AT WORK

4.5 stars. I might as well bump this up because it seems like every time I spin this album my appreciation becomes greater. This is RATIONAL DIET's fourth studio album from 2008, and this is a seven piece from Belarus. The music is a combination of Chamber styled music and powerful string driven classical music. I love the title "At Work" and the cover art suggesting that this is a no-nonsense band who are serious about their music. We get lots of bassoon and dissonant sax but the cello and violin create so much power here, it's incredible. We get nine tracks worth over 46 minutes.

I need to mention Olga the keyboardist who is classically trained and has a long list of awards and honours for her playing. But she's also a soprano singer and I love her voice. So much talent! The band would eventually breakup over artistic differences with Olga wanting to go more in the Chamber music style and the violinist and others wanting to continue with the powerful, high energy, string driven music. So Olga formed the FIVE-STOREY ENSEMBLE and included the drummer, bassoon player and bassist from RATIONAL DIET. While the two string players formed THE ARCHESTRA which also included RATIONAl DIET's drummer and bassoon player. So some crossover with the members.

"Pukhow" is a great opener with that powerful string/ piano start as the bassoon joins in. Maxim on guitar is amazing here when he arrives. "Dear Kontrabandist" has this driving rhythm and it's quite heavy with dissonant sax over top. A calm follows to get us ready for those crazy soprano vocals as it kicks in hard. "Condemned" is the longest at over 10 1/2 minutes and my favourite. How about the bassoon 3 1/2 minutes in followed by an even heavier sound. But this is a ride. I like the experimental calm. "Horse Army" deserves a mention for again that powerful driving rhythm but check out "Closed Case" for the dissonant sax and atmosphere.

I have the followup to this "On Phenomena And Existences" lined up for a re-visit this week, plus THE ARCHESTRA's only release the week after. Woo hoo!