CD Reviews

Auktyon

Girls Sing | Geometriya

By TED DROZDOWSKI | March 18, 2008

2.5 Stars

These long-time Soviet art-rockers drafted Yanks Marc Ribot (guitar), John Medeski (keyboards), and Frank London (trumpet) to help them get their punk on. The results run from the noise-colored cool jazz of “Girls Sing” to the acoustic Gypsy folk mash-up “Slova” to the raucous “Tam-dam.” Although this is a radical departure for Leonid Fedorov (whose whisper/croon/bark vocal style leads the live studio session) and his bandmates, the album sounds like a lost artifact of the late-’80s downtown Manhattan music scene, where even Russian-language lyrics would have fit the no-holds-barred æsthetic. As it is, Fedorov and his group could use more of the sly primitivism he praises in his American comrades, whose game efforts can’t quite keep many of these tunes from sounding a little mannered and reserved. Maybe next time Auktyon should have a little more Stoli before hitting the “RECORD” button.

Aukyton | Middle East upstairs, 472 Mass Ave, Cambridge | March 25 | 617.864.EAST

Topics: CD Reviews , John Medeski, Marc Ribot

| More

Most Popular

The Current Issue

Table of Contents

Cover Archive

Masthead | Authors | Contact us

Blogs

Where To Follow Me
Talking Politics | March 24, 2013 at 11:09 AM

Mo Takes His Turn
March 21, 2013 at 12:59 PM

[Q&A] KMFDM's Sascha Konietzko on art, Columbine and having balls
On The Download | March 18, 2013 at 3:22 PM

See this film series: The Belmont World Film Series @ Studio Cinema in Belmont
Outside The Frame | March 18, 2013 at 11:00 AM

See this film: This is Spinal Tap [with post-film talk by expert from Acoustical Society of America] @ the Coolidge
March 17, 2013 at 12:00 PM

ARTICLES BY TED DROZDOWSKI

TOM HAMBRIDGE | BOOM! | August 23, 2011
Roots rock is the new country and ex-Bostonian Tom Hambridge is the style's current MPV.

COUNTRY STRONG | SOUNDTRACK | January 11, 2011
This steaming pile of songs is emblematic of the state of mainstream country music — all artifice, no heart, calculated anthems written to formula and meant, like the film itself, to do no more than capitalize on the genre's current success and rob its undiscriminating fans.

MARC RIBOT | SILENT MOVIES | November 02, 2010
This exceptional, eccentric guitarist has traced a slow evolution from screamer to dreamer.

IN MEMORIAM: SOLOMON BURKE, 1940 — 2010 | October 11, 2010

REVIEW: RONNIE EARL AND THE BROADCASTERS | SPREAD THE LOVE | September 07, 2010
Boston-based blues-guitar virtuoso Ronnie Earl seems to be considering his past on his 23rd album as a leader.