Grey Lenses — Nine Insights (2024)

 

Photo by Evgeniy Dvoynishnikov

Hi everyone, it's been more than a year since previous time I had updated this blog, and I hope some of you are still here to check out my new album.

I also noticed someone else started to use name "Grey Lenses" and releasing music under this moniker, which is actually ambigious: the good side is that it's actually a good name, the bad side is that they could google if the name's been occupied before using it, or, even worse, they don't care about such thing as an unique name for the band.

Anyway, as the first occupier of the name I found no reasons to rename my project, and released "Nine Insights" as Grey Lenses. Again, it's a soundtrack for a book. The photo for the cover was taken in 2021 by my friend Evgeniy Dvoynishikov in Murmansk, the district of Roslyakovo where there was a spontaneous "beach" also filmed in our video:

Also, one of the most important scenes in the book takes place there, so this image was the most accurate one I could ever pick for the cover.

Musically, one might not hear a great changes in sound between this record and some of my previous albums though I used a different software this time, and it took me about 18 months to finish the album while previously I used to take only 12.

For this album I tried to "compress" noise (it's almost completely a noise record with less than few pieces of dark ambient) into an everchanging structure which wouldn't allow listener to take a break. In addition, I tried to achieve "warmer" sound with using some of analogue equipment. Unlike Nervöse Leute, the project which was (is?) entirely analogue, Grey Lenses' noise records were entirely digital until "Nine Insights". This time it's sort of mix between digital and analogue technologies, and I believe I managed to make the tracks sound "oldschool" enough.

Technically speaking, the sound's based on feedback noise, a classic approach proved efficacy since 80s, but originally feedback was made when a mic was put against a speaker; I used a mic and a guitar amp with no guitar plugged, and this "absent" guitar was a symbol of significant loss, the great missing link which creates "a hole" in perception, which, i.e. hole, is getting filled with feedback noise.

I took inspiration in analogue noise pieces of industrial music (Cabaret Voltaire, Laibach), and also studied how guitar bands could use an amp to make noisy yet gentle sound (neither noise rock, nor shoegaze, but mostly in style of post-punk like Durutti Column, Joy of Life, Siglo XX or My Dad is Dead).

I hope you'll check out this record, it took effort of me:

Stay tuned for the new posts may follow!

Sincerely yours,

John "Grey Lenses" Grey

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

Лосины Маршала Потемкина — Зинаида Миркина в ее лучшие годы (2020)

 

Hi everyone, today I'd like to present you latest LP by Лосины Маршала Потемкина. It's titled "Зинаида Миркина в ее лучшие годы" (Zinaida Mirkina in Her Best Years).

The fun thing is that "best years" of Zinaida spent in total obscurity, she was a religious poet who couldn't be published in USSR, so first issues of her books were released only in 1990s, when it was anyway too late (she was 65 years old at the moment).

So I thought it's actually about us, we're not receiving anything at all at time, we have to wait for so long to get something which is never enough.

The cover picture was taken by our bass player Mikhail Alekseev in Belarus, and it's actually a reference to famous picture Alyonushka.

Switching to the sound, I got to admit not much has changed, it's still post-punk based songs with rather witty lyrics.

We begin with "Я не могу сказать, где твои деньги" ("I Can't Tell You Where's Your Money"), it's one of the earliest songs, first recorded in 2010, rerecorded in 2011, and finally remade as post-punk track in 2020. It features synths, metal percussion and a fine guitar riff. The lyrics touch upon topics of alcoholism in Russia.

Next goes "Бычьи цепни" ("Beef Tapeworms"), a story about parasites and intoxication, a metaphoric idea which is connected with Nick Drake's "Parasite", from one hand, and nodds to The Fall's bass sound in musical part. Lyrics also have reference to "Krvava Gruda - Plodna Zemlja" by Laibach (Bloody ground - fertile soil). Our favourite artist Vasily Shulzhenko was also mentioned (Life is a Shulzhenko's picture). And another reference is to notorious "You got AIDS" from "Family Guy" (You get beef tapeworms, yeeeah!).

