- Source: Zvuki Mu (album)
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Zvuki Mu is the debut and only internationally released album by the Russian band Zvuki Mu, released in 1989 and produced by Brian Eno.
The album was released in Russia in 1998 with a bonus track. This Russian reissue was rereissued in 2013 on vinyl.
Recording and release
The album was recorded in November 1988 in twelve days in Moscow at the rented Gosteleradio studio, mixing took place in London at Air Studios. This album included material from the two earlier albums Simple Things and Crimea, as well as one new song, "Forgotten Sex".
During the recording process a contradiction in the sound of the material arose, which put a stop to the collaboration: Mamonov strived for a “smooth” sound, refusing Eno's innovative techniques.
The story of this recording is quite traumatic – I wrote about it in the book and, I think, in the annotation to the Russian edition of the album. Brian wanted to record a disk that would somehow emphasize or complement the wildness of Zvuki Mu and their originality, and Pete, on the contrary, wanted everything to be clean, smooth, as cultured as possible, and to sound like Bryan Ferry. It was a case of a scythe on a stone – in this case the scythe was the thin and sharp Brian Eno, and the stone was the blunt Mamonov. And the stone corrupted the scythe. Petya was categorically against the sound production innovations that Eno was proposing. Since Petya was a Russian and brutal man, and Eno was English and delicate, Eno finally gave up and recorded and mixed the album the way Mamonov wanted. The result was, in my opinion, a rather mediocre record. I think it's almost the worst of all Brian Eno's production works.
With the release of the album, the band embarked on a tour of Europe and the east coast of the United States, where they were positioned as the "russian Talking Heads". In the UK, the band recorded John Peel session, and in the US had one joint gig with Pere Ubu and paired gig with The Residents on the Lincoln Center stage.
Reception and legacy
Robert Christgau describing the band's work as "hypnotic cabaret-rock". Jack Barron of NME give positive rating and wrote: "There is something gloomy, dislocated, yet also on occasion intoxicated about Mu's music." Record Mirror criticized the album, writing that, "Zvuki Mu are woefully dated, they make music so grey you can see Moscow's concrete bleakness within the grooves." Spin wrote, "They approach rock music the way a group of aliens might, stumbling over artifacts in a time capsules".
In 2010, the album was ranked 31st in the list of "50 Best Russian Albums of All Time" compiled by the Russian magazine Afisha based on the results of a survey of young Russian musicians.
Track listing
Personal
Adapted from the album liner notes.
Zvuki Mu
Pyotr Mamonov – vocals
Aleksandr Lipnitsky – bass
Aleksey Bortniychuk – guitar
Pavel Hotin – keyboards, backing vocals
Aleksey Pavlov – drums
Additional personnel
Brian Eno – production
Ian Cooper – mastering
Lance Phillips – sound engineer
Leonard Zezyulin – sound engineer
Yuri Rodin – cover design
References
External links
Zvuki Mu at Discogs (list of versions)
