Nogu Svelo!

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Ногу свело! [Nogu svelo!] (Cramp in the Leg!) is a popular Russian rock band, usually associated with humor and parody as well as accessible and sometimes childishly simple melodies. They have, however, experimented with many styles in the past and seem to pay particular attention to interesting instrumentation and arrangements as well as good production values. The extravagant style of their late nineties albums has however given way to a simpler and more commercially accessible sound in their post-1999 releases - perhaps a return to the guitar-centered sound of 1995's Сибирская любовь [Sibirskaya lyubov'] (Siberian Love), yet arguably not possessing the youthful, hook-filled songwriting of that early-career round-up LP.

Of particular interest to English listeners is their nonchalantly imbecilic use of the English language (and, sometimes, wholly invented English-like language) in their earlier albums (the last few have been entirely in Russian): "she drew me away and locked the door/my girl doesn't love me anymore/I didn't say anything but in my head/I had a plan to make them dead" from the track "Super Creature" off Сибирская любовь is a good example of singer Maxim Pokrovskiy's way with words.


Contents

[edit] Early period (1989-1995)

The band's first two albums are extremely difficult to find, even in Russia - one's best chance would be either to obtain these on the Internet or find an old cassette copy of the debut in some small pirate record shop somewhere in the outskirts of Moscow (the second album was released only on vinyl).

The debut, 1:0 в пользу девочек [1:0 v pol'zu devochek] (The Girls Lead 1:0), recorded in 1990, yet released only in 1993, is the release that is perhaps the most revealing of the band's inner creative processes: the music being written by the bassist (Maxim Pokrovskiy) and drummer (Anton Yakomul'skiy), it sounds exactly like it - built around sometimes loose, sometimes tight bass riffs, and spacious drum cascades, with synths and guitars freely flowing in to play something that seemingly was made up on the spot by the respective players. The improvisational quality and the complete ignorance of any sort of commercial demands characterize this LP, yet plenty of songwriting talent is on view: the childish melody of "Дурдом" [Durdom] (Nut-House) - a track recorded in 1989 - is altogether Mozartian in its ethereal lightness, and "Тычинка" [Tychinka] (Stamen) possesses a brilliantly worked-out, near orchestral repeated synth passage surrounded by extremely loose guitar and bass interplay. The stand-out classic is "Элегия" [Elegiya] (Elegy), with a driving bass riff, soaring guitar passages and an extremely intense chorus relieved by a throw-away humorous acoustic guitar chorus; "Тазепам" (Tazepam) sounds like a less-successful attempt at the same thing until a locomotive-esque synth interlude recreates the song as a sort of psychedelic cartoon music. Several of the songs were later re-recorded by the band on their later albums, with only "Лысая девочка" [Lysaya devochka] (The Bald Girl) gaining something in the process. The humorous nature of the band's music is here not-too-subtly underscored by "interludes" between the songs that consist of repeated synth music and recited poetry about people falling off buildings, dogs getting "stuck" on each other in the yard and so forth.

The band's next album, Капризы манекенщиц [Kaprizy manekenschits] (The Capriciousness of Mannequins), recorded in 1991 and released exclusively on vinyl in 1992, presents a much more conventional, tighter sound, dominated by guitar and rhythmic bass; the title song is the outstanding classic, dramatic psychedelic soundscapes gradually piling over pulsating bass, with a brilliantly melodic chorus serving as a worthy precursor to the overflowing melodicism of the next album. Similarly to the previous album, three songs here were later re-recorded: the title song appears on Хару Мамбуру (Haru Mamburu) (1993) along with "Голая королева" [Goloya koroleva] (The Naked Queen), and "Хрустальная ваза" [Hrustal'naya vaza] (The Crystal Vase), a driving retro thriller with nonsensical lyrics appears on 1999's Каллы [Kally] (Calla Lillies).

The next two releases will necessarily be reviewed together, as 1993's Хару Мамбуру provides the majority of the material for 1995's Сибирская любовь, a collection of re-recorded songs from the band's first three albums, together with a few new tracks. The songs sound decidedly better in their 1995 versions, with the band having access to quality production facilities at the time. Хару Мамбуру is therefore primarily interesting for the songs that didn't make it onto the 1995 release. First of all, the title song from the previous album; "Самураи в рисовом поле" [Samurai v risovom pole] (Samurais in a Rice Field), an Oriental escapade; "Petting My Pets" and "Magic Pencil", both with catchy pop choruses disguised as rock songs; and "Баранья опера" [Baran'ya opera) (Sheep Opera), with one of the band's most magically childish guitar-centered refrains hidden among 4 or so minutes of band members pretending to be sheep.

