Rational Diet - At Work
SKU
33-AltrOck 004
A RIO/chamber rock-styled band from Belarus. They are a 7 piece of Vitaly Appow-bassoon, Maxim Velvetov-guitars, Cyrill Christya-violin, Olga Podgaiskaja-keyboards, vocals, Anna Ovchinnikova-cello, Dmitry Maslovsky-bass and Nikolay Gumberg-drums.
Their debut was very good, although they could have used a little more time playing together before making their album. But now, they HAVE spent more time together and it shows. About as good of a rehearsal-intensive chamber rock album as you can think of. Their press release claims influences of: Shotakovich, Stravinsky, Webern, Ives, Henry Cow, Art Bears, Univers Zero, Present and Debile Menthol. Check! Check! and DOUBLE check!
"While the first Rational Diet release (AltrOck, 2007) appeared inevitably not so homogeneous, collecting compositions and recordings spread in the space of several years, this At Work offers an image definitely more complete and direct of the belorussian band. The more improvised sections have been reduced to the essential, the matching of acoustic and electric instruments even more successful. But what is really amazing is the attitude of these musicians, so far away from every canonical rock and prog influences, and yet so well characterized and recognizable in the chaos of «alternative» rock and its infinite branches. The style, well clear yet in the first cd, comes from the Russian twentieth century: the music oozes with Stravinsky and Shostakovic everywhere, but refracted through the «chamber rock» lens, able of inconceivable dynamical range both for a traditional acoustic ensemble and a «normal» rock group. The listening is extremely pleasant, and will meet the tastes of many fans, even the most disparate. Among the songs we’d like to mention Pukhow: after an unexpectedly melodic introduction, it goes through rhythmycal sharpest knots, where piano, bassoon, guitar and violin chase each other until they join together in a rocklike three-notes phrase. Such a pleasant surprise is Olga Podgaiskaja’s voice, a perfect Queen of the Night: listen to her interventions in Dear Kontrabandist or, even better, Wet Moss, brief but simply devastating. Finally we point out the beautiful Condemned, real peak of the album: aggressive and at the same time persuasive, in about ten minutes it gathers all the timbrical, rhythmycal and expressive facets of Rational Diet, then closing in a pure fury crescendo. The album ends with the slow modal melody of On Tuesdays, still played by the voice, hypnotic and mysterious, that seems emerge from the sound mists drawn by violin and saxophone, and cradled by the solemn gait of the organ. In short, At Work is an astonishing work, for its lucidity and conviction, by a group of musicians with an enviable qualification and a talent that would deserve much more attention by the audience and – a side that we, in Western world, often neglect – less political and civil obstacles in their country."