Contrabanda.com.ua. Contrabanda.com.ua.

One has to admit that the debut album by the group "Contrabanda.com.ua" pleasantly amazes. It is sated with freshness – but this freshness, in its turn, is obviously sated with love to the epoch of beatniks, music of the 1960s-1970s. And – to that counterculture, the protest of which is based on search for beauty and sense. There is no negation for the sake of negation. There are pure aspirations and clear eyes. The desire to find in this world something real – and the talent to turn the very process of searching into a work of art. I would call this music hard blues – but do not get surprised when you hear in it surprisingly transparent trip-hop mood. It would seem that these both styles could hardly be called optimistic. Conditional minus. But, as it happens from time to time, minus to minus has given us an unexpected, but so warm, intimate plus... This music is as if love for things made with your own hands, instead of using the conveyor line method. It contains elasticity of white clay, a bit pungent smack of a wine, shine of night water... In it, there is buzz of electric power in wires, slow breath interwoven with a kiss, and warm, but fresh rain... and – it enchants, as you can see. A specially enchanting thing is Olga Tsepkalo's voice, it is something inexpressibly native. That very real and fair thing that we discussed at the beginning. A bit cracked, as if torn vocal – but how much pure force, passion, deep feeling you have in it... When listening to this performance, I involuntarily remember Janis Joplin and Beth Gibbons. But not for comparison. Just each of these voices is capable of saying something that other voices are not able to say. Even if Olga were singing songs without words – these songs would be clear and close, I am sure. And it is only the start...

Anton Jozhik Leyba (Hedgehog)