Linguist and novelist Anthony Burgess wrote his knizhonka “Clockwork Orange” in 1962, after visiting Leningrad. Andy Warhol, famous for his coloring books, first seized on the violent pseudo-dystopia, but Stanley Kubrick turned the story into a true masterpiece, throwing the didacticism of the original into the trash and picking up Malcolm McDowell for the role of Alex (perhaps from the same dump). Malchiki from the Urals couldn’t help but appreciate such a mockery of the taste of the philistine and housewives: with a delay of only 36 years, in 2007, a group with the strange name The Karova’s Milkshake gave a slightly prostratsya to the beau monde of Yekaterinburg.
At that time, the band was a quintet playing garage rock and clearly gravitating towards the British sound. After a couple of years, the guys were unrecognizable, they became so arrogant that they began to organize themed parties with the participation of local rockabilly carnosaurs The Stockmen “Mods against Rockers”. Even on those nights on the dance floor, Brian Jones hairstyles prevailed over grease, not to mention the girls whose outfits invited them to breakfast at Tiffany’s. However, despite the obvious success, the band soon dwindled to a trio without a stable drummer, and multi-instrumentalist Albert Krupp (Big Al for friends) took up bass guitar and, if necessary, drums. Vsevolod Slepushkin (for Sev’s friends, a two-wheeled one) remained the unchanged guitarist and second lead vocalist.
Nikita Novikov saved the situation, becoming the pulse of a band that had long since grown out of the garage and was now playing Sixties acid without using acid, inventing new explosive cocktails. Mutating from a trio into a quartet and vice versa again, our merry milkmen successfully toured far and near abroad. In between the leapfrog and the bacchanal, the guys did not forget to visit the recording studios, although they did not do it as regularly as the philophonists would like.: The Karovas have released two singles and two full-length albums, the latest of which, Now It Was Said, we hasten to present to your attention. The album was born in the period 2017-2019, but only now has it reached the right condition, as befits good drinks. The main cast was enriched by keyboardist Alexander Teder, and the soundscape was enriched by an entire orchestra of invited people. Close the glazzies, clean the ooshies, it will be weird-scary-fun!
The Karovas Milkshake on Zvonko: https://zvonko.link/NowItWasSaid
1. 33 Problemi is a weighty diddley beat wrapped in a jagged harmonica and Allanprice keys. Seva sings in the manner of Reg Presley skipping school. Pipe trousers wrinkle perkily.
2. Jelly Mama is a fabulous sketch with a flute, soft percussion and the voices of grass gnomes. That was undoubtedly what sounded in Mr. Toad’s brand-new car from Kenneth Graham’s The Wind in the Willows.
3. Russian Rag is the only other thing on the record, the original was written more than a hundred years ago. Karovas ragtime has been transformed into a horror lounge, under which it is not a shame to chase crooks across the roofs, throwing a shroud. Creepy laughter and other voice tricks were depicted by the author of these lines. There is also a vocal version about Kostyak the Immortal, which may someday see the light of day over the graves.
4. Lisa Esvein – hippy country stomp, played by the rules and without: banjo, violin, washboard available. Boys invite girls to syenoval.
5. Hong Kong Blues II, apparently, is a free continuation of Hoagy Carmichael’s Hong Kong Blues, covered by a certain George Harrison in 1981, with exotic spices from the deliberate imbecility of the Beatles’ Ob-La-Di Ob-La-Da and the sound of keys in the spirit of Billy Preston.
6. Love Is Blind – heavy blues in the manner of Booker T. under heavy blues preparations. To this tune, Jack the Jumper could ride around London, scaring the unfortunate man in the street. You can’t uproot garage roots.
7. Girl From Kalamazoo is a beautiful pop with a wonderful bossa nova rhythm. The lyrical spirit of Ray Manzarek was walking around the studio that day.
8. House Of Gold is an action movie akin to those that led to the birth of hard rock. A very interesting guitar solo with passages mimicking Louisiana mosquitoes.
9. Low Down Love is a cynical British freak beat. But some people like it hot.
10. Change (Everything) is a gentle rhythm and blues ballad, balancing on the edge, but never turning into a soul strain. One of the best in this collection, definitely.
11. Devil’s Station is an undulating composition, like the waves of a deep blue sea, and just as contemplative. Only one train stops at that railway station, and somewhere Gloomy Sunday is quietly playing, escorting those leaving the platform.
12. Train From Buffalo departs from a completely different station: unbridled harmonica hints at bourbon and smoke with a rocker, blackjack and other joys in each carriage. Just have time to jump in.
13. Summertime (Was Made For Fun) is probably the only nostalgic thing about the record, and the dance middle only highlights the overall elegy and beauty.
14. Dance Dance not only makes you dance, but also makes you imagine what punk would sound like if it were invented in Motown. Very fresh, wild and angry shtuka.
The album Now It Was Said sounds like a lost treasure of the sixties, and not an imitation of neophytes, as often happens. Over the years, malchiki has grown into real Karovas, the most talented composers and arrangers who think music where theory prevails for many. Now you know which drinks to order at the bar. The train from Buffalo departs into the Bottomless Night.
PS: Already in the process of discussing the finished article, I asked Albert where that pair of piano chords from Gloomy Sunday, sounding at the end of Devil’s Station, came from. It turned out that she was already on the platform where the Carovas were writing their song, and as soon as their music stopped, another music started playing. The fact is that, first released in 1935 in Hungary, the song Gloomy Sunday, in the original Szomóru Vasárnap, caused many suicides among the Magyar youth. And so she surfaced in the Devil’s Station song. The guys were not aware of her story, they just decided to leave the notes they liked. It may be tiny, but it’s mystical.
I’ve been listening to the album for several days now. It’s a masterpiece! Then I heard echoes of Shocking Blue, Roxy Music, and Marc Bolan. and lots of your own authentic, crystallized sixties rock’n’roll!