OT&DO AT THE PLACE

Following the EP-album titled "Parksound", released at the very end of 2017, St. Petersburg trio OT&DO have released a live album, the first in its history. It consists of eight tracks, lasts about 40 minutes and was recorded on January 14, 2017 at the Babooinumfest festival, organized by the leader of this trio, keyboard player and composer Sergey Gorchaninov. At that time, this was the second session of the festival, and in June 2019 the festival was held for the eleventh time, having already taken on an international scale featuring Ángel Ontalva. By the way, during the 1st session the famous live album by Pandora Snail was recorded.

It is worth noting that OT&DO also includes bass player Stanislaw Rybinski and drummer Nikita Petrov. At this concert, guest musicians joined the musicians on several tracks ? guitar player Ruslan Sobinin (Triptones, Serdimontana) and saxophone player Pavel Voronkov. They effectively enriched the sound and made the performed compositions more multifaceted and interesting.

Fans of jazz branches of progressive rock and just good instrumental music will certainly enjoy this album. However, if you are not already familiar with OT&DO, it would be better to start this acquaintance with the mentioned EP-album titled "Parksound", for two reasons. Firstly, although it was "published" before this live release, it was recorded later, in the middle of 2017, when the musicians were able to polish their compositions and make them more mature. Secondly, the conditions of the Parksound studio, apparently, allowed them to use more fully the potential of these compositions. Try to compare both versions of the two compositions that are on both albums - "Circus Burnt" and "The Night with You"! The comparison will be in favor of the versions from "Parksound" sounding somehow "sparkling" and more energetic.

It should not be regarded as criticism of "OT&DO at the Place", which contains a cool performance of good instrumental music, and all the musicians are in great shape! The penultimate track "To Urania" is especially pleased, with its special beauty, sophistication and some kind of enjoyable "light sadness". This track and "Circus Burnt" are the highlights. We should take into account that the debut full-length studio album has not yet been released, and, perhaps, it will not include some tracks from this live album. Therefore, "OT&DO at the Place" has special value.

OT&DO at The Place is a live album, and as many artists and reviewers can attest, live performances sometimes don't live up to their studio counterparts. For whatever reason, this album is rife with timing and rhythm issues. It seems that the bass guitar, drums, and keys simply cannot get on the same page rhythmically. At first, I just thought it was the keyboardist being "out-of-the-pocket" with respect to the rhythm section, but then on other tracks I noticed the bass and drums out of step. Being a former drummer myself, these disconnects probably bother me more than the average listener. I did sample some of their studio singles and EPs, and the timing issues are not as apparent. So maybe the timing issues on this live recording are due to not being able to hear one another in their stage monitors, or maybe stage nerves, or lack of sleep. I don't know. All I can say is that the lack of synchronization between band members grated on my nerves so much that I could hardly finish listening to the full album. On a positive note, I liked the compositions (mostly), and imagined what they would sound like when everyone played in the pocket, and I think it would be good. I also think that many of the keyboard parts should have been elevated an octave to provide more contrast with the bass. It would have sounded more like the jazz/rock compositions that I'm used to. OT&DO appear to be a fairly young band, so with some polish on their timing and production, they could be an interesting band. For now, stick with their studio productions.

OT&DO was founded in Saint Petersburg Russia back in 2003 with the band's founder Sergey Gorchaninov. The band went through several line-up changes through the years, but wasn't really active until 2012, and it continued to cycle through musicians with Sergey being the only real constant. It wasn't until 2017 that the first EP seen the light of day, and the 2nd EP was released a year later. Finally, in June of 2019, the live album "OT&DO at The Place" was released, and through all of these released, the core band has remained the same: Sergey Gorchaniniov (keyboards), Stanislaw Rybinski (bass), and Nikita Petrov (drums). There is also help from two other musicians on the last half of the album: Pavel Voronkov (saxophone) and Ruslan Sobinin (guitar). This live album consists of 8 tracks of original music and has a total run time of 31 minutes.

The album starts with a nice upbeat jazz fusion style called "Sonata" (5:17). Keyboards and piano take the lead here playing improvisation based off of a chord progression and a bright melody while the bass and drums provide an active support. "Countdown" (5:47) is a more mid-tempo number utilizing an electric piano this time, and the bass is a bit less automatic and able to be more expressive. Again, the music is a nice smooth jazz sound, but there are some issues with the band being a bit disconnected "beat-wise", which happens with live recordings, but it can be a bit distracting at times on this recording. "May I" (3:39) has a more direct and driving beat, and returns to the piano sound, which is probably produced by a keyboard, but the reproduction of the piano sound is very good. This starts with the nice groove, but halfway through breaks down to a more progressive sound which slows everything down. The bass reintroduces the original groove and the track ends on the original theme. The direct beat is affected by the slightly off rhythm problem and the 2nd time through, it loses the effective directness of the beat.

"Night with You" (3:24) goes back to the electric piano sound and a more smooth jazz style. In the trickier sections, things get off beat again. The style is the soft, Dave Grusin style of smooth groove jazz, but with less stress on melody and more on thematic improvisation. The tracks at this point, are short and a bit underdeveloped, or at least sound that way because they go by so fast. "Circus Burnt" (3:04) takes on a more progressive jazz style, but the band can't keep things very tight here, and that is a problem. The composition itself is a good idea, but also could use some development.