Then we have "Отпуск ради отпуска" ("A Vacation for Vacation's Sake"), a sardonic story of a Russian employee who has to depart for vacation (otherwise he'd be forced to keep working). It also has a reference to David Lynch's "Eraserhead" ("I'm on Vacation"), touches upon topics of suicide (Strozsek is mentioned, see also a reference to Ian Curtis), isolation, poverty ("I got enough money to afford one lemon candy"), about office work as a new form of slavery ("A man is born to work at the office / He's not as free as his favourite kitty"), which is also strongly connected with early topics of Swans' lyrics (like "Power for Power's sake", "Money is flesh", etc.).

The fourth track is titled "Новый год в СИЗО" ("A New Year at Pretrial Detention Centre"). It's purely social, because many Russians, unfortunately, have an experience of being put in such centres. Musically, it has a reference to Neubauten's "U-Haft Muzak" (metal percussion in the end, which resonates with fireworks sound). The song begins with a sample by a great actor Leonid Kanevsky saying "Aah it's such a place no-one wants to leave" taken from famous and memetic show "Следствие вели", a crime show about well-known Soviet mass murderers. The song also features a Russian reversal, and a panic attack inside.

Then we have a song about workout which is titled Воркаут (Workout). It depicts sort of intellectual workout of memory training, claiming "How many quotes of the great men can remember your brain?", which is quite post-modern approach when we think in quotes and actually speak not our own words, but constantly repeating, quoting someone else's words. Lyrically, there's a mentioning of epoche, Husserl and reductionism, as well as one of the first Soviet pranks (Дед ИВЦ). The song ends with pictures of hospital, novocaine, ambulance, gleet, etc.

Then we have a song "Удачный день" ("A Lucky Day") which is actually a narrated story also in The Fall's spirit, about a guy who saw a man resembling famous maniac (and an occasional poet) Mukhankin and began to spy at him. All the way long, Ivolgin's laughter can be heard — which refers to Dostoevsky's character from "The Idiot" and a character from notorious Russian movies "Peculiarities of the National Fishing". Bela Lugosi and "Bride of the Monster" are also mentioned. Of course, the narrator underlines that "Bela Lugosi's dead" (we all remember Bauhaus). Closer to the end of the story, a suspicious man fights the narrator, but stray dogs arrive like Deus ex Machina and save him by biting the suspicious man to death: the narrator admits that it's similar to Ivan Karamazov's story from Dostoevsky's "Brothers Karamazov". In the end the narrator goes back home happily boasting that it's "Such a lucky day", and "Our debt's been payed, and the light is ours" — another reference to Laibach (Hostnik's suicide note / Apologija Laibach song).

Then goes a weird psychedelic song "Гусь Хрустальный" (Gus-Khrustalny), about a town in Russia which mythically mocks (in our song) Tupelo from Nick Cave's song: The sun doesn't rise in Gus-Khrustalny, the birds don't fly in Gus-Khrustalny. No-one knows the exact site of the town, no-one can guarantee that the post will be delievered there, no-one knows about famous people from this town, it's a dark and criminally dangerous place. "Napoleon said we don't need this town", which echoes with radio-like speech that Gus-Khrustalny "is not kind of town we need because it wouldn't help us to replace SWIFT". In the end the narrator confesses he'd move to Gus-Khrustalny to "die", and his scream drowns in maliciously sounding guitar effects.

Then we have a song "Кисель" ("Kissel", Russian national soft drink), it's a studio remake of 2013 song, I already told you its story, so we move along.

Next song is called "Чумной доктор" ("The Plague Doctor"), which refers to SCP, pandemic (though it was written way before the Covid), and shows the viewpoint of a man whose "business" is to "heal". He appears to be a sensitive guy taking care of prostitutes, wounded birds, lost dogs etc., but shows a great arrogance claiming "I'm better than Brodsky, and Pakhom's better than Brodsky, and Hölderlin's better too". Musically the guitar riff remind of Joy Division's "A Means to an End", lyrically it has references to Russian rap and pop music, Nietzsche, Dostoevsky's The Devils.

The final track is titled "Кевларом" ("By the Kevlar"), where kevlar is a metaphor of mental "armour" we put on ourselves. It has a piano part played by our collaborator Andrew Hangover. Lyrically, it's a symbolistic work having plenty of various images, but it also has some popular culture references, e.g. Dr. Myasnikov, a Russian propaganda-style TV doctor (the funny thing is that name "Myasnikov" in Russian means "Butcher"), or references to the Bible.

This album was the fruit of the whole 2020 year, it took about 11 months of hard work. We did our best and hoped to show some progress. I'd like to thank everyone involved, you can see here all the credits.

