Maybe this is nothing more than a strange combination of coincidences. Perhaps we’re dealing with delusions – or my own personal illusions! Nonetheless, when I first played this CD, something magical happened. I had long been asked to give it a spin, but never got around to it. It seems that a faint beam has appeared in these twilight years, when – we’re informed – an age of composers is concluding. A breath of air transpires in an otherwise stuffy atmosphere of modern music. I couldn’t believe my ears or first impressions. So I got ready to play the disk again in order to confirm – or deny – my suspicions. Then I said to myself ”Stop! I won’t listen to this again!” I recalled something from my early childhood. I always admired little stones collected from the bottom of the Moscow River. They always looked so beautiful… but, once they dried out in my hands they became colorless and dull. And so a question arose: which were the true stones? The ones on the river bed or the ones in my hand? I don’t want to repeat those mistakes of my childhood. I don’t want to remove the stones from the water. I don’t want to ruin a first impression; I just hope it wasn’t incorrect. I hope somebody will feel something similar, if they play this same CD. Enjoy listening!
Vladimir Martynov
www.progarchives.com/Review.asp?id=2374248
"This album was originally released in 2015 by Long Arms Records on CD and vinyl, and then in 2019 the addicted label made it available digitally. IWKC, or I Will Kill Chita, do sometimes work under the name of Evil Bear Boris. In fact, different versions of some of these songs can be found on the Evil Bear Boris live 2013 album 'Boris In Action', while they also released an EP 'Das ist Boris'. This is the second album I have come across from IWKC, as I have already reviewed 2017's 'Hladikarna', but this is quite different again. Although it features the same core quartet of Nikita Samarin (drums, percussion), Nick Samarin (keyboards, bass), Andrey Silin (keyboards, theremin) and Artem Litvakoskiy (cello) they have added many more additional musicians this time on strings and brass.
The result is a post rock album quite like anything I have previously come across, as it definitely contains many elements of modern classical music while the band themselves describe it as sympho-punk with turbobass or bearcore. We have enough sub genres of sub genres and I am not really sure if the world is ready for something called bearcore, but post rock with avant tendencies and a desire to include some elements of Art Zoyd is how I would best describe this. Mostly instrumental, this veers between times when it is almost unlistenable to others when it is distinctly melodic, often with the same bass line underneath which keeps it all together. The Addicted label are doing a great job continuing to make albums like this available in a digital format, and there is no reason for not discovering some of the great music coming out of Russia with all these being made available on Bandcamp. The label state they support all types of psychedelic music, and tag themselves with forward-thinking, psych, frogressive, stoner, doom, sludge, experimental, jazz, punk, hard rock, noise rock, avant, ambient, improv, hip hop, post rock\metal, powerviolence, funk, electronic, nevermind, and IWKC certainly tick a lot of those boxes." Kev Rowland
released April 3, 2015
The Band:
Nikita Samarin – drums & percussion
Andrey Silin – keyboards, theremin
Artem Litvakoskiy – cello
Nick Samarin – keyboards, bass
Alexandra Ramazanova – cello
Ksenia Pluzhnikova – violin
Ramil Mulikov – trumpet, trombone
Ekaterina Voronkova – french horn
Anton Ponomarev – saxophones
Konstantin Podgorbunskiy – tuba
Gnesin State Musical College Choir:
Alexandra Zotova
Pavel Zotov
Evgenia Mazur
Vera Nikeshicheva
Recorded in Moscow and Kiev. 2013-2014
Recorded by Denis Yambor, Yuriy Vodolzhanskiy, Nick Samarin
Mixed and mastered by Vladislav Ponomarenko
Translated by David MacFadyen
Special thanks to David MacFadyen, Boris Smirnov, Anton Ponomarev, Lyudmila Dmitrieva, Vladimir Martynov, friends, parents, DOM Cultural Center:
CD label:
longarms.net
(Long Arms Records / Длинные Руки Рекордс)
Design by Olga Yakovleva/Design Group ESH
Executive producer: Lyudmila Dmitrieva
cat#: CDLA 15093
date: 4/3/2015
weight ~61g
digital label:
noname666.bandcamp.com
cat# 742
date: 10/18/2019