Various Artists – From Russia with Fuzz [Psychedelic Vinyl] – New LP

Originally released in Russia in 2018 only on reel-to-reel!!!  (Recorded on analog reels and released on analog reels!!!  Fantastic!). 

But other than a some equipment smuggler in Hong Kong and Pierre the toot dealer in Paris, who the hell has a reel-to-reel player!  To the rescue, comes Noah (pictured) from who fights fires in Corpus Christi and still manages to somehow also find time to design and press simply amazingly packaged surf, garage and punk records with his Otitis Media Records, the sleeve art typically designed by Noah himself, but this time maintaining the original artwork, and as always, maintaining the warm and wonderful analog sound of the original recordings.  What a bunch of amazing recordings, psychedelic-era garage rock cuts that sounds like they were recorded in November 1966 but were actually recorded in the 21st century in "Moscow, Samara, Sergiev Posad, Yekaterinburg, St.Petersbourg – that’s how extensive the geography of the bands is presented on this magnetic tape compilation on, dedicated to the Russian Garage Rock. This seemingly long forgotten and castaway genre had an unexpected revival on our land’s vast expanses way back in the late 1990’s. One of the first bands of this kind was The Cavestompers. The Cavestompers have gone through a long and interesting experience: they have played in Europe and have changed a lot of band members. On this tape, they are presenting their brand new track, “Livin’ Alone”, written by The Cavestompers girl bass player, Nat Riddle. Alongside The Cavestompers, other new and equally interesting Moscow Garage bands started to appear at the beginning of 2000’s - The Stone Shades, The Zebra, Heartbeat and The Thunderbeats, of course. As the amount of people interested enough in such a musical genre and wanting to play in it was really quite small, a lot of musicians migrated from one band into another. Stone Shades even released their one (and only) album on Soyuz Music in 2010 (The Beat). On this magnetic tape, they are represented by a rare and an unreleased track, “She’s Going Away”, from 2006. The Zebra - the Arkhangelsk band formed by two brothers, Mitya and Pavel Ozhigin - are represented by their new track “Say”, recorded at the Moscow analogue studio – Magnetone Studios. Meanwhile, in Yekaterinburg, an absolutely unique new band turned up – The Karovas Milkshake. True to their name, these guys created a hearty cocktail from different styles and sounds – 60’s Psychedelia, Garage Rock and their own unique songs. The band has played across Russia, filmed several videos and recorded a couple of albums. The track from their latest LP, “In The Shade Of Purple Sun”, is presented on this compilation. In Sergiev Posad, a band called Yellow Spectacles Transfer Factory has been successfully trying to grasp the authentic San Francisco and California sounds and merge them with current music trends. All of a sudden, Samara – a town which was absolutely far from such music - awoke. A true and independent scene of young musicians adoring 1960’s music had formed there out of thin air. While The Spoonbox are influenced by Surf and Sci-Fi/Trash/Spy movies, The Mojos (the same musicians as The Spoonbox minus the leader, Aleksey Tatischev) use peppy danceable grooves mixed with good old Punk 1977. In total contrast to both of them are the psychedelic and misty Mystic Brew, who will soon possibly release a debut LP on one of the European music labels. They are the only band out of Samara who went on a European tour and released two singles on the German label, “Soundflat”. Hot on Samara’s heels, a new generation of Moscow Garage Rock bands started to emerge. Ministy Of Flowers have come out of the disbanded Lazybones, while The Jibes have proved themselves as a really interesting and promising outfit. Both groups are represented here by their two new tracks recorded at Magnetone Studios. Among other bands, may be noted the St. Petersburg's The Space trees, led by Vadim Novozhilov and Kirill Nikonov. They still support the garage-rock movement, but in the other bands.  The Sugarman Band (originally Sakharniy Chelovek) is in a league of its own. They ultimately sing all of the songs in Russian only, luring the listener into the atmosphere reminding either The Grateful Dead or Boris Grebenshikov. The “Phosphorous Stones” song is here as a taster of their upcoming album. The authentic leaders and veterans of the Russian Garage scene are, of course, The Thunderbeats. Alexei Chernyayev and Vadim Markov formed this band after being tired of constant line-up changes and playing under someone else's rules. They also founded Magnetone Studios, the only recording studio in Moscow using all analogue equipment. This one-of-a-kind space has been located in the Moscow ZIL plant for several years now. Every worthwhile band can come and try recording here - and the old analogue equipment without a hint toward anything digital will be at their disposal. Vadim Markov from The Thunderbeats has commented on the release of this reel: 'The songs on this magnetic tape are written and recorded in Russia by us – the Russian Musicians. A passionate and uncontrollable love for music is what links us all. The bands on this reel represent different cities of the country but are all friends or, at least, know about the existence of each other. All the songs were recorded using our own resources, without commercial studios and expensive producers trying to drive all things to the mainstream format. Our aim is sincere and unbound rock'n'roll. We hope you will be able to hear that. We also hope you will enjoy listening to this record just as much as we enjoyed making it. Long Live Rock'n'Roll! Peace, Love, and Greetings to All - From Russia With Fuzz!'"