Check out this album, hope you like it!

Stay tuned for more!

Sincerely yours,

John "Grey Lenses" Grey

Snowbringer — Final Handshaker (2019)

Hi everyone, today we're observing latest (and probably last) longplay by Snowbringer. Before the Final Handshaker, the project had released Perfect and Brutal Handshakers.

Handshakers were supposed to be sort of alternative series; while we get used to friendly ambient Snowbringer sound, Handshakers were considered as some harsher releases, (post-)industrial ones.

Now, this Final Handshaker is a long one-piece composition, quite dark and, let me say, moody.

As far as I'm concerned, Handshakers appeared not only to illustrate diversity of Snowbringer's sound, but also to demonstrate how this project gets more and more mature. Final Handshaker sounds even weary, and I think it's a feature of our time.

Final Handshaker, as well as other Snowbringer releases, came out not as Concern Void Records release. It's easy to understand we're looking for a "proper" label which would make promotion, etc., and if you know something suitable, some labels dealing with ambient / dark ambient / drone, as well as outsider music, please let me know by suggesting ideas in comments.

Final Handshaker isn't officially last Snowbringer release, but currently this project is "on vacation".

Check out this album:





Stay tuned!

Sincerely yours,
John "Grey Lenses" Grey

Лосины Маршала Потемкина — Шутник вахтовик (2019)

Hi everyone, I'm glad to present you latest single by Лосины Маршала Потемкина. It's called «Шутник вахтовик» which is a rhyme and can be translated as "Joker Shift Worker".

It is actually remake of songs created in 2011-2012 rerecorded as a band. Its post-punk sound gets little lo-fi as it's totally DIY. It was recorded during rehearsal sessions and mixed by me. I also added some samples from original "Shift Worker" (2012) and new samples of a train.

The title track «Шутник комнатный» tells a story of a "joker" who ate glass just to make fun out of it, enough said. The second track tells a story of a shift worker who killed a bear (also for fun) and then had been ironically killed in a train accident.

The cover was drawn by our drummer Igor Ezhen. Yes, this single contains live drums. A punk on the cover hold a bottle of anti-freeze (a nod to our EP «Тренды»).

Well, this single is not about new movement or new direction. There's no certain direction, it's a remake recording to celebrate forthcomig 10th birthday of our band. I believe we recorded it because it was meant to be recorded, I don't know.

You see, we've been in a strange position recently. Our studio CD got a few praises, but mostly it's been found "too difficult or just too bad". People didn't get it, I guess our mates also don't entirely understand what and why we've been doing. Neither knew I.

Just kidding. I was partially aware of what it was about. But now, after the CD is out, I feel I got lost, too. Lately I tried rapping. It was... an experience. I plan to do perfect outsider music record. I plan recordings and recordings. I want to record more than to do endless rehearsals. They simply get me no satisfaction. I want to feel if not proper satisfaction, then just some sort of feeling of things done right, and done in a right way.

There's a fork on the road (again). We'll see what would the next turn bring.

And now, you may check out the single!



Sincerely yours,
John "Grey Lenses" Grey

Лосины Маршала Потемкина — Трудно быть первым, когда ты лучший (2018)

Hi everyone, we're proud to present you a CD "Трудно быть первым, когда ты лучший" ("It's Hard To Be The First When You're The Best") by Лосины Маршала Потемкина. It's a result of hard, exhausting work that had started in July and have ended just yesterday when we received actual CDs. Overall, we've spent more than 78 hours in studio.

This is actually 5th longplay by the band, but it's the first LP CD, and the first LP recorded not as an one man band.

I'd like to dedicate the record to Mr. Mark E. Smith who had perished early this year. It was a significant loss for the culture.

So, it's a post-punk album, it's all about lyrics, but it avoids typical depressive post-punk topics. It's pretty much an upper, not a downer. It's built around lyrics which are sang against a repeatative bass riff. Probably, singing is not the best term for this vocal practice, because it's more about storytelling. Each song is actually a story which often has a plot, narrative, fictional characters, 1st and 3rd person narration.

The title track, "Нудный" ("A Dull Guy"), is a remake of an earlier electronic track:

Then goes "Кофейная культура" ("Coffee Culture"), telling a story of expansion of coffee culture which leads the narrator straight to a heart attack in the end:

The lyrics are full of cultural references, parodies, etc., so it would take time to explain it (when I wanted to jot a brief comment, I found out I'd need to write a book about the album).

