Groggy: Distant Lands

Here is quite an interesting band for you. Groggy hail from Omsk, Russia and consists of two musicians; Max Ryabikov (vocals, guitar, bass, Moog minitaur) and Vitalii Dorofeichik (drums). They have been releasing music since around 2013, mostly consisting of shorter EP song cycles. This is a review of their EP titled Distant Lands released in 2016.

The album is one long four part track with a running time of twenty-six minutes. The music is billed as Russian psych and there are certainly those elements. This is pretty weird stuff but I mean that in a good way. Acoustic guitar is prominent throughout the disc and it is very well played. Unusual background effects abound and there are lots of trippy elements as well, I presume much of this is where the Moog comes in. The flow is generally slow and the vocals are very low end, a sort of Cohen-esque half sung half speak sort of thing going on. This will likely take some getting used to but they work well within the band’s rather distinct folky/psych sound. I should point out all lyrics are in Russian. The band also utilize a creative use of loops along with other studio trickery which makes for a rather distinct sound palette.

Distant Lands has been a tough disc to describe so I will let your ears be the judge. Its unusual but I rather like it. A kind of spacey/folky/psychedelic collage of soundscapes and general all out weirdness that still coming across as a cohesive piece of music.

Track Listing:
1. Distant Lands
i) The Road
ii) The North
iii) The Abyss
iv) The Falcon

Added: February 26th 2020
Reviewer: Jon Neudorf
Score:
Related Link: Band @ Bandcamp
Hits: 707
Language: english

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