SASHASH ULZ - "PINGVINIA" [Russian Experimental/Folk]

[NO PART OF IT]

To be clear, there is a noise guitar track, and a few ambient/experimental tracks, but most of this is more musical than people are used to here.  Still, it's good work, in a lo-fi home-taper way.   



https://nopartofit.bandcamp.com/album/pingvinia

Sashash Ulz was a somewhat short-lived project out of Petrozavodsk, Karelia, an area of Russia bordering Finland. Headed by Sasha Mishkin, and heavily active in the first half of the 2010s, I first heard of Sashash Ulz through a tape on Minnesota's Lighten Up Sounds. The tape was a marvelous example of lo-fi tape-looping and layering, where cheap keyboards and percussion loops just galloped in and out of a mangled headspace.

I enjoyed it, but I eventually came to find out that this one-man outfit has much more to offer, and a diverse array of approaches within the realms of experimental music. Some of it is quite musical, with a great sense of melody, and a lot of Sashash Ulz material has that great, haunted, lo-fi feeling that, to me, helps the emotional effect of the music sometimes. I will say that I use the word "haunted" in the most optimistic sense. Some of these tracks have a peculiar, but strong air of positivity. This coupled with the often crude double exposures that come with most of Sashash Ulz's releases helps to create an overall atmosphere like that of another world altogether.

I am not certain if some of this music is rooted in traditional folk, or if it is simply an outsider level of song-writing, but it can be interspersed with memorable sound collages, eloquent ambient passages, compelling guitar noise, and apparently tape loops of field recordings with animals/insects/strange creatures. At times, there is a genuine curiosity as to whether or not a real church organ is being recorded with a tape recorder, or if a cheap keyboard is being augmented with cleverly primed effects... through a tape recorder. I was given permission to create a compilation of favorite material from this now defunct project, and I naturally focused on the strikingly odd ambient, atmospheric, and raw elements that were on offer. Sasha Mishkin is still active, operating with more current production values, and the Sashash Ulz name has been put to rest since 2015. We here at NO PART OF IT are thankful to be able to illuminate some snippets from the past that deserve more attention.

[NO PART OF IT]

http://www.vitalweekly.net/1269.html

Sometimes you are given something that you had previously missed. There are moments when the ego takes over and you feel "If it was that great, how come I never heard of it before?" Sadly, this is human nature. Luckily after a few minutes listening to the Sashash Ulz compilation 'PINGVINIA' you don't care about your ego and are glad you can experience the music. And experience it is you do. But before I get to that who, or what is Sashash Ulz. Simply put it is the alter ego of Sasha Mishkin who was based in Petrozavodsk, Karelia. This is an area of Russia bordering on Finland. In a four-year period, Mishkin released over 20 albums, singles EPs. 'PINGVINIA' distils this work into on 70-minute compilation that works as an introduction, best off and a time capsule of that body of work. Though the project was put to rest in 2015, this music feels timeless. Like it was either created today or 20+ years ago.
    The album is broken up into different types of music. There are the drones. The noise pieces. The wonky pop and the dreamy shoegaze stuff. 'Hermit' reminds me of a washed-out version of Bob Brady & The Conchords' 'Everybody's Going to Love In'. There are pangs of Dig! era Dandy Warhols/BJM to it, along with Broadcast at their wonky best. It's utterly transfixing, like all of the album is in all fairness, but 'Hermit' just pulls you in with its velvet melodies that smother the sound as much as it allows it to breathe. 'Bétula' is the catchiest track on the album. The zither, or dulcimer, has a haunting quality to it. Each note is allowed to drift off into the ether. It snaps you out of your humdrum and whisks you away to another place. It truly is remarkable how simplistic is all sounds. But as we know when something sounds simple it really isn't. 'Uprising' is just one long glorious drone. Throughout the drone doesn't do a lot, in fairness it doesn't need to, but what it does do is let you get swept up with every graceful undulation. The album closes with the 'Cánnabis'. This is the longest track on the album. It lives up to its title in the creating a relaxing and heady atmosphere where it sounds like someone breathing in and exhaling, while pleasantly eerie melodies dance underneath. Ending the album on this vibe works well. We are sent home happy and blissed out, rather than twitching and wanting something else.
    What 'PINGVINIA' demonstrates is that Mishkin really knew how to create an atmosphere and run with it. Each track is an exercise in genre and control. Mishkin never pushing things as far as you'd expect, or want, but instead takes you as far as he can, whilst staying in control. On 'Hendriks' and 'Pered Balom', the noisiest tracks on the album, Mishkin still exhibits control over the recordings. They never descend into the guttural noise you might expect, given their build-ups. Instead, he skates along that knife edge and delivers something far more interesting and measured instead. And this is what 'PINGVINIA' is. A well-measured album of a project who only existed for a short amount of time but who released some truly exceptional music. If this is your first introduction to Sashash Ulz you are in for a treat. If you are a seasoned fan this is the album you always wanted but never knew you needed. (NR)
––– Address: https://nopartofit.bandcamp.com/