The Ukraine's Gogol Bordello are the
original gypsy punks and they continue their manic party agenda
across the world. Their last album tapped into a dance-y
international vibe with stunning results. Not only does this show a
vital restlessness that characterizes a group like Gogol Bordello
when they are starting out but it is actually necessary for their
survival. On Pura Vida Conspiracy, album number six for this
globe-trotting crew, the band draw in even greater influence from
other cultures and it allows them to spin an even deeper tale of
existential displacement. Underneath all of the bluster and
beer-soaked bravado this band is about finding your place in the
world as an outsider.
Trans Continental Hustle leaned
away from the punk side of their sound and further into the gypsy
side and this album certainly continues that trend. It is still
thoroughly Gogol throughout, there are just more campy campfire
singalongs than sweat stained ragers. It was inevitable as the band
progress forwards through their career that the songs would have to
become the focus over their endearing disorderliness. As the band
ages the music remains strong even as the blistering euro-punk warps
into swaggering pirate anthems. Try and listening to the opening
combo of 'We Rise Again' and 'Dig Deep Enough' without picturing
shipwrecked buccaneers with a crate of grog and ill gotten booty.
After there you get a taste of the
acoustic side of their enormous personalities on 'Malandrino'. It
used to be that when Gogol Bordello did “ballads” they stood
entirely separate from the incendiary rabble-rousers. Nowadays they
choose to graft parts of one onto the other; acoustic passages
transplanted into party mode and chunks of energetic rave lurking in
the love songs, which might explain the odd ramblings in 'Malandrino'
about “crash crash crash and make-up sex”. The album closes out
with the impossibly gentle 'We Shall Sail', an honest-to-goodness
torch song from the heart. Just make sure you hang around for the
hidden bonus track, the faux-metal 'Jealous Sister' complete with
shrieking violins, thrash style guitar riffs, and doomy organs. Just
when you think you know a band they pull a move like this!
All of these ideas are carried
effortlessly by frontman Eugene Hutz's charm. He is a singular
musical entity, practically a force of disheveled nature by this
point, and he rightly dominates every song on Pura Vida Conspiracy
with slurred affectations. This really highlights the potential
weakness of Gogol Bordello – if you don't adore the unhinged vocal
stylings of Hutz then you are never going to like the band. They live
and die by the audience's acceptance of his character as their
narrator. Unfortunately the returns are threatening to diminish for
Hutz and the gang. Is it all starting to feel a little too familiar?
Is there a way for gypsy punk to evolve? This is still a very fun
record – a pleasant knees up for when you are feeling merry and
shitfaced. They have been peddling their rock / klemzer / rockabilly
hybrid for quite some time now and while it may not feel as dazzling
and new as it once did there is still plenty of gas left in the tank.
The tempos have dropped a little but the fires still burn. The
passion of the entire group and their dedication to their musical
craft is beyond question.
Rating: B+
Recommended tracks: We Rise Again, Dig Deep Enough
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