Lyapis Trubetskoy "Rabkor"
The Lyapises gave up lyric poetry and got down to constatation and agitation.
At first, the new May 1 album of the band Lyapis Trubetskoy seems incomplete. The songs give an impression of drafts, some working material which accidentally got to the internet, with unfinished arrangements, all flaws and swearing words. "Rabkor" contains no sitars, pipes or other decorative elements as in the previous albums. The guitar which made the melodic base of the "Merry Pictures" got to the background in favour of the hysterically banging wind section. However, as Syarhei Mikhalok explained, this is how the "rabkor" style should sound like - "the music of the slaves who rose for a rebellion".
Crossing the way of minimizing, the Lyapises simplified the musical side of the album nearly to schematism. A standard verse-and-chorus structure, simple wind parties and almost straight recitative create a deja vu effect and make it difficult to get to grips with the tracks. For example, the song "Not to be a Beast" by Yanka Kupala's lyrics and the track dedicated, probably, to some social issue in Russia "Putinaroda" sound like twins, created by one and the same sample. Probably, such approach should concentrate the listener's attention on the most important thing - the ideological message. However, everything looks sad here as well.
Frankly speaking, the lyrics of the last album give an impression of rather cheap sham, because, in such a simple form, almost deprived of the former grotesque and irony and over-filled with revolutionary pathos and the images of the beginning of the past century, the whole picture looks a bit naive. There is a warning in the song with a characteristic name "Battleship": "...if we don't fight today, tomorrow all of us will be done, and no one will ever see the Sun again" and a vintage appeal to "kill the slave inside of you".
There are also some remains of melody. In the whole battleship "Rabkor" there are a couple of carriages with private luggage of Syarhei Mikhalok. The songs "A Dragon and an Eagle" and "Liliput" clearly stand out on the total brutal background because of their lyrics.
Let us try to imagine the target audience of the "Rabkor", or how the Lyapises' audience will change after this album. There is an opinion that the listeners of the band get younger and younger after each new album. There is a gap of a whole generation between those who liked the album "Wounded Heart" and the current fans of the Lyapises. So, in spite of the fact that the lyrical character appeals to his bros who are kept in dirty burrows, the album is likely to be appreciated by real teenagers, adherents of straight energetic rhythms and stage diving.
It is interesting that the 'balls" theme appeared in the creativity of Syarhei Mikhalok again. The album "Golden Balls" was released 8 years ago and was the last one of the old "Lyapis". As for the album "Rabkor", there is a question asked with a serious tone, and this question is probably the most timely one for cats in May: "Do you have balls or not?" It is clear that there is no connection, but there is a feeling that Lyapis Trubetskoy is facing another crisis as its current incarnation has nothing more to show and there is a need for transformation.