Then we have "Стремные танцы" ("Weird Dance") which is actually really weird. It even includes a vocoder. I suppose one might do weird dances while listening to it.

4th song is "Внутренняя эмиграция" ("Inner Emigration"), and it's so up-to-date, so up-to-date, you got to understand. It also sounds wicked and dark, almost brutal.

Then goes "Винишки в Ростелекоме". It's rather hard to translate. "Винишки" ("Vinishki", from "wine") is a subculture represented mostly by young females enjoying cheap wine and listening to new school post-punk which probably has nothing in common with original one. As with any subculture, we're dealing with lack of values. "Ростелеком" is an Internet provider widely spread in Russia. It's so big they have to hire personnel who can't help users, and the song is dealing with problem of misunderstanding.

Brace yourself, because the intro of next song "Речной трамвайчик" ("Water Taxi") is rather eerie. The song is sort of sophisticated nod towards Alla Pugacheva's song with the same name, but it's not a cover at all. It messes around the line about a "tanker with corpses", so it's quite depressive, actually. It's also noisy and even a little scary. I'm afraid to live where I live, and I'm not afraid to die.

These are complicated emotions, it's fear with apathy, it's denial of depression, it's exhaustion and hopelessness. Die laughing, you know.

It's rather logical that the next song is called "Кризис самоидентификации" ("Self Identity Crisis"), and it tells a story of an incel who's deprived of social life and loses identity and then loses personality ("Now you are me", says the final line) and dissolves in observation of stray cats ("My only friends are stray cats"). To double the sarcasm, the song sounds cheerful.

You see, we don't have much fun here on this record. It's bruisingly sardonic. Then we have our favorite song "Бойцовский клуб" ("Fight Club"), it's not totally based on the novel, but it tells a story of a fight club in modern Russia. Aggression, irritation, bloodthirst become common now.

We end with the song "Сердитый" ("An Angry Guy"), it's opposing the title track. And it's almost jazzy which totally contradicts the lyrics. We make terrifying stories contradict to pop-oriented music, and we make aggressive, angry lyrics respond to pseudo-lounge music. It also touches upon mental health issues ("All I need is amitriptyline" — very old but effective prescribed drug) stigmatized in the society.

The lyrics, vocals and cover was provided by me, there were totally 5 musicians involved in recording, you can read the whole credits here. We used electric and acoustic guitars, different basses, mics, tank drum and metal percussion, electronic drums and synth, harmonica, plenty of things.

I don't care if it'll be a successful record. I don't get it if we need praise for this. I feel no satisfaction with current trends, and it was a huge sign of protest against all mainstream culture. I started to feel giant spiritual freedom and independence, sense of freedom is inner one, it doesn't matter where you are and what's happening around.

I don't wanna make major hits, I don't wanna sing about love or politics, I don't think I'd be understood if I write this for my compatriots. Instead, I wrote a bunch of stories. I tell stories about fear, isolation, loss of values and identity, loss of sense of reality, mental destruction and psychological breakdowns. It's funny that they often sound remarkably cheerful.

Well, you may order the CD as well as previous physical releases. Feel free to write me about that.

Sincerely yours,

John "Grey Lenses" Grey

VA — Pereat (2018): Video

Hi everyone! Finally recorded a video where I'm presenting you our annual sampler "Pereat". You can check it out right here:

Stay tuned, as the end of this year will provide you with our new releases. I'm sure about that.

Sincerely yours,
John "Grey Lenses" Grey

Лосины Маршала Потемкина — Похороны безработного провинциала (2018, Single)

Hi everyone, we're happy to finally present you a studio single by Лосины Маршала Потемкина recorded this spring. It contains song "Хуже не будет" as a "b-side", previously included in our VA-sampler "Pereat".

The "a-side" is a studio remake of 2015 song "Похороны безработного провинциала" ("The Funeral of an Unemployed Province Dweller"). That song was much more appreciated than other Лосины...'s songs of that period, and its relatively successful live performances have also pushed us to rerecord it properly.

So, these songs were recorded with live drums played by our drummer Igor Ezhen; Mikhail Alekseev played bass, and Zhenya Dvoynishnikov played guitar. I performed as vocalist and lyricist.