Two further pop-rock masterpieces, "Пляжный рок-н-ролл" [Plyajnyi rok-n-roll] (Beach rock'n'roll) and "Baby", appear in improved versions on Сибирская любовь; so do the grandiose epics "Super Creature" and "Demoralization of Love", the latter with a pace-shifting winds-section interlude added in the re-recording, the former with improved Teutonic guitar antics surrounding the Beatlesque timpani-dominated refrain. The 1995 release contains a couple of new songs, namely the title track, the band's attempt at a Eurovision entry that successfully raised awareness of them in Russia despite failing to win the national nomination; and "Рождественская колыбельная" [Rojdestvenskaya kolybel'naya] (Christmas Lullaby), perhaps the single most melodic piece of music the band have ever recorded, clocking in under 2 minutes. A track somewhat apart is "Хару Мамбуру", making its return from the titular 1993 album, a simple looping refrain with lyrics in a made-up language that remarkably enough made the band's name in Russia and remained their signature tune for several years to come.

[edit] Middle period (1996-1999)

Having made it more or less into the big time (they even appeared with Russian mega-star Alla Pugachova in a concert), the band spent the next couple of years maturing their sound: wind and horn sections received additional attention, synth parts became more colorful, bass became significantly more subdued. The vocals of Maxim Pokrovskiy received the most significant makeover: initially rather silly, lacking both melodic nuance and subtlety in subveying the humorous/parodic aspects of the lyrics, they now became characterized by a wide emotional range, beautiful almost crooning quality in the slower or more melodical passages and a straight-faced tone even in the most ridiculous songs (in a song describing the romance between a lady and a soldier he anthemically proclaims: "save our women from the anti-war rabble of the world"!); in fact, in many songs the vocals now became one of the main selling points, whereas earlier one tended to dismiss them altogether.

This new approach then was brought to the studio as the band recorded two albums between 1997 and 1999: Счастлива, потому что беременна: Cиний альбом [Schastliva, potomu chto beremenna: Siniy al'bom] (Happy Because I'm Pregnant: The Blue Album) and Счастлива, потому что беременна: Зелёный альбом [Schastliva, potomu chto beremenna: Zelyonyi al'bom] (Happy Because I'm Pregnant: The Green Album). The band envisioned the two releases to be released nine months apart (the usual term of a pregnancy), but after the "Blue" album was released in 1997, the "Green" album was released considerably later in 1999, due to scheduling and other problems. The band managed to continue their commercial success straight away with two big hits from the "Blue" album, both drawing considerably from Russian/Jewish folk melodies: "Лилипутская любовь" [Liliputskaya lyubov'] (Midget Love), with an immediately memorable vocal melody, and "Московский романс" [Moskovskiy romans] (The Moscow Romance), with explosive drumming from Yakomulskiy and an award-winning video presenting Pokrovskiy as a Southern-Caucasian begging for money (a familiar sight to many Russians) on the background of a sweeping Moscow panorama.

The album itself showed the band at something of a crossroads: while songs such as "Недуги" [Nedugi] (Illnesses) still work the loose bass-driven approach of "Хару Мамбуру", "Реквием" [Rekviem] (Requiem) and "Четыре друга" [Chetyre druga] (The Four Friends) attempt a serious, more subdued style, while "Китайские колокольчики" [Kitayskiye kolokol'chiki] (Chinese Bells) predicts the "Green" album with its use of eclectic instrumentation and bittersweet melodies. A standout is the opening track: a classic, somewhat retro-ish rock'n'roll guitar riff backed up by a sweeping chord sequence. The bonus tracks include a self-made funky dance remix of 1993's "Лысая девочка", as well as a noisy cover of the Russian film music classic "На Тихорецкую" [Na Tihoretskuyu] (To Tihoretskaya).

