VELESLAVA: Gost Roda

Written by Simon Collins
With nearly all the text on this album given in Russian, it took me some time and trouble to even discover what the artist and title were, but I’m now able to inform you that Veleslava means ‘Great Glory’, Gost’ Roda translates as ‘Kin’s Guest’, and this is an album of Russian pagan folk with strong new agey and pop tendencies. The third track is horrible bouncy Europop with a synth that sounds like a flatulent Smurf, and the fifth track is pretty twee as well, with female vocals reminding me of Fleetwood Mac and a really cheesy burbling synth melody. The female singer of Veleslava has a good voice, but the album as a whole sounds like a wine-bar cabaret act on a slow night in Siberia, with real instruments like harp and guitar outweighed and betrayed by really nasty cheap keyboards and a home-recorded, mixing-desk-perched-on-the-ironing-board, production sound. This album is enjoyable on an ironic, Borat-like level, but nothing more than that. If Slavonic folk is to your taste, there are dozens of better bands than this out there. No ‘Great Glory’ to be had here, I’m afraid.