LIVE 2013-08-31 + BONUS

Well, it may not be the most snappily named live album I have ever come across, but no-one can dispute the accuracy of the title. What we have here are nine songs recorded as a quintet on 31st August 2013, along with another four songs from the previous year when Vladislav Korotkikh (woodwind) was still with the band. The line-up was the same as for 'Revelator', except that Semenov-Tyan-Shansky had moved from bass to guitar to give them twin guitarists, and Ruslan Kirillov had joined on bass. Only a few of the songs from the most recent album were played, which I wonder was due to the lack of guests who played such an important part on 'Revelator'.

There is the feeling here of a band who are settled in the live environment, and enjoy bouncing ideas off each other and extended and moving around ideas. There is certainly far more focus on the guitars than I would have expected, as Rozmainsky allows himself to take a back seat. What really lets this down is the quality of the recording, which sounds incredibly raw, almost as if what we are hearing are raw tracks from the sound desk with little or no attempt to actually produce them. With music sometimes fading in and out, and some leads not being loud enough behind the rest of the music, it does make for a listening experience that may be authentic but doesn't necessarily leave the listener wanting to play it repeatedly. If it had been produced effectively this would have been indispensable, but as it is, it is just interesting.