One of my friends from The Boredom Breakers, who went on an untimely sabbatical, often said that rock and roll was most associated with New Year’s holidays. The association is generally quite common: the film “Home Alone” from an early age unobtrusively instilled in us a love for such compositions as Rockin’ Around the Christmas Tree, and the Christmas albums of the Brian Setzer Orchestra aggravated this attachment in adulthood. Somewhere between these phenomena, the winter city from Mafia 2, also filled with all kinds of rock and roll, could well have been mixed in. Ilya Darkbloom‘s new mini-album with the chilling title “Cool Cats” quite organically merges into this galaxy of snow fairy tales.
But don’t worry! The cats are alive and purring, and the name refers to Ilya’s first work, embodying a peculiar cat-song dichotomy. And in general, we are talking about Cool Cats, that is, cats are rather coolly non-stressful.
Just like the first record, the mini-album has exactly five tracks, this time much more tender. The cast of characters also did not change: Alexey Budarin played drums again, Danila Biryukov recorded, and Ilya took over everything else – guitar, bass, vocals, composition and production. Even the cover is Ilya’s handiwork. Oh, I wish I had such self-sufficiency!
The material, as far as can be judged from the announcements on social networks, was mature from the beginning of the outgoing year to the end of spring. Bearing in mind how this very spring is not pleasant in the Russian north, in whose cities the creative process was carried out, the remedies for cold times have been preserved and transmitted more than reliably.
The first track “You, Me and the Night” instantly catches on with its guitar and drumming fervor. Alexey’s syncopation is beyond praise here: very rarely anyone manages to combine politeness and coolness on a drum kit. The same can be said about guitar and bass parts. It’s a very moving song, but not at all twitchy. It’s like the memory of a summer beach vacation that makes my head spin while a blizzard whirls snow clouds outside the window. There’s also something elusively grandfathered-in Soviet about her, like from the movie “Three Plus Two”.
The next track “Pink Cadillac” was previously released as a separate single, dedicated, oddly enough, to Mother’s Day. Probably because Elvis, having earned his first big money, gave a Pink Cadillac to his mother, whom he loved very much. Well, whose mother would refuse such a gift? After all, this is literally a dream come true. This dream sneaks maliciously, rumbles in my ear in the chorus, causing an ASMR effect and gives a good cool coolness, performing solos in an inverted jazz order: first the drums, and then the guitar. Maybe the declamated “trash” of jazz is manifested in this?
The equator of the record is represented by the ballad “Love has bad weather“, which is as gentle as an eclair. Well, this is literally an experiment on the topic: what if Ricky Nelson was a Soviet pop singer from the early 60s? The perfect combination of twentieth-century Russian with classic American teen songs. It’s like the soundtrack from a fictional movie that was played in the cinema from the previous record. This theory is also supported by the short duration of the song, as if it were specially adjusted to the timing of the scene.
The cheerful swing “Dreams in which I Sleep” continues the love theme. With percussion parts similar to some of Benny Goodman’s scores and a soft, unobtrusive guitar accompaniment, this song is… well, it’s very good. I would like to say that the refrain from the chorus is memorable, but everything is so airy that it was difficult to remember after listening to what exactly was there. Well, like a dream.
This short record ends with another light jazz song “Quiet Alleys”. I don’t call it a song to belittle its lyrical message. It’s just that that’s how Soviet pop composers often called their work, secretly pushing the most interesting jazz moves through the eye of a needle of merciless Soviet censorship.
By God, the spirit of Mikael Tariverdiyev is present on the album, even if there was no such idea initially.
The jazz-feline incarnation of Darkbloom turned out to be exactly as good as the rockabilly one. Such music fills several empty spaces in the field of Russian musical culture at once. Firstly, this is jazz for normal people who don’t want to become musicologists in order to enjoy listening. And it is the jazz essence itself that is very well captured here.
Secondly, this is one of the best examples of a historical renovation. That is, it is quite possible for an ignorant person to sell it as little-known Soviet pop songs. And this ignorant person will not only believe it, but will also be very pleased with the audition. “Oh, they used to make music…” or something like that.
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In view of the above, I would like to note that Ilya’s modesty, which adorns a person, is, of course, decorative, but still false. Jazz is not so rubbish, and “low-quality amateur performance,” as Ilya himself describes his work, has never been of low quality at all. Perhaps the quality is even too high for a subcultural phenomenon, and this music is quite ready to try to storm the mainstream, taking a position not far from Billy Novikov and the legacy of the Bravo group. Everything is absolutely comparable and competitive. Unless Ilya’s project can get into an unpleasant interval, when the artist is too cool for the underground and too peculiar for the mainstream. But those who don’t take risks don’t take risks. And the devoted listeners won’t turn away, that’s for sure.
In the meantime, this soft jazz will perfectly warm us all, like a festive illumination against the dark skies of December and will support the inner fire, like sincere wishes for happiness in the new year.
