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- Message-ID: <9212311244.AA15747@top.magnus.acs.ohio-state.edu>
- Newsgroups: bit.listserv.allmusic
- Date: Thu, 31 Dec 1992 07:44:15 EST
- Sender: Discussions on all forms of Music <ALLMUSIC@AUVM.BITNET>
- From: Sonia Kovitz <skovitz@MAGNUS.ACS.OHIO-STATE.EDU>
- Subject: Re: Laswell, Akvarium, Keyboard Man
- In-Reply-To: <9212301957.AA01735@quark.magnus.acs.ohio-state.edu>; from "Russ
- Gelinas" at Dec 30, 92 2:55 pm
- Lines: 43
-
- Bill Laswell is coming to Columbus in May and I ALREADY have tickets. Will of
- course do my usual goo-goo report.
-
- Russ, thanks for the caution. I'm sure there are multiple keyboard men named
- Misha. This Misha is only 20 years old, living with his parents and little
- brother Edik (whom I'm going to send my old Telecaster to and a small practice
- amp-- Edik spent some years in the conservatory in Russia learning violin but
- wants to play guitar). Misha did some wonderful Chicago blues/jazz style
- improvizing on Russian folk songs (that was my mother's influence--she pulled
- out her 1936 edition and leaped to the top of the piano... well, sort of).
- Misha kept apologizing because he says he can't do the stuff he REALLY likes on
- a baby grand, but I thought he was great anyway.
-
- Akvarium: Ilia, this is an INCREDIBLY fun and talented band! (For all the rest
- of you bozos, "akvarium" is the Russian word for "aquarium" [right, Ilia? or
- is there some slang meaning I don't get?] and also the name of a Russian band
- that I hope Ilia will say some more about. The tape I listened to last night
- was a live recording... REALLY intriguing and enjoyable to listen to.
-
- The first song, "We won't get old," is my favorite... A solid, deep bass line
- holding up an unhurried spacious psychedelic jam, brooding, ominous, tender,
- with a
- fluid ghostly rusty-edge guitar, all of it kind of reminiscent of the Doors,
- still fresh, full of feeling. This guitar playing is in fact as close as I've
- ever heard to the way I myself would like to play.... getting lots of mileage
- out of weird bends, unhurried, exploratory. The lead singer has a wonderful
- voice, and also there were just enough vocals, leaving lots of room for
- long instrumental lines. One of my pet peeves is bands with singers who hog
- the territory. Oh, and there was some tremendous wah-wah.
-
- This concert was a kind of commentary on various styles of music... after the
- psychedelic number came some raunchy blues, then surf, then a Beatles-esque
- number with cello, then a fantastic Russian Gypsy number that had me swooning
- in my tea bags and dripping my fringes all over the samovar, then some
- rockabilly-edge rock and roll, and another favorite of mine called "Tramvai"
- [bus, I guess, to be prosaic]. This one had some fast-moving string bass work
- (it sounded like string bass to me, at least) and was generally fascinating and
- hard to describe... Ilia, tell us MORE about this band. And folks, I have TWO
- more Ilia tapes to listen to (another of Akvarium and one of "Cool Stuff from
- Ilia") so stand by. Ilia, SPASIBO, moi drug!
-
-
- Sonia
-