"Хуже не будет" was mixed and mastered in studio, "Похороны" was edited by me. It may sound less polished than it could be, but I feel I managed to create the mood this song was supposed to create. While being a lone bedroom-folk singer, I spent plenty of time trying to make specific atmosphere on first Лосины...'s albums, and finally on "Похороны" I came close to what I wish it could sound like. I mean this song is like a devil chasing the listener, it's ruthless, it's like doom, like fate, like something totally inevitable. Despite that, it's not supposed to frighten a listener, not sort of "scare the kids" tag.

Lyrics' protagonist, Unemployed Province Dweller, has been important to me. He's the narrator of most songs recorded in 2012–2015. Our second album was titled "The Dreams of an Unemployed Province Dweller", so his "funeral" was a significant step, crucial, necessary if I wanted to move forward.

When I ask myself: "Who's telling all these weird stories which fill Лосины...'s lyrics?", I can say there are at least four of them, and I even created names for them. First songs were narrated by Vyacheslav Babochkin, who was sort of representative of famous Russian gopnik subculture. Then, an Unemployed Province Dweller had appeared. At some point Semyon Potemkin was added to tell smarter stories (like "Нудный", "Дэвид Линч") and represent positive, "Apollo"-like side, and finally I found out there's also a "wicked" character, kind of villain, named Phil, who narrates, e.g., "Утренний рейс". He has the lowest of my voices and represents a darker side of personality.

The cover was taken on 19th century cemetery in my native city in Siberia. Currently this cemetery is totally embraced by urban buildings, it's almost centre of the city, such a sarcastic coincidence.

I got to add this single is released a bit late. I thought it'd be ready in June, but again we had a delay. Currently we're visiting the studio more frequently, working on a longplay which is likely to be released this autumn.

Moreover, we're still preparing a lot of new stuff by Nervöse Leute this year, and maybe some of tracks by artists from "Pereat" sampler.

So, stay tuned, much fun is on the go.

Sincerely yours,

John "Grey Lenses" Grey

VA — Pereat (2018)

TL;DR? Then check out video version of this post!

Hi everyone, we're happy to present you our annual sampler! This time it's called "Pereat", it's a Latin word which can serve as sort of pessimistic motto, considering current situation.

The sampler starts with an anonymous short intro, it's an electronic instrumental by our long-time collaborator who decided not to sign this time:

Then goes a song by Concern Void band, it's titled Conscience, and we're really proud of it as it's a result of hard work on creating authentic minimal synth sound. I provided lyrics and vocals for the song, the music was written by Vladimir Laznev.

Then we have a new "Handshaker" by Snowbringer, and now it's "Modern Handshaker". It's a noise record, the sound is quite abrasive though it's not disturbing. It's also the longest track on the sampler. Snowbringer shows truly mature sound here.

Track #4 is a hip-hop by Alogical, he didn't write the beat, but the lyrics are original. It was first published as a part of Alogical Vlog, psychedelic and astonishingly modern. It's titled "Let's Get It", so it's based on a meme, and it's totally the least oldschool track on the sampler, which brings us diversity and all other valuable things nowadays.

The next track is an oldschool minimal instrumental "Time" by Vladimir Laznev, and it's supposed to be part of forthcoming soundtrack. It sounds really promising, and I'm looking forward to seeing the whole soundtrack released.

Then we have a new Nervöse Leute track, "Erziehung". It's a noise record and it's sort of a preview of their 3rd longplay hopefully to be released this summer/autumn. It's going to have less radio / tape noises, focusing on different noise sources instead; this track is an example of shifting quite primitive music to the spheres of sort of sophisticated noise.

Next track is a cinematic instrumental "Creeper" by Hipstor Smith. This track was written exclusively for our radio broadcast, Shadowplay FM, and it was aired earlier this year during a radio play "Post-irony".

The final song on the sampler is "Хуже не будет" by Лосины Маршала Потемкина. The title means "It won't get worse", and it's much a sardonic mood spread in the air these days. Together with a slogan "Pereat" it can be understood as a manifesto, and it was already honored to receive a comparison with a "sarcastic bomb". It's basically post-punk song, recorded in studio with live drums, though bass probably wouldn't sound really post-punk'ish, as it's too smooth. Anyway we hope to do something less sad next time we'll be heading to the studio.

