kind of airy, space like sound of the 70`s that for instance Earth, Wind and Fire used to excel in. An exquisite arrangement where lagoutenko`s vocals is allowed to escalate to almost etheric heights.
«Njepokoj/Worry» is built around the rythmic, droning bass synthesizer familiar from some of the above mentioned tracks. The tension between the worry of the title and the contrasting, content vocal of Lagoutenko is interesting, but turns to confusion due to the supposedly sexy moaning by a woman throughout the track.
«Zdrastvujdosvidaniya/Hellogoodbye» is built around Farmakovskij`s brilliant, rythmical piano play, flanked by the other instruments, both backing it up, but also allowing themselves small, experimental excursions sometimes. A strong melody, Lagotenko`s voice backed by female vocalists, and occasional whistlings and rattle snakes, this song has an over all «Russian Western» feel to it and is as such, a worthy last number of the album. As if to bring the grandeur of the album to a trivial, down-to-earth-level, the song ends with someone blowing his nose. This is a good punch, but not even a full blown flu-choir could deny the fact that this is Mumiy Trolls greatest album so far and it will be hard to outmatch by any artist for the rest of this year.
Jonas Westman farbrorjonas666 at hotmail dot com
Åse Bruun ase.bruun at telia dot com
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