DETIETI

[Originally published at The Progressive Aspect]

The word "ambivalent" is often somewhat misused, and used to express indifference. When I first heard Detieti's latest album, Serious IV, I was not indifferent. I was ambivalent. I had very strong, simultaneous and contradictory feelings whenever I listened to the album. My ambivalence came from my love of what the band once was, and seemed no longer to be. And yet, though I was disappointed, I was also enthralled. Serious IV is a wonderful album, and it's probably more likely to gain the band a following than any of their previous releases - especially as it is certainly more accessible and, well, serious. But I loved Detieti for being the completely bonkers band they were. A band that never went anywhere expected, and wrong-footed listeners at every turn. While Serious IV is still avant enough to put off some listeners, it's no longer so odd, strange, weird and crazy. It's? serious. Well, as serious as an album soundtracking a non-existent film about an extra-terrestrial race of squid-like creatures experimenting on Earth's donkeys can be, I guess.

But as bizarre as that concept might sound, you need only read the Bandcamp blurb for their previous album, Frogressive Punk, to see just how out-there a concept one would once have expected from the Russian outfit. Alien squids are rather mundane in comparison. And the soundtrack somewhat is, too. But - and this is the rather large caveat - the music of Serious IV is mundane only to those who know Detieti's previous work. Taken by itself, Serious IV is a really awesome album, that I really love. I just couldn't initially help but miss the far-out kookiness. Thus, ambivalence. I love what I hear and wouldn't change a thing, and yet when I first heard it, at the same time I longed for it to be different, and mourned what had changed. I'm guessing a lot of the changes are down to the loss of Ivan "Vanish" Khvorostukhin. While Frogressive Punk was the first Detieti album to feature new guitarist Alexander Kosarenko, the album was all written with Vanish, and Detieti founder (though he is only a guest musician on their albums, having left the band prior to any release), Roman Karandaev. Serious IV is the first Detieti album to not feature any contribution from Vanish or Roman.

But, if this is where Detieti is taking me, I'm not complaining. I may have been initially ambivalent, but I've truly enjoyed the trip they've taken me on here. The band have abducted me, and probed me, and I like it. And any ambivalence has left me. Opening track, Disorienteria may not be as disorienting as previous material, but it's still not what I'd call normal (what is normal?). It may be less angular and jarring, more quiet and calm, but it's still a thoroughly engaging mix of sounds and influences. Once upon a time, the band claimed to be a mix of funk, dub, metal, ska, punk and anything else they could throw in the pot, and gave early and eclectic Queen and the many projects of Mike Patton as their major influences. I would say that Zappa must certainly also be an influence, and surely some Can too. Detieti's Bandcamp page admits that their earlier albums had an "overall atmosphere of a crazy circus" and that now the band "tends to be calmer, writing more thoughtful music." But, while there is less unpredictability and surprise to their sound, Detieti still provide plenty of variation in the music and rhythms to keep listeners on their toes. That same mix is there, but it's served in a more gentle fashion, rather than thrown across the room in the hope of starting a fight.

Unlike previous releases, Serious IV is an instrumental album, and as the vocals were often as crazed and crazy as the music, the lack of vocals alone gives this album a very different feel. But the near thirteen minutes of the opening number fly by, and need no vocals. In fact, though I always knew how adept the band were on their instruments, without vocals it is really overt. The interaction between them is wonderful. They can all go in different directions and come back together as one. Each musician knows exactly what the other is doing, and they play over, under, through and against each other to create a beautiful jigsaw-like tapestry. Viktor Tikhonov skitters all over the place on drums and percussion, and Mikhail Ivanov lays down so many fat and funky bass lines, and plays? toy piano! Ivanov and Tikhonov both add synths and samples to the album, and are augmented by Petr Bolotiv as the main synth and noise effect provider. No-longer-so-new member Alexander Kosarenko doesn't just provide a strong and quirky presence on guitar, but also plays mbira, didgeridoo, percussion, and bass synth. And if this were not enough, three other musicians add their touches to some of the tracks.

What we hear on Serious IV is a fuller and more fluid sounding Detieti. The changes of rhythm and style are no longer so sudden and schizophrenic as they were on previous releases. They are still present, but in a far more easily digested manner, while still maintaining an avant edge. Though I would never say Detieti sound like Beardfish (the two bands are not even close), Serious IV reminds me a lot of my favourite Beardfish album, The Sane Day. There is a sense of controlled chaos (where previously, Detieti went for the chaos, and didn't bother with the control), and the restraint works surprisingly well. There are times where I can hear where the Detieti of old would have taken a left turn, and they choose not to ? and it just works. I guess these were the times of my greatest ambivalence, as half of me wanted to hear them go off on that tangent, while the other half was somewhat in awe that they have not. But, as I say, I am ambivalent no longer, and I can't wait to hear where Detieti takes me next!

So, (P)rogressive Punk?

No, (F)rogressive Punk!

I grabbed this one 'cause I sure wanted to hear what (P)rogressive Punk sounded like...until I was awakened from the trance induced by this pastiche of comic/funereal/heavy/riff-alicious/galloping madness.

