Today’s album
is really special, it’s the first time Concern Void collaborated with a guest
musician who can be described as a “guest star”, it’s the only case so far but
I hope the new cases will follow.
Пророк СанБой (Prorok SunBoy, SunBoy the Prophet)
is a singer and musician from the town of Yartsevo who claims he was included
in Guinness World Book of Records for driving a bicycle and playing guitar in
the same time for a long distance; He also claimed he travelled around the
world, met national leaders and completed several bicycle journeys within the
countries of former USSR.
So he’s very bright and creative person, although I think he deserves more fame (he has about 6000 friends in social networks and about 500k views on YouTube which is way more than other Concern Void collaborators have, but it’s still less than he should have).
Пророк СанБой is active since the 80’s and
he’s still composing new songs using an acoustic or electric guitar or
electronic tunes, “borrowed” (cover versions with his own lyrics) or original.
A friend of mine showed me a couple of СанБой’s videos, and I liked it; shortly after I wrote СанБой and I started to work on a
remix of his song «Телефон» (“The Telephone”) for our annual sampler “In the Eternal Shadow”
(2015). Then our collaboration went on to this release, a 7-track long-play
web-album.
The title song
«Раньше ругали за
рок» (which can be
translated as “In the earlier times they blamed us for listening to rock”) is
about politics of Communist party which was constantly “blaming” the youth for
listening to “wrong music”:
“In the earlier times they blamed us for
listening to jazz
Then they blamed us for dancing twist
Then they blamed us for listening to rock”
This sense
of freedom is very important to СанБой, as he says: “I stand for democracy”.
The second song,
«Современная молодежь» (“The Modern Youth”), on the
contrary, shows СанБой’s
concerns about the youth of 90’s in Russia, СанБой accuses it in taking drugs,
disobedience, desire to leave home, etc. This remix heavily differs from the
original song by adding variety of new layers, sounds and effects.
The song «Телефон» (“The Telephone”) is funnier and
“lighter”, despite its sad ending:
“Who has approached through the muteness?
Who has approached and what price has he paid?”
It’s
interesting that СанБой tells his real phone number in this song (now it has been changed).
And the
final track which I cherish the most is called «Черемуха» (“ Bird-Cherry Tree”) , it’s a
fragile romantic story of the youth, gentle and sorrowful; lamentations of the
lost youth (and time) are sincere and touching.
“Bird-cherry tree is like a bride,
Its top is bended and it looks so shy
Bird-cherry tree will touch my face
And I guess I’ll become gorgeous, too
And I’ll remember a girl from my youth
For whom I cared so desperately
A bride who didn’t become a wife
And I’ll remember her with a sigh“
Currently
we’re working on new remixes, so I believe you find it entertaining. It’s less
underground, less complicated and sophisticated than peculiar Concern Void
music, that’s why it’s more popular, it’s just the way it goes. Enjoy!
Full playlist of the album (YouTube)
(you may need to sign up)
Sincerely
yours,
John “Grey
Lenses” Grey