  

So I gotta say we're proud of what we presented this year. From the one hand, there are no new projects / bands which would join us, there are even no guest artists this year, but I feel our "roast" is strong, mature and ready for new achievements. Hope you'll appreciate the result of our long and hard work.

What would you expect from us later this year? Well, we still hope to have 1 or 2 physical releases (they're on the go) by some of artists represented here. We hope to release a soundtrack by Vladimir Laznev, new Лосины's.. songs, and we also plan to release 3rd longplay by Nervöse Leute.

Probably we'll do something more. I feel like I need to invite new artists to our informal label. Let's see if I'll get lucky.

Instant free download (mp3 VBR) (Right click on "Click on this link — Save object as...").

Stay tuned!

Sincerely yours,

John "Grey Lenses" Grey  

Лосины Маршала Потемкина — Тренды (Video)

Hi everyone, I've just recorded a video telling a fascinating story about CD "Тренды" by Лосины Маршала Потемкина, so now you may watch / listen to this post (in case if you wouldn't like to stare at my face):

Stay tuned, and new releases will follow!

Sincerely yours,

John "Grey Lenses" Grey

Лосины Маршала Потемкина — Тренды [Now availiable online]

Hi guys, this month's message is pretty short: our latest physial release, a studio EP "Тренды" by Лосины Маршала Потемкина, is now available online for free download in lossless or any other appropriate format.


There was quite long post about this CD a couple of months ago, so you may check it out in case if you've missed it, to learn the fascinating story of this EP. 

I decided to upload songs because I felt there's no need to make you wait :) 
Hope you like it. 

Anyway, physical CD is still availiable for purchase (as well as your previous tape split), feel free to contact me if you're interested.

In 2018 we hope to make 2 more physical releases and at least 2 web-releases, actually, it's our goal. We also plan to continue posting our monthly messages for you to keep you updated with our activities.

Stay tuned!

Sincerely yours,
John "Grey Lenses" Grey

Лосины Маршала Потемкина — Тренды (2017)

Hi everyone! Just before the winter starts to freeze our bodies and minds, let me present you our latest release, an EP by Лосины Маршала Потемкина, called "Тренды" ("Trends"). (TL;DR? Then check out the video!)

(design by Olga Klever)

This is our 3rd physical release, and the first CD! And yeah, it's not just some home-burnt CD-R(W), but a proper limited edition audio CD recorded in a professional studio with professional sound technicians.

Лосины Маршала Потемкина exist as a real band for almost a year now, and this EP represents our evolution from neofolk & outsider music to post-punk. We played live quite frequently this year, and our performances (and, maybe, lyrics) encouraged people to tag us as art rock and avant-garde. This is much a direction of our forthcoming development, as I'm willing to believe.

You may check our live sound here:

But let's talk about the CD now. As I have mentioned, it's a very limited edition, even a promo edition. In 2018 we may print another edition with alternative mixes, but these copies are available for order (see details below).

The EP was designed by our friend Olga Klever, who made a cover and a beautiful booklet which is included into a hand-made envelope made of craft paper.

The whole package includes: abovementioned craft paper envelope, the cover and back cover with information originally handwritten by our guitarist and manager Alyona Kidun, the abovementioned booklet (4 pages: a page per a song) with elements of cover design, snapshots from shooting of our promo video (hopefully to be uploaded in early 2018), nice praise from wonderful people around, and some additional information. And, of course, the package includes the CD itself.

This EP includes 4 songs, and the first one is titled "Дэвид Линч" ("David Lynch"), and it's about David Lynch. It was easy to predict, I know. But David Lynch is such a cult person here, every hipster schoolgirl says she loves "Twin Peaks", so David Lynch is obviously a trend here. Don't get me wrong, we don't laugh at him, personally I respect David Lynch, but it's about public image, not the person.

