DISEN GAGE - … the reverse may be
true
(CD, R.A.I.G.)
I think it was Nils Bohr, the
famous scientiest, who once said something along the lines of “The
opposite of a minor truth is false. The opposite of a major truth is also
true.” I think he meant something like the old struggle between capitalism
and marxism, nature and civilization, yin and yang, vegetarians versus
carnivores, or the dark side of the force versuse the last remaining Jedis.
After all there is a clear connection between science and science fiction,
between religion and drug abuse, between war and technology - and then there
is prog rock and fusion jazz and then there probably should be a synthesis
between all of those. It is not quite clear, because like accelerating
towards light speed or beyond makes everything go a blurr, everything here
seems to go by so quickly as well. It is a fucking frenzy, but in a good
way.
Lesson number one on how to
mix prog rock, fusion jazz, russian folklore and science fiction soundtrack
scores and a little bit of easy listening in a wild mixture of avantguarde
rock music: I have no idea, but crystal meth is probably a good idea. Oh, I
guess I said that somewhere else in almost the same manner!? Well, if the
shoe fits. Disen Gage is a Russian four piece that has moved from
instrumental (apart from some samples, chants and screams) avant prog rock
to free improvisation and then back, only on a higher level. It is
soundtrack music to a movie not even David Lynch dares to shoot, because it
is at the same time pompously boisterous and inflated as well as crazy
freaked out outer space weirdness. The monster / killer / alien is about to
turn around the dark corner and make its frightening appearance at any time.
Most of all the hundreds and
hundreds of crazy ideas and manic structures make me fall in awe while
listening to this one hour trip. Does anybody remember Mr. Bungle? That,
only with a better feeling for jazz and folklore and more technical
abilities. And a different kind of crazyness. Did you know that the Spanish
like to celebrate April’s fool practical jokes on 28th of
September? That kind of weirdness. And a little Zappa, especially in the
longwinding but ever-changing guitar lines and solos.
I haven’t read or used the
word “mindboggling” ever since Douglas Adams’ cult trilogy in five
parts “The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy” but here it fits. Several
more allusions to sci-fi and Hitchiker’s Guides in song titles and so on
makes me imagine that Disen Gage is actually the bar band playing at the
restaurant at the end of the universe every night for the lucky crowd able
to get a seat with full frontal view of the apocalypse. And when they hit
full “mamushka” mode the party is bound to get really wild.
And when you wake up the next
morning, with a memory of the world having turned upside down you might
remember a faint echo of what the title of this album really means.
