The warm Darkness outside the window gently reminds of baths with virgin blood, dried toads and other pleasant things… Today we have Messer Chups with us, (in the past) people with refined taste and… certain inclinations. Oleg, Count Guitarakula, highly appreciates a sound day’s sleep in his beloved coffin made from the innocent bodies of Mosrite guitars. Zombirella prefers flying on a broomstick to “dead loops” on a bass guitar. Only the dwarf King Kong Evgeny is a stranger to aristocratic twists, indulging in the carnal pleasure of tapping on tams and bongs & goes bigger and stronger. Their fresh, ghoul-like album smells of cobwebs and decayed crinoline, and is called “Mondo Harp,” perhaps hinting at a world enslaved by lamprey harps from outer space. Let us examine with an unblinking eye this sinister, but so fashionable, creation.
The opening track Humanica is performed with the cheerfulness and humanity of Q’tulhu dancing a foxtrot on the deck of the Titanic. The baritone saxophone accurately depicts the last horn of the ill-fated liner, the surf guitar gurgles, immersing the listener in the hospitable waters of the Atlantic. Iceberg is late for this party… There, in the mysterious depths, you would need Green Flippers, green fins, if you could breathe underwater… Among other things, this composition reveals the real age of the musicians, it is nothing more than “Greensleeves”, an English chanson of the XVI century. For the first time in surf rock, a harp sounds, turning Dick Dale into William Blake.
Love Is A Magical Thing continues the theme of count’s balls and unnatural blush through the ashes of powder. A rock minuet, to which even Marie Antoinette is not ashamed to lose her head. The Curse Of Catzilla is an attempt to present human beings as small rodents, presented in the language of music and heart-rending meowing. My Cat nods approvingly to the beat.
Sinking to the bottom of the ocean can be painful and doomed, like the captain of a German submarine from Lovecraft’s Temple. Or you can playfully, with bubbles, to the accompaniment of ondine the harpist (Lydia Kopeetskaya), as in the composition Das Boot. Zombirella’s midnight voice, Midnight Call, beckons us, weak-willed and unscrupulous victims, to dance the last twist before dawn.
I would like to say that you can’t spoil the great music of Eduard Artemyev with any sense of humor, but… Siberiada came out not ghoulishly frivolous, devoid of the pagan magic of the original source… But it will perfectly match the book “Roma, Fomka and Artos”! Agent Horrifica is Messer’s signature horror surf, and it’s the kind of music you need to dress up in a ghostly sheet and chase crooks off rooftops and out of governments. Invited Alexander Novikov is blowing terribly in sax, do you hear, Fille?!
House Of Exorcism is damn reminiscent of a song from some Soviet movie, but I just can’t remember Riazanov’s films about exorcism… It’s hard to stay gloomy under the cheerful racing Gloomy Boy. I want to shoot a revolver from the hip, smash a pub and, in the end, rush into the sunset without waiting for vigilantes. Padre Pizzicato will absolve even the most notorious Sicilian. This is an ethical issue. And rewards. It’s a painfully disturbing play.
On The World We Knew, our evergreen (literally) heroes reminisce about the past centuries and nights full of pain and horror. An elegy as bright as Petersburg after sunset, decorated with gentle harp notes. Twin Peaks Theme does not need to be introduced, but the Messer version needs to be explained. At some point, mysticism turns into a kind of unbridledness. It seems that there, in the Black Wigwam, Laura and Bob are measuring the height of a giant in dwarfs. There are thirty-eight dwarfs in the giant! An unexpected but successful reading. Signor Badalamenti won’t have to go to Padre Pizzicato.
Epitaph: a light surf rock album with elements of genuine horror and an innovative introduction of the harp into the musical palette of the genre. The lack of bright melodies brightens up with a subtle sense of humor and a great cover. It is especially recommended for listening in crypts and on scaffolds. Sunrise is coming, Moon Dogs!
More Messer Chups albums: https://messer-chups .bandcamp.com/