The next song is a post-punk version of "Рив гош" ("Rive Gauche"), a fancy cosmetics store. It's also a trend. While listening to the first two songs, and "Рив гош" in general, I suppose I did my best to make Mark E. Smith grumbling that I've ripped him off ;)

(Earlier electronic version of this song)

The third song, "Незамерзайка" ("Antifreeze") is a topical song about tragic events happened in Siberia previous year. Yes, some people are drinking antifreeze. It's a serious social problem: vodka is rather expensive (a bottle costs ~$3.5 which is expensive for alcoholics), so the people who suffer from this disease, simply can't afford a quality product, they drink such booze, go blind or even die. And it's not about homeless people, or other misfits, but about workers, drivers; even a "regionally important poet", who is also a heavily drinker, can get in such trouble. And, obviosly, we're not laughing again. This is topical, but I was thinking about how Phil Ochs or even our 19th century writers could cover this issue. This is the longest track on EP, and, to my mind, it is seriously scaring track. While playing live, we used a live noise found object, for the studio I had to create an electronic sample. Technicians have made a cool mastering for this song, so it really seems that it was too cold in the studio. I read Joy Division used climate control systems to make the temperature in the studio really low, so that's a chilling coincidence.

The final track, "Утренний рейс" ("A Morning Flight"), is also topical, as it covers issues of suicidal tendencies among Russian teenagers, represented mostly wrong in the media. Unlike us, these millenials had happy childhood, and, becoming teenagers, they grow desperately bored. This problem is well-known to any keen Dostoevsky reader, for instance. On the contrary, the media tend to ignore our literature, and they created a criminal (though fake) version about malicious adults who encourage teenagers' suicides. Moreover, the song touches upon not only teenager suicide problem (which is definitely tragic), but also my personal experience of "wandering" and not having home, not just apartments, and this big amount of pain has turned into the song. Those teenagers often killed themselves early in the morning, in the same time when morning flights depart, and I remember sitting in the airport waiting for my morning flight and reading these stories about "suicidal games", and felt nothing but regret: I regreted their deaths, regreted my fate of a "wanderer", it was simply a depression I can never completely beat. That's why I tried to sing here as low as I could.

So, "Trends" is kind of sick name, really sardonic. The process of recording was tough. Technicians have removed almost all the noise, including the noise which was made by synths and added on purpose, especially in 3rd and 4th songs.

I can confess I learned a brilliant lesson: if you enter a studio while being inexperienced person thinking you're an underground hero, you'll be shocked by enormous expenses. We couldn't afford most of the proper equipment, we needed professional technicians, and it all costed us a lot. In addition, it was critically expensive and difficult to record live drums, so we had to ask for electronic ones. Because of all that, we bought more experience rather than this CD. I realize we need to continue learning, but I have quite ambitious plans for the next year.

"Trends" were presented in Moscow underground garage club recently, and I had some nice feedback from there. Thanks to my friend Hipstor Smith who organized the gig!

I want to thank everyone involved in making of this CD, technicians from a state-owned studio we recorded in, people who supported us and visited our gigs, helped us somehow, etc. Biggest thanks from me go to our bassist and guitarist Zhenya Dvoynishnikov, who is actually making almost all music here — I was responsible only for lyrics, vocals and some synths on the EP.

"Trends" are currently not available online, but it will be uploaded rather soon, I believe. Anyway, it's available for order. I feel I have no moral right to ask you to purchase it by real price (as it would currently be around $40, including postal services, to cover our costs, no joke, though in future it'll surely be reduced), but you can name your price.

Feel free to contact me in case if you want to order it or any of our previous tape releases:

Nervoese Leute / Snowbringer — Split ($3.5 + postal services)

VA — Music to Play With an Axe ($1.7 + postal services; only one copy left!)

Also, feel free to contact me to leave some feedback, as it's much appreciated! We consider our first CD and first studio experience as an achievement, and currently I'm really positive about out perspectives.

Sincerely yours,
John "Grey Lenses" Grey

Grey Lenses — Heaven Accepts Ordinary People

Hi everyone, we're back again with my another album. This, "Heaven Accepts Ordinary People", is actually a lossless recording of my live set played this June.

The covers are my photos taken in the centre of Moscow in 2015.

I gotta say that, despite the fact "Grey Lenses" exist for 9 years, this was the very first gig for such a long time. I presented classic laptop dark ambient and some classic laptop noise.

The first two pieces, "Teleport Me Home" and "Heaven Accepts Ordinary People", represent more ambient side of my music. "Teleport Me Home" was inspired by the idea of despair, homesickness and nostalgia. Pretty much same things and same emotions. "Heaven Accepts Ordinary People" was inspired heavily by David Lynch's "Eraserhead", and the famous radiator scene.