After this somewhat undecided and uneven effort, the band got their act together for the "Green" album, arguably one of the most colorfully arranged and instrumentated albums ever released by a Russian band (one should note that "colorfulness" is probably not something one would normally associate with Russian rock-music, large volumes of which are notably monotonous and gloomy). Most of the album is all-out humorous, with only "Волки" [Volki] (Wolves) and "Реки" [Reki] (Rivers) - recorded together with the Russian pop-star Natalya Vetlitskaya - being true pop songs. The word "melodious" is somewhat superfluous in regards to the specific tracks: only "Живая масса" [Jyvaya massa] (Live Mass) and "Искусство боли" [Iskusstvo boli] (The Art of Pain) have anything less than immediately appealing melody lines; eastern-tinged "Влюблённые оленеводы" [Vlyublyonnye olenevody] (Reindeer Breeders in Love) and the epic "Лесная школа" [Lesnaya shkola] (The Forest School) are particularly rich in melodies, again drawing from folk music (the latter song even employs an actual Ukrainian folk music vocal ensemble for a powerful effect). In several songs the band completely abandons the boundaries of good rock'n'roll taste in the name of additional color, employing guitar effects that seem to have come straight out of Dire Straits' "Money for Nothing"; yet the acoustic-instrumental "Муж на работе" [Muj na rabote] (Husband at Work) shows them at their most tasteful and subtle. The beautifully compact, darkly folk-styled slow dance "Волки" and the bright Nirvana pastiche "День рождения" [Den' rojdeniya] (Birthday) (borrowing a bass line from that band's "Very Ape") are possibly the most all-round complete accomplishments.

The band closed the millennium with the outtakes and non-album tracks compilation Каллы, drawing mostly on their earlier period, released for the band's tenth anniversary. The album opens with a new song "Кукла" [Kukla] (A Doll) which already shows the more straightforward style the band had now decided to pursue. The other tracks however run the full gamut of styles: classical parody "Ave Maria" (Schubert's famous melody interpolated with incongruous guitar noise), covers of two famous Russian film melodies probably originally intended for the "Blue" album, "Мясной брудершафт" [Myasnoy brudershaft] (The Meat Brüderschaft) making ludicrous fun of German popular music, effortlessly melodious early songs like "I'm Blue" and "Sporting", drawn-out driving psychodelic jams "Хрустальная ваза" and "Диблопопс" (Diblopops). Much of this is well on the level of released album tracks, but especially so in the case of "Трусики" [Trusiki] (Panties), a fully worked-out, excellently produced piece of 80s indie music.

[edit] Latest period (2000-)

On the 2000 album Бокс (Box), Pokrovskiy and Nogu Svelo! seemed content to more or less abandon much of what had characterized their 1990s music: unusual instrumentation, oddly looping song structures, passages that seemed to be meant for one instrument being played on a completely different instrument; the band now seemed to embrace outside influences in a rather wholesale way, maintaining their own identity almost exclusively on the strength of Pokrovskiy's voice and image. Later in the year the band released its first CD single, "Матная песня" [Matnaya pesnya] (Obscene Song), containing the titular track as well as several remixes by the band.

Commercial success persisted with the 2002 album В темноте [V temnote] (In the Dark) and hits such as "Последнее танго" [Poslednee tango] (The Last Tango), "Наши юные смешные голоса" [Nashi yunye smeshnye golosa] (Our Youthful Funny Voices), and later with the 2004 single "Я - не последний герой!" [Ya - ne posledniy geroy!] (I'm Not the Last Hero!), which became something of a theme song to the Russian equivalent of the Survivor TV show called "The Last Hero" in which Pokrovskiy participated.

Also in 2004 the band released its first "greatest hits" compilation entitled "Откровенные фотографии" [Otkrovennye fotografii] (Candid Photos), which collected the band's most popular songs as well as some tracks previously unreleased or released only as singles (such as "Я - не последний герой!"), as well as another single release, "Рекламное место сдаётся!" [Reklamnoe mesto sdayotsya!] (Ad Space For Rent!), featuring an openly anti-commercial song. Additionally, the band's frontman scored the feature film "Время-деньги" [Vremya-den'gi] (Time Is Money), and the soundtrack was released in early 2005. The album contained one new song, with the rest of the album's duration being filled with short instrumental pieces, often experimental in nature.

The band's latest release came out in 2005, their tenth studio album entitled "Идём на Восток!" [Idyom na Vostok!] (We Go East!). Prior to the release of the album, the titular song was used as the main soundtrack single from the 2005 Russian record-breaking blockbuster film Турецкий гамбит [Turetskiy gambit] (Turkish Gambit). The album also contains the previously released "Рекламное место сдаётся!".

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Preceded by
.		 Winner of the Golden Stag Festival
1995		 Succeeded by
.
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