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Go to it​!​.​.

by Vezhlivy Otkaz

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1.
Intro 02:50
2.
3.
4.
Venice 04:50
5.
6.
Tango 06:25
7.
Clouds got a hold of the city Rain’s in the cards as of late Far from it all a young fellow Walking beyond Narva Gate Road is long, too long and then some Please come out, sweet heart of mine You and I say farewell at the doorstep Bid me happiness and joy. You and I say farewell at the doorstep Could this be the last goodbye
8.
Waltz 05:03
9.
Bossa Nova 04:21

about

Go to it!.. stands out in Vezhlivy Otkaz’s discography. Thought by many to be cold (the band’s official biography calls it also “the coldest and infinitely distant from the Soviet people”) and instrumental, which is true in many ways, although, on the other hand, it makes room for aggressiveness, nor does Roman Suslov give up singing altogether.

The voice, indeed, is heavily present on the album. Suslov did not want to depart from the “billboard, megaphone delivery,” the “enunciation from upstage”,—otherwise, “what kind of rockenroll would that be?” Also, confesses the Otkaz’s leader, he is a better master of vocal rhythm than the guitar; he feels more at ease with the vocal and finds it more fascinating to work with.

Music here not only plays an appreciably larger role than lyrics, as it did on Ethnic Experiences—the album that crystallized the band’s core creative principles,—it displaces the lyrics altogether. Go to it!.. does not have songs in the traditional sense. And it’s not just that the tracks are almost devoid of lyrics—Go to it!.. takes a whole new approach to musical material. While on Ethnic Experiences even instrumental pieces were conceived as songs—with the main theme and refrain—now the structure becomes more complicated. The cornerstone now is not melodies, not themes, not parts; rather, it’s moods, images. As Suslov describes it, he used notes only for the few “backbone pieces”; mostly, though, he “dispensed moods” to the musicians, describing in words what he would like to hear: “we took assorted characters and dragged them over into a pseudo-dancing language.” The instruments, in his words, were given human functions, somewhat as in Peter and the Wolf.

Go to it!.. is truly about moods, all sorts of them, and ones not always reducible to words. “Certainly, back then every phrase and phoneme here meant something to me, these were my internal signs,” says Suslov.

Sure enough, even today the album feels detached; it seems like it is from out there and has nothing in common with the reality around us (now or twenty-odd years ago). Hence this withdrawal into the vintage style—black tailcoats and white shantung suits the Otkaz musicians attire themselves in at the time, the “Tango” as such, vague memories of the ancient war in “Epigraph” and “Waltz,” the Russian Empire–era name of the city of Tallinn in the title of “Charleston,” and a dancing couple on the CD sleeve—a reproduction of a billboard by Joseph Christian Leyendecker, an American illustrator. Hence the exotic flavor—“a Japanese dance” and the almost unreachable “Venice” (here is a funny factoid: the album has its origins in the band’s numerous trips to Italy—and Venice was the place they never got to visit, only got a glimpse and caught a whiff of it when passing the town on a train). Still, it seems that this coldness, detachedness and emphatic “constructedness,” in Suslov’s opinion, falls short of what he intended to achieve: today the band’s leader sees the album as a naïve foray that he perceives to be foreign; he thinks the album is not enough of a “decorative, artificial thing.”

On the other hand, Suslov is satisfied to mention that the band played very much hand-in-glove back then—lots of touring and live concerts did their part. That such a sophisticated piece of material could be recorded in a matter of three or four days and then mixed in another three, speaks volumes. By the way, the musicians had little if any preparation to the recording session in 1991; everything happened out of the blue: as Roman remembers it, someone used time slots at the Ostankino studio to pay them for a filming or a concert. This was a large recording studio, where symphonic orchestras would record. Everything was recorded synchronously (even vocals were mostly recorded in one go), with few takes.

Recorded in 1991, the album was released in a different era, in 1992, and in a country that was different. That was the time when some of the better-known post-Soviet rock bands split or drastically restyled. And although Vezhlivy Otkaz never did join the rock mainstream, neither did it escape change altogether—Suslov, as usual, found his own way: he took to breeding horses in the rural Tula region and somewhat drifted away from music.

credits

released October 10, 1992

Mikhail Mitin drums
Dmitry Shumilov bass, double-bass
Roman Suslov guitar, vocal
Maxim Trefan grand-piano

Music and lyrics by Roman Suslov except for Epigraph (Pavel Armand, 1938)
Sound recording and mix by Andrey Pasternak
Recorded in 1991 on Central Television of the USSR, Ostankino (Moscow) with active support by TV program ‘Chyortovo Koleso’ and its editor-en-chief Natalya Greshishcheva
Original cover design Igor Shein
Cover illustrations J.C. Leyendecker
Originally released by FEELEE record company (LP, FL3 012; 1992)

EDITION 2014
produced by Vezhlivy Otkaz and Geometry record label
Original tape provided by Natalya Greshishcheva
Lyrics translation Ilya Shlepakov
Liner notes Gregory Durnovo
Liner notes translation Mikhail Sizonenko
Cover design Dmitry Mokshin
Audio editing Eugene Gapeev
Producer Slava Nedeoglo

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Vezhlivy Otkaz Moscow, Russia

Vezhlivy Otkaz was formed in 1985 with a then-popular reggae/ska blend. Since then, they have gone through numerous stylistic changes,
flirting with everything from free jazz to Russian folk. Their sound, however, has always been unique and immediately recognizable.
Suslov’s rhythmic guitar work and unusual high-pitched vocals gives VO’s music a precisely constructed,
crystal-clear sound.
... more

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