These days I can at least mention Reutoff. Although these guys’ music is about as Russian as Tchaikovsky’s — that is to say, you have to look for their Russianness very carefully. Anyway, the guys are good. Really good.

I DO NOT CHOOSE TO RUN
by Kenny & Dennis
as performed by Tom Stacks and the members of Harry Reser’s Six Jumping Jacks

Billy bought a dollar watch
He thought he’d have some time.
But the thing was non-complete
It wasn’t worth a dime.
Billy listened for a tick,
And almost passed away
He put the watch up to his ear
And heard it softly say:
I do not choose to run.
I do not choose to run.
Try and shake me
You can’t make me
My spring days are done.
Wind me up once more
Then drop me on the floor.
I don’t care
I just declare
I do not choose to run.

Billy had a jazzy band,
They loved their music so.
Every where that Willie went
The band was sure to go.
When they heard this little song
Now, things have changed about
When Billy whispers, “Let’s go boys”,
The band begins to shout:
We do not choose to play.
We do not choose to play.
Break our fiddles in their middles
Throw our sax away
Leave a little …
Yell hip hip horray
Any thing
We’ll even sing
We do not choose to play.

“Andy”, the culmination track from “One Size Fits All”, arguably one of Zappa’s best albums ever, is a good example of all those traits. Being a pinnacle of the whole album, it both drives the emotional tension to its maximum and abruptly resolves this tension in the end (flowing into powerful yet peaceful “Sofa No. 2″, a usual way for Zappa to finish his albums). “Andy” sounds very much like an art rock piece, neurotic and ornamental, with ragged machine-gun-tempo rhythms overlapping the main lines (remember, this was written long before IDM).

Structurally, this is sufficiently more elaborate compared to standard jazzy theme-and-variations that it can easily be interpreted as a full-fledged sonata form. Look for yourself: introduction, first theme exposition (”is there anything good inside of you”), bridge built from the intro motive, second theme exposition (”show me a sign”), development section (first theme restatement, motivic variation on the second theme, first solo), first and second theme recapitulation, and, finally, a coda — the second solo that absolutely blows you away.

Clearly, this is not a sonata form as they define it in the textbooks — there are two hooks that really stand out (Haydn would probably disapprove, Beethoven would probably not give a damn). One hook is in first theme exposition — a blues-rock lick heavy as a Hummer. Another hook is the end of second theme recap, where Napoleon Murphy cries “Andy” in his nasty, reedy voice — but the tension is so high by this point and the whole band stops so abruptly that, if your heart doesn’t stop at this cry, you probably don’t have any heart at all.

I love “Andy” probably more than any other track on this magnificent album (including even the “Inca Roads” masterpiece). Enjoy it.

About a year ago someone (Vova Dmitrenko, I recall) shared Antony’s “Behold the Lamb of God” demo cassette, on which I found this particular track. It’s very Antony-esque, being so explicit and disgusting in its imagery and so subtle and sincere in its musical delivery. I often use such material as a cure to my emotional lows, but generally you don’t have to be in distress to enjoy Antony.

Approaching Koivisto from Mannola, originally uploaded by piggymouse.

This is how it looked like on the last day of my summer break, as I was going 8km from Putus to Koivisto a.k.a. Primorsk to catch the bus to St.Pete.