The last two pieces, "Searching for Cats in Dark Rooms" and "You Were Out Again", represent more noisy, (post-)industrial side of my music. This is a very rhythmic noise, dymanic and active. Almost a music. "You Were Out Again" is made probably more in an oriental style, a friend of mine compared it with works by Kazumoto Endo, that's why I picked such name for this track. But that's not the only reason for such title: I thought it's a piece of a thought, very peculiar for outsider music and especially for Jandek, whose way of lyrical thinking I sincerely respect.

In the end of the show I performed my minimal synth song "External Approval":

And yeah, the show was filmed, but it's an incomplete version. On the other hand, this video version contains occasional vocals, inspired by abovementioned radiator scene and Japanese noise influences.

You can download the album in any possible format from BandCamp:




Stay tuned, we're working hard to present you new releases soon!

Sincerely yours,
John "Grey Lenses" Grey

VA — ColdSpot Muzak (2017)

Hi everyone, we've just released our new annual sampler, and here's the information about it!

TL;DR? Then check out the video version!

 

It's called "ColdSpot Muzak", and even the title can already tell you a lot. Cold spot is a place in space which is extremely cold (well, that was obvious). It's a relict of very ancient times, and it may be a sign of presence of another universe or a "great void" — such a perfect term for us.

Moreover, "cold spot" is opposite to "hot spot", which is associated with electronics, so it can give you a sign that the sampler is purely electronic and minimalistic.

And "Muzak" might imply irony, and it's actually a sardonic word: this is background music which wasn't meant to be background music, this is the music listeners never pay attention to.

The cover also follows this "Coldspot" strategy, this picture was taken by me in Northern Russia about a year ago.

OK, let's check out the tracklist. We begin with my remix of a song "Money" by Пророк СанБой. It's rather enegry-filled track you can even dance to, and the lyrics are actually a nursery rhyme "Work While You Work" sang with significant accent. The intention of adding a chorus "Oh, money" is unclear to me, though I realize it has some sense. Our collaboration goes on, so maybe one day we'll release the 2nd album of remixes.

The second track is a new electronic song by Лосины Маршала Потемкина. This project exists as a real band for several months now, and the live sound differs greatly from what you can hear on "recordings". Anyway, fortunately, we play live quite frequently, so you can also check out our live sound. The song "Рив гош" ("Rive Gauche") tells a story about irritation connected with constant visits paid by narrator's interlocutor to Rive Gauche (fancy cosmetics store). There was also a song with similar name, so Лосины... tend to deconstruct it by humor, and its humor is based on a pointe (wendepunkt), an unexpected turning point, so if you study Russian culture and language, you might enjoy it.

The third track is a sound collage by Nervoese Leute "I'm Allergic to Music" (opposition to music / melodies has always been important to us), which can also be found on a tape split (still available for purchase!). This project is also developing and may even see its live debut soon!

Then goes the very first appearance on our releases: the artist's name is Jo Har Key, and the track is my mix of his 2000 song "Виктория" ("Victoria") is a superb synthpop recorded using analogue equipment.

Our friend from Moscow Hipstor Smith recorded an instrumental "My Favourite Dance Machine" especially for the sampler!

The next track is a very interesting electronic work filled with Soviet speech samples. It's called "Другие миры" ("The Other Worlds"), and the project which released it, is called "Диспозиция Линча" ("Lynch's Disposition"). Thorough work with samples, pads and synths makes its sound so profound.

Then goes surprisingly noisy track by Snowbringer:

And the final track is by project Concern Void, its it's 2nd song, and I want to believe, this project will go on. It's called "In Disguise", and you may consider it as both our manifesto and a lamentation.

Hope you like our new sampler!

Sincerely yours,
John "Grey Lenses" Grey

Snowbringer — The Places I've Gone Without Going Anywhere (2016)

Hi everyone, I've just noticed I hadn't posted one of albums by Snowbringer released by him in 2016.

This "missing" album is called "The Places I've Gone Without Going Anywhere", and it's a classic "bright" ambient record divided into two parts: "The Places I've Gone..." and "...Without Going Anywhere".

Each part lasts more than 1 hour 16 minutes, so this journey is about to be long, though, I believe, it would be rather calm and inspiring. Even the idea of "remote control" journey is something which really seduces the mind, when one allows oneself to dream without limitations. Anyway, the author could imply something different from my interpretation.

So, check out this album — and stay tuned!

 

Sorry for brevity, got too much work these days.

Sincerely yours,
John "Grey Lenses" Grey