NATURE

When Kostya contacted me to let me know that there was a new Disen Gage album available I was of course excited as they are one of my favourite Russian bands, but I was also intrigued as this is what it said in the email. "This story started a long time ago, when the participants of Disen Gage scoured in the night in the dangerous vicinity of the Moscow railroad station "Sortirovochnaya" trying to capture fascinating sonic roulades emitted by the wagons. At the same time, on the other side of the globe, in the State of Iowa, astronomers succeed in converting strange signals coming from the orbit of Jupiter into audible sound palettes. Later, in an Australian swamp, Mrs. Toad said to Mr. Crocodile: "Dude, why not concoct a Tops-of-the-Pops album of all those ingredients, one on which we would sing all together?" "I'll call Mr. Bear, my Siberian friend. He knows how to mix all stuff with a beat", answered Mr. Crocodile. Finally, the Nature, crafted from sounds of planets, trains and animals including higher primates, is now in your hands. Still we wonder how the human ear will take this?"

I know how most people would take this, they would listen to ten seconds, scratch their head as if trying to make sense of it, then discard it, probably with extreme prejudice. Me? I'm made of sterner stuff than most, and will happily branch into areas of RIO and progressive rock that are more commonly referred to as noise (yes, it's a genre). This album isn't meant to be easy to listen to, it's not meant to be something that will ever be played on the radio or to be hummed under breath while driving, this is all about challenging the very term "music" and wondering just how far that boundary can be stretched while still making it something that people, at least some people, will want to listen to. I find this music enthralling, almost hypnotic in the way that it drags me in, using sounds that are industrial, mechanical, other worldly and not even created by the band, twisting them into something that is not recognisable in its original form

There are very few bands who can say to be actually progressing in the truest sense, as opposed to the regressing that many seem all too fond of, but Disen Gage are creating a path that only the brave will follow. Are you one of them?