Recovers [Import]

Recovers [Import]

Track Listings

1. When The Levee Breaks (Led Zeppelin)

2. Man Machine (Kraftwerk)

3. Ramblin' Man (Hank Williams)

4. In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida (Iron Butterfly)

5. Love Will Tear Us Apart (Joy Division)

6. Her Eyes Are A Blue Million Miles (Captain Beefheart)

7. Song About A Giraffe (Vladimir Vysotskiy)

8. Orgasmatron (Motorhead)

9. Will You Go, Lassie, Go? (Mcpeake Family)

10. Toccata (Paul Mauriat)

11. Black Magic Woman (Carlos Santana Version)

12. Exodus (Bob Marley)

13. Play With Fire (Rolling Stones)

14. Song Of Mergen (Alexei Tchyrgal-Ool)

Editorial Reviews
About the Artist
Throat-singing - what the hell is that all about? If you've never seen one mouth singing two or three separate simultaneous melodies, you really need to get out more. Go to Tuva, for example, a remote republic in Siberia surrounded by mountains and filled with moonshiners, miners and cows. There you will find shamanic folk songs played on unpronounceable instruments by bearded men with grizzly, guttural voices that will pimple your skin forever.

And if you're really lucky, you'll stumble across Albert Kuvezin and his band Yat-Kha. Fighting against Communist musical censorship that tried to tell him what styles he could and couldn't play, Kuvezin has forged a near-impossible international reputation for his music. And with Yat-Kha, he combines Tuva's traditional music with the Western heavy rock he loves, chugging an electric guitar as he goes "Oh yeeeeah" in his filthy double-bass vocal.

After several albums of this punk-folk mish-mash, the logical next step is a covers record; and what a beast this is. From the opening strum of Led Zeppelin's 'When The Levee Breaks', 'Re-Covers' sets its stall as a reverent but unapologetic album. Simmering the song to its bones, Kuvezin rebuilds it as a Siberian folk masterpiece, his unnervingly deep growl spinning a magical, mesmeric tale over the delicate instrumentation.

And so they are all reworked. Kraftwerk's 'The Man Machine' becomes a haunting canvass of guitar effects and acoustic play-about, with overtone chanting roaming for carrion. These eerie high-frequency melodies knock against the rich deep-throat bass vocal. Quite how they could come out of the same larynx - simultaneously or not - is a miracle.

Captain Beefheart's 'Her Eyes Are A Blue Million Miles' takes on a dreamy Celtic quality; Motrhead's 'Orgasmatron' swirls with black magic; and 'Play With Fire' is a fair old walk from anything The Rolling Stones ever meant to write.

But it's not just rock stuff that gets the folk-me-up treatment. Hank Williams' 'Ramblin' Man' takes that age-old tale of a man whose heart belongs to the train tracks and gives it a darkly wistful edge, with minimal rhythm pulsing like a heartbeat. Joy Division's 'Love Will Tear Us Apart' falls slightly flat, its beautiful acoustic guitar lines marred by slightly off-key bear-growl vocals. And a Bob Marley track joins People's Music from Russia, Ireland and France, bobbing joyously with sweet percussion and a voice that sounds like a million cigarettes but is actually the product of one too many homemade vodkas.

This mix'n'match approach to traditional and Western styles sticks Yat-Kha miles above their contemporaries from Tuva, Mongolia and Russia, with excellent but less ambitious folk bands such as Egschiglen finding international appeal while choosing to stay loyal to their countries' sound.

Product Description
Yat-Kha's unique sound revolves around the marriage of the traditional - 'khoomei' throat-singing, endemic to the group's native Tuva (the smallest and most remote republic in the Russian Federation), which allows the singer to hold more than one note simultaneously - to the modern - the (then-underground) rock and punk which inspired Albert to pick up his first electric guitar. Albert's bone-shaking double-bass growl, coupled with his high harmonics, provide the foundation while the music is driven along by a mix of traditional instruments which contrast with Albert's beloved electric guitar. 'Recovers' recorded late last year after the band suffered a number of disasters including stolen musical equipment, stolen passports and a car crash, Albert Kuvezin took time out to reflect on what started him on this journey in the first place, which led to the recording of this album paying tribute to the music which influenced the band. Here you can hear Joy Division, ! Led Zepplin, Captain Beefheart, Chieftains and others as you never have heard before, as Yat-Kha bring a new element to these songs.