Ax Ox (OXBLOOD RED VINYL) [Vinyl]

Russia’s Gnoomes fourth release on Rocket Recordings, Ax Ox. The band have a kaleidoscopic and questing vision shot through with potent melancholia and strident optimism. Here thec omponent parts that have always made up Gnoomes’ fresh and wide-eyed aesthetic - dreampop radiance, bold electronic experimentation and the propulsive motorik drive which moves them onward - are rendered still more vivid and transcendent. Ax Ox runs through a gamut of vibrant emotion across its eleven tracks,from the elemental blast of kraut-pop that is‘The Neighbour’to the crystalline and techno-fied‘ Loops’, and across moments of jarring and skewed ambience such as ‘Mirror’ and ‘The Bridge’. Ax Ox ultimately reflects something of an odyssey for a complex and inhospitable modern era, and with this in mind perhaps its centrepiece is the uplifting kosmische travelogue ‘Eternal Trans Siberian’“It’s a metaphor of what’s going on to our country” reckons Sasha.“It feels like we’re traveling on a rusty and wrecked train through space and time.The epochs change, but the problems stay the same and we don’t know how it’s possible, but the train is still moving