Search - Gregory Nisnevich :: Black Moon/Lilith

Underrated gem

D.M. | Ohio, US | 06/16/2001

(5 out of 5 stars)

"A friend of mine, a long time Aquarium fan once warned me to stay away from this release, calling it "an off-kilter affair". Boris Grebenshikov, the frontman and mastermind of Russian rock icons "Aquarium", one of the few who "survived" legalization as an artist, and whose creativity outlived nearly everybody else's from perestroika and pre-perestroika era, has recorded a "strange", non-Aquarium sounding (or, not exactly Aquarium sounding) album with the members of The Band, Jim Weider, Garth Hudson and Rick Danko, to name a few. Being a long-time Aquarium fan myself I heeded the warning until I saw a copy of the record at Border's and bought it out of curiosity. Well, sometimes even long-time die-hard fans can be wrong..."Black Moon" (or "Lilith", as it is titled in Russia) is a stunning record, from start to finish. At the same time I see why many Aquarium fans failed to pay the album the due attention. Music-wise, the album falls 100% into the territory of classic American rock, with blues ingredient clearly dominating everything else in the sound, as opposed to "world-willage" feel of classic Aquarium. Ocassionally, it reminds me of later day Dire Straits, - the theme for "Hilyi Zakos Pod Lyubov", or "Pale Imitation of Love" mighth have come straight from "On every Street", but I see absolutely nothing wrong with it, as long the lyrics are "trademark Boris Grebenshikov" as we know and love them. A few songs may easily be among his best of the 90s; I'm talking about "It happened in Kazan", "Paranoia", "On the Road to Damascus" and "Captain White Snow" (the latter appears only on Russian version, instead of "4D"). The material on the album is varying quite a bit in emotional range, tempo, and tension; still the album has very consistent and cohesive feel to it, perhaps as cohesive and consistent as his albums ever got. Adding superb production and nice packaging, we get a record that is truly great and pleasing. Recommended to nearly everybody who doen't think that Boris Grebenshikov should stay within much hyped early-to-mid 80s Aquarium idiom."

Essential Grebenshikov album

J. Buhrer Tavanier | Amsterdam, The Netherlands | 06/30/1999

(5 out of 5 stars)

"This is an essential album by Grebenshikov and members of The Band. The album sounds more like The Band then his others do, but it certainly gives one a very good impression of the music of Grebenshikov and his band Akvarium. In 1989 David Stewart (Eurythmics) produced his "Radio Silence", which unfortunately didn't do very well. I am waiting for Amazon to get "BG" -as he is known in Russia- in to the collection. Until then, I just have to go to Russia every now & then to obtain his work (he's very productive)."

Another great hour of the music for your soul. Thanks, Bob.

max.t | Los Angeles, CA | 04/09/1999

(5 out of 5 stars)

"I just wish Amazon carried foreign labels, so that they could have all BG and Aquarium albums. This album is very much the late 90s version of BG, yet you'll feel some "Captain Voronin"-time mood as well. To me, there's no such concept as good Aquarium album or bad. It's Aquarium Music. You can't rate it. You don't rate your personal philosophy, do you? You just live with, and by it."