Psychobilly Surf in the Tech Garage

The Vivisectors 2000-2003 (Independent)

The Vivisectors

By David Lilly

How do you like that? A surf-instro compilation from a "band" in Moscow; probably not the first place you think of in relation to lo-fi surf-music. The Vivisectors consist of one guitarist, Mike Antipov and his loops, samples, drag-and-drop functions and step-by-step guitar recording. He cuts B-movies and includes audio bits and pieces of said films into songs he creates. Why in the name of wax, fiberglass and waves am I writing about it? Well, Frankensteinly, I consider this music definitely worth my time and yours. Besides, if you didn't know this was the work of one person, you'd think there was a pretty cool trio or quartet at work here.

The disc opens with the sound of a radio dial cutting a path between stations until slicing onto a clear channel with the anxious instro sound of "Africa." The dramatic, "Crazyness" begins with screeching car tires and a guy screaming, "Come on, you're gonna kill us!" followed by a couple of minutes of guitar, keyboard, bass and drums racing to...somewhere. A good example of the diversity on this disc is the beautiful contrast between the reverb-drenched surf tune, "Keep on Truckin," with its hint of lurking danger, followed by the grieving keyboard and dripping blues-guitar sweat of, "Mom Blues," right in the middle of this 27-song compilation of Antipov's work from, as the title says, 2000-2003. Antipov does an excellent job of taking the ancient folk tune, "House of the Rising Sun," into his garage of reverb. No vocals, but they aren't missed and it's an exciting version of that song.

Be not dispelled by the technical aspects of this Vivisector's recording process; the guy knows what he's doing and is great at it. For more info, surf - or swath - your way over to http://thevivisectors.narod.ru/the_vivisectors.htm, if you dare.