Лосины Маршала Потемкина — Старозубов (2022, ЕР)

 

Hi everyone. Today I'd like to present you latest EP by Лосины Маршала Потемкина, titled "Старозубов".

Last year I moved again, and my bands had to be reformated. Лосины... was no exception. While we're still waiting for our former bandmates to rejoin us, we kept working as a duo with our new multi-instrumentalist and member of The Colourful Pictures Dmitry Mulganov.

We changed style in favor of minimalistic electronic sound based on beats. The cover image, of course, mimics Swans' "Filth", I made this collage by myself using 1970's book about math. The EP may even be called sort of tribute to "Filth", despite it sounds pretty different.

Firstly, overall feeling of filth around makes you want to get cleansed, and it's a cathartic practice leading to purifying oneself, often may be caused by tragic events (that's what tragedy is about), and violent art images are supposed to have an effect on a person in real life.

Secondly, Michael Gira said he used advertising slogans to compose lyrics for Filth, as these slogans are dehumanized and alienized by themselves, and I used the very same method while writing lyrics for the track "Нам доверяют" ("We're Trusted).

Some say this release is a "step back" to outsider music from what we achieved before, but I'd rather say it's a step aside. While I've been into outsider music for years and haven't got any acclaim at all, I used these aesthetics as a founding stone, Jandek especially, as it corresponded to my own feelings: "non-music", "not a proper" music, out-of-tune music seemed to have more opportunities to express what I felt and thought at the time, and currently I believe it's time to rearrange these approaches to express new experience.

"Старозубов" is a name (Starozubov) of fictional Soviet crooner played by an awesome actor Anton Lapenko. The line "Starozubov won't sing about me" is one of the crucial lines here, which means, post-ironically, that neither I would reach acknowledge, nor I'd be even able to try, because the crooner who's supposed to sing, is purely fictional.

This title track is quite depressive, and touches upon topic of suicide which has been "contemplated multiple times" (a Rowland S. Howard reference), but still remains "technically impossible" - a nod to famous Willy-Nicky telegrams and its representation by Neubauten.

World War I, "modernist war", remains part of modernist myth which still lives in our minds as tragic yet not cathartic memory, a trauma which wasn't cured because it had never been paid enough attention to.

Theme of violence, geniunely important for Лосины... (each Лосины... release contains a song about violence, about suicide and about a famous guy who I envy, as I joked), is transformed by the narrator as a stream which floats both inside and outside, it's a simultaneous implosion and explosion, it bursts out and rushes in, it knows no obstacles and never stops. Violence wants to destroy the outside world and its bearer at the same time, during the very same act of crushing the limits, because violence actually is when one crosses the borders which shouldn't be crossed (a Delphic maxima). Violence, therefore, is neither "an answer", nor a "proper" question, but a "rhetorical question". This is what I find similar to Swans' message, too.

The track also contains a reference to a great artist Leonid Purygin, whose works about dreams (and nightmares) inspired me.

Querulant behavior, indifference to "good vs. evil" issues, psychophobia and questions of control are also among the topics.

The track "Хибины с Ильёй" (Khibiny with Ilya) is a rememberance of North we left (Khibiny is somewhat popular place of tourism, ancient mountains somehow suited for mountain ski etc.), but the protagonist returns there "to bury their son" accompained by some unclear dude named Ilya.

The track "Старшие товарищи" (Older Pals) tells a story of a guy who whines that "older pals" "don't promote you" trying to sell you his washing machine at the same time. It's rather funny story, to be fair.

So, hope it find this EP worth your time. I don't know what's going to be our next step, but the fact we still make ones, kind of encourages me during this harsh time. Hope everyone's well these days.

Stay tuned,

Sincerely yours,

John "Grey Lenses" Grey