DETIETI, Dieteti, or Steady Eddie?

This Moscow, Russia based quartet- and a handful of musical co-conspirators- have been mucking about, lounging around, heaving to and fro, for sixteen fraught years.

It might take the listener that long to reassemble the nerve ends and split ends and lost friends that may accumulate in the wake of this psychedelic submarine trip (see liner notes).

Therefore Yes, A Concept

But don't hold me to it. The assorted whack-a-doodle titles, the rapid shifts in mood, tempo, and style, the seeming randomness of direction, argue AGAINST any central concept.

Yet, there it is. You can trust the liner notes. (Trust me)

Arguably, The Rhythm Section

Yes, the glue, the center, the basis for this musical mystery, this all-encompassing bizarre-ness- seems to be a pretty damn solid and inventive bassist and drummer.

To these ears, that resonant, tin-can, deep raspy bass simply grooving along and refusing to be flappable; accompanied by the crisp and canny drumming, hold the line.

Surrounding This, However

Now, what nouns and adjectives might the bemused reviewer set forth? What descriptions may befit, or failing that- befall?

OK. Ominous wind sounds. Gurgling toilet music. Comic-strip background music. Heavy metal guitars riffing. Whistling, sighing synthesizers. Chonking and plonking piano. Stripped back brass and woodwinds. Fuzzed out guitar leads. Voices that mutter, scream, sigh, declaim, and maybe complain- I can't be sure.

And a Really Cool Rhythm Passage

But I'm not saying where!

And oh yes, somewhere a spaghetti Western is looking for its theme song.

Let's Pause, Regroup, and Conclude

I'm not dissing this to say it is probably for "Collectors/fans only". There surely are those who find this fun and amusing and challenging- and I'm guessing most progressive rock folks won't be among them. Thus my rating of 2.5 subterranean stars.

There has been a change in guitarist since the release of the previous album, 'V Obshchikh Chertyakh', but apart from that it very much seems like business as usual for these guys. In my review for that 2015 album I said "here we can be listening to ska-style hardcore which drops into funk, or hard rock, or Can, or all of this at once with Fantômas also being an obvious influence. It is a mess." I still hold to all that, but here we are also getting much more a stoner influence (although rather worryingly I am sure I hear squeaky toys at one point as well). New guitarist Alexander Kosarenko has a very strong sound, but one still has no idea where the music is going as while it can be apparently heading in one direction that is just ploy to lure the listener into a false sense of security. Those keyboards and strong melodies will be gone in a second, and when they sound like they are off and running like a locomotive with no brakes they can turn on a dime and head off in a direction where there aren't even any tracks!

Through all this, it is somehow still compelling in a weird and twisted way. I have no idea what is going on musically, and my knowledge of Russian is non-existent, so the few sentences here and there mean nothing to me. They themselves describe their music as "Progressive Funk", hence the switch for the album title, but this is Faith No More in a weird dimension, where there simply are no rules. Complex, complicated, simplistic, basic, I still have no idea what is going on. The last album made no sense to me either and that is the same here, a musical maze with trapdoors and snares for the unwary so that just when it starts to become sane it disappears into another realm altogether. This is only for those who want their music to be weird, challenging and very, very strange. But I think I like it?

The first thing one notices immediately is of course the picture of Jacques-Yves Cousteau on the cover. Many my age will remember avidly watching '"The Undersea World of Jacques Cousteau', and the band describe this album as a variety of musical styles like the richness of the undersea world. Formed in Moscow in 2004, the duo of bassist Mikhail "Han" Ivanov and drummer Roman Karandaev soon brought in guitarist Ivan "Vanish" Khvorostukhin, but they didn't record their first demo until 2010, by which time Karandaev had been replaced by Viktor Tikhonov. Keyboard player Peter "Peyote-R" Bolotov joined in 2011, and this 2015 release was their second album. They define their own music as progressive punk (their most recent album is actually called 'Frogressive Punk'), and they state that they are inspired by a "mix of alternative rock, funk, psychedelia and punk rock, Mike Patton's projects, funk-metal, early Queen, improvisational music of different genres, comics, circus and 80's films. For this album they brought in additional guests, use film snippets (including Cousteau), and musically are all over the place.

Even most avant garde bands have some sort of basis on which the listener can understand what is happening and where the music may be going. But here we can be listening to ska-style hardcore which drops into funk, or hard rock, or Can, or all of this at once with Fantômas also being an obvious influence. It is a mess, but interestingly I still can't say if I don't like it, as each time I play it I wonder what on earth I am doing, and know that 99.9% of people I could play this to would loath it with a passion, but there is the niggle of that 0.01% who may well think these guys have something. Screams, latin percussion, metal, swathes of symphonic keyboards, there is room for all of it and just because I can't recognise a kitchen sink doesn't mean it isn't in there somewhere.

That they know what they are doing and have the musical ability to carry it out is never in doubt. But there are times I feel I am in a musical maze which contains trapdoors and multiple levels which can drop me into chaos at any point ? just when I think I'm getting a hang of it. If ever there was a band to listen to before purchase, then it has to be these guys. Only for those who want their music to be strange, weird and challenging.