Лосины Маршала Потемкина — Бессмертные шлягеры (2013)

Hi everyone! We’re happy that our blog has recently reached its first anniversary, now we’re one year old, and it’s encouraging although we still barely know who are our readers and if they like what we do. I’m counting views and see some progress, though maybe less than 5000 views per year is a poor result, but I still got enthusiasm in showing you the deepest stuff from Russian underground.

That’s why I chose for the autumn the third album by Лосины Маршала Потемкина, «Бессмертные шлягеры» (“The Immortal Hits”). 

Photo by Pavel Chainichkov

It’s the deepest and the darkest one, I consider it as the best album by Лосины…

I wrote, recorded and released this album in Summer 2013, it was the most depressing time in my entire life when I thought I reached the bottom, and the album was the pure expression of pain which I suppose didn’t have a reason, and now I think I dared to be too brave in my honesty, I shared things which seem too personal, but I guess it was the right way to solve the problem because it was like a discussion with my own self.

The whole period of “production” was very short. I remember there was maybe a week of time when I was laying on the floor in my flat and playing guitar all day long, improvising and recording stuff which formed the songs. Some of my friend told me, after listening to it, that it has “totally the same atmosphere” as “Pink Moon” by Nick Drake as it was written in similar circumstances, but I consider it as a white lie :)

Actually it’s a folk album, only atonal me and my atonal guitar. And it’s all about lyrics. I’m still proud of the depth of this record, I may be flattering to myself too, but I haven’t heard a modern Russian folk singer who could reach such depressive mood (but yeah, there’s not much to be proud of, I realize).

The album goes deeper slowly. The title song «Лед» (“Ice”) is about ice “in the mind”, contrary to “fire in the mind”:

“The ice in the fridge would melt faster than the ice in my head would even start to melt”.

 The next song, «Противоречие» (“The Contradiction”), tells a story of painful frustration:

“When I try to seem smart I feel that I’m so stupid”.

 And the third song, «Невеселое открытие» (“A Sad Discovery”) became Лосины’s hit for its minimalism, raw sound (some of my friend said it sounds like Bain Wolfkind) and lyrics. And it was a pure improvisation.

“Once I went out in the yard and found out that no-one is waiting for me here”.

 There’s also an instrumental, «5:35 утра» (“5:35 AM”) — a sign of early awakening, often a symptom of depression which annoyed me for a long time. The song «Знаешь, что» (“Do You Know What?”) became a favorite of my friends who also suffered from depression. I even found some of its lyrics in a post on some psychological help forum where my friend cited it as his favorite. I wish I could help people somehow.

“Do you know what tortures me?

I’m possessed by the devils”

 The next song, «Кисель» (“Kissel”, a sort of Russian traditional soft drink based on berry juice) also found consoling feedback from my friends. This is the picture of total isolation and devastating sense of guilt. In such conditions, people often turn to aggression as their primary weapon, as attack is the best defense. But this sort of revenge is fruitless as any act of revenge, and the isolation will never be broken.

“The cold sticky kissel has been spilt on your pants in the dining room

The sick life experience cannot be useful for you anymore

What to do know? Now you’re forever dirty

No-one will allow to clean the slur

Set the borders and open the gaps again”

 This line is about postmodernist slogan, published in Playboy. I thought the time of postmodernism is over for a long time, and we should build something different. The song «Папоротник» (“A Fern”) tells another story of isolation, but it involves mythical figures and attributions, like Sisyphus and the doom as natural force. “I’m doomed” — that’s how Nick Cave’s novel begins, that’s how it feels when you’re thinking about laws of nature, I mean, about death, too much.

“You know that any activity can be easily destroyed”

 The next song, «Бледное солнце» (“The Pale Sun”) is the pure outsider music piece, too atonal even for me. Hypnotic, it’s like some feeling of psychic seizure which is coming at you with war drums and horns.

“And now there is none to tell if something’s going on”

 Finally, album is finished with the song «Позавчера» (“The Day Before Yesterday”). It was the heaviest experience in my entire life but some signs point that it was the heaviest experience just so far.

“And there’s no truth anymore

We have kidnapped it

The day before yesterday”

 You can check out and /or download this album for free, just as usual

 
Stay tuned, new releases will follow

Sincerely (too sincerely for this time!) yours,

John “Grey Lenses” Grey