“March in September” is the official debut release, vinyl only, by this Russian/American duo. What immediately strikes me is the fantastic artwork, consisting of a Jugendstil-like drawing combined with natural brown and green. This is really a pleasure to the eye!
Levoi Pravoi starts off with a track called “Me ne Frego” (indeed!), a martial intro piece with low vocals and original synths and samples. Track 2, “Golden September”, manages to convince right away. The music is quite martial, with bombastic drumming and snare, with a rhythm which would work well on the military/folk dance floors. The vocals and synth sound add some originality to the music; especially the somewhat weird and wobbly synths work out well. The two following tracks keep up the martial atmosphere, although the fourth piece (“The bitter road”) stands out with it’s nice melody, bombast, and singing. “Rus” is just another excellent track, which nicely builds to a climax. The sound is rich and full, making me forget the fact that I’m listening to a debut album.
On side B the high standard of the first 5 songs is maintained. All tracks are good and offer enough variety to keep one’s attention. “Ryba Beloshyolka” is a somewhat different song, a short one with great sounding sampled singing, probably in Russian.. “Chugunnie Sny” closes the album off; a long atmospheric track which reminds me a bit of the older Blutharsch material.
As we are all aware of the fact that there are lots of good though totally non-original albums out there in the martial field, I want to stress out that this album is not only a pleasure to listen to, but harbours enough originality to really stand out. And indeed, since this is only the debut by these fellows, who knows what the future will bring? All in all, my advice is to just buy this outstanding album, you won’t be disappointed!
