Volga
Pomol
(Lumberton Trading Company)
On their MySpace site Volga describe their music as Experimental / Electronica / Folk, which will do as well as the ‘Slavic Psychodelia’ promised on their website. Angela Manukian belts out a variety of ancient texts while her three Russian bandmates produce a sympathetic backdrop of beats and twangs. The results are variously invigorating, edgy, catchy (and occasionally thumpingly tedious). Their videos give the impression of a pre-makeover Kraftwerk appearing on a 1970s keep fit programme: Europe Endless for short attention spans.
The bespectacled Manukian sits on a stool while two of her colleagues hunch over their laptops. The fourth, Uri Balashov, saws away with a bow at a curious instrument called the zvukosuk; he also plays Tibetan cup and vargan (a kind of Jew's Harp). Balashov is also a visual artist (responsible for the cover to Zappa's posthumous Civilization Phaze III), while Manukian is a folklorist, which gives an authentic note to Volga's incantations.
John L Walters