"Yalta" (4:47) sees the addition of the sax and guitar to the line-up which continues for the remainder of the album. The piano plays a lower register pattern which the sax soon picks up and then takes off into an improvisation with it. The bass and piano pretty much support while following each other on the groove. The guitar also shines through at times, but the sax seems to take the lead for the most part, and they start to do some exploratory sounds that really don't go anywhere. The muted guitar effects are a bit random and distracting, but the sax holds on and soon the guitar plays along normally. It's a decent track, and it seems the addition of the instruments helped things to be more on point. "To Yrania" (3:54) begins with a soft guitar working out a theme which both it and the piano play around with and the sax soon joins in with them. This slower and smoother sound makes for a nice flowing piece, but there is a slight issue with the band sometimes losing their beat again. As it goes on, this gets better as it all tightens up again. The sax gets quite emotional towards the end and does an impressive job, but it's over too fast. "Road to Caribs" (2:49) ends the album with a smooth groove worked out by the keys and the guitar soon joining in. The band goes for a tropical jazz vibe, but it ends up sounding a bit messy and off-point. It's also too short and underdeveloped. Then the album is done.

The compositions are good enough, it's just that the band needs to get more confident to where they can improvise on the themes better and feel more connected. The little doses of progressiveness are nice, but not as tight as they could be. Practicing with a metronome might help, and in situations where it is hard to hear the other players on stage could be helped with in ear, audible clicks. The band has the right idea, but need to tighten up their sound and get more confident in playing together. Not bad, some might not notice some of these issues so much, but I believe most listeners might come out of it feeling like it was a bit disjointed in some parts. But it's still a great effort and deserving of 3 stars as the production and sound is great.

So these review requests are always fun ones, some obscure Russian prog album, more often than not, a live one. They generally tend to follow similar sorts of sounds, taking extremely clear influence from early prog, more or less entirely instrumental, and focusing far more on bringing forth a multitude of lovely melodies. This album is not so different in that sense, being more of a collection of jams each following a particular rhythm and melody, almost always purely enjoyable, even when not always particularly complex, focusing far more on creating pleasant compositions over attempting to go out of their way with experimentation, an approach which I more than support, as not everything needs to go out of its way to do something new.

From the very first track, it's made clear that one of the most prominent features of the album as a whole is the bass, which is quite far in the front of the mix, displaying excellent interplay between these groovy basslines and the upbeat keyboards, all while the drums maintain this upbeat tone. Countdown is a more laid back track, but another fun one nonetheless, some of the keyboard work around the halfway mark especially being notable for the skillful rhythmic interplay between each element of the band. This is another case of a band having a very full sound despite being a mere trio for the most part, managing to create a complete sound without much use of guitar, similarly to Emerson Lake and Palmer. Songs such as May I bring forth a jazzier sound that I'm quite a fan of, as it brings a bit more variety to it all. Circus Burnt is easily the best track here and it's not even close, demonstrating a lot more confidence in their abilities all around, with a frenetic bassline and an extremely notable Mozart influence to it all, culminating in a very fun track.

While I did say that I completely support the idea of focusing on making enjoyable music above feeling the need to experiment, I do feel like this band tends to play it a bit safe regardless, as if they aren't fully confident in their ability to improvise. This leaves the majority of the songs sounding lovely, but a little half baked, a lack of expansion on key motifs creating a lot of tracks that don't really feel like all that much. That isn't to say that this lacks potential, because the core sound presented, along with the better moments off the album display the likelihood of further improvement. Despite this general disjointed, underdeveloped feeling that some songs leave, I'd still say that on the whole, I do enjoy this album, as the production and general sound prove to be great, it's just that it could use some refining.

Best tracks: Sonata, Circus Burnt

Weakest tracks: Yalta, Road To Caribs

Verdict: While quite enjoyable for the most part, bringing forth lovely melodies and some great interplay between the 3 main instruments of the band, I can't help but feel as if this lacks the finesse and refinement that would turn this pleasant album into a great one. I'd say it's worht a listen, but don't come into it expecting a full blown masterpiece.

OT&DO are a St. Peterburg band based around keyboard player Sergey Gorchaninov, with Stanislaw Rybinski (bass) and drummer Nikita Petrov. Although there have been a few EPs prior to this, what we have here is a live album recorded at a club at the beginning of 2017. There are eight instrumentals on this relatively short release (just over half an hour long) and they are joined by a saxophonist and guitarist for a couple of the tracks at the end. Heavily influenced by jazz, the guys can obviously play (especially Rybinski), but there is little here which excites the listener. The keyboards by Gorchaninov are generally a form of electric piano, and much of the music is laid back and makes me think of Eighties music, which in this context isn't a good thing. There are times when the band do wake up a little, such as on parts of "May I", and then things can become a little more interesting. But for the most part it is hard for the listener to keep interest, and although the small gathering in the club seem to be enjoying it, based on this the band have a long way to go to provide something continually interesting and enjoyable. If I had been in the club that night I am sure I would have spent my time at the bar instead of watching the band, sorry guys.