Boulder Blues
Ramble, 2022
8/10
An ensemble who impressed me with 2020’s Inwards Opened The Floor, the Israeli and British outfit Staraya Derevnya return with another batch of unclassifiable sounds that employ Krautrock, psychedelia and many other ideas into a very unusual 5 tracks.
“Scythian Nest” opens the atypical listen with a busy, unpredictable approach that’s percussively adventurous amid an occasional choir and high pitched singing that’s sort of tribally cosmic, and “Boulder Blues” follows with a much calmer presence of warm atmosphere that’s meditative in its repetitive nature and gets a bit more firm near the end in a noisey fashion.
“Tangled Hands” lands in the middle, and benefits from Galya Chikiss’ cries and whispers in a psych-folk sort of way, while “Bubbling Pelt” showcases Masha Gerzon’s piano prowess and Maya Pik’s synth flourishes in the mysterious, cinematic 20 minutes that can be ominous, frightening even, but also carries a subtle beauty.
The final track, “Gallant Spider”, is the shortest, and welcomes Pik on flute for a very ambient version of folk music that you never knew existed.
Gosha Hniu is the primary mover and shaker here, and he plays several instruments and objects, and the sounds he creates will strike a chord with fans of music as diverse as blues, freak-folk, avant-garde jazz and punk, to a name a few.