Boshetunmay

"Signal" (Album, 2001)

Dercho Music

Boshetunmay are Siberian brothers Harry and Witali Dercho. Formerly of Omsk in Russia, they moved to West Germany in 1993 where they began writing and recording, releasing their first, self-titled demo tape in 1998. The 8-track EP Useless Life in 2000 was the second release on their own Derco Music label, and earlier this year the promo single of the Signal album track Vote for the Black followed. Now we have the first full album length release and an odd mixture it is too. It doesn't take long to realise that this isn't from any kind of conventional background, mixing electro, gothic, dance, rock and even synth pop touches together - often all in a single track!

The result maybe somewhat disconcerting to many Western ears but at least it's unpredictable - which is more than can be said for many of their UK, American and European contemporaries. We can perhaps mark up the sometimes unintentionally hilarious vocals, the cliched rock guitar riffs and dreadfully naive synth lines (such as on the pomp-rock opener Vote for the Black) as the result of a still extensive cultural divide, but there are some promising leftfield entries worthy of closer scrutiny. Corporation of Dreams sounds a lot like much of the UK electro goth rock bands currently doing the rounds. The instrumental title track Signal is possibly the best track here coming in under two minutes. If vocals are your thing then the best song by a long chalk is the mid-tempo Lodestar. Favourtie title is Personifiziertes Silikon, which isn't a bad track either. This is likely to fair better in mainland Europe than in the UK but the rock sensibilities of several tracks could also see wider exposure in the US. 5/10

Rob Dyer