Hurricanes become familiar

Today has mostly involved shopping, reading and soup (there was also an unexpected Haemish, as it happens). With a soundtrack provided by Johnny Cash and Oysterband.

It's been a good day.

Leipzig WGT - more bands

Three more interesting ones added to the bill yesterday - Dust Heaven, Gray/scale and Komu Vnyz, all Ukrainian bands. It's nice to see a little more goth from the former USSR make it in this direction...

Dust Heaven seem quite musically upbeat, with some very nice female vocals and just a hint of the pop sensibility that you'd expect from, say, Manuskript. The lyrics are Russian, it's all very polished, and they're now definitely on my "bands to see" list. The web site's in Russian and (incomplete) English, and has mp3 samples.

Edit: I'd forgotten that Babel Fish can handle Russian these days. Its translation of their info page suggests that vocalist Olga has now left, and that the new line-up debuted last October. As all of the mp3s on the site use Olga's vocals, this makes them a little more of an unknown quantity for Leipzig. But what the hell. :)


Gray/scale are much more electronic, definitely influenced by Assemblage 23 and all those of that ilk - but with a pleasantly different spin on it all - Not just club music. Some definite rock guitar moments in there too, which work well. English lyrics and male vocals, which are the only weak spot - the vocals do let it down a little, and while I'm willing to believe that some of that's just production... they're really not good. Still, overall it's promising. Once again the website's got an English version - and they have several complete mp3s for download (I'd recommend "Believe" as a first choice if you want to investigate them).

Komu Vnyz are still something of an unknown quantity, as their mp3 links seem to be broken. Still, the English language version of their site makes it clear that they've been releasing music since 1989, and describes them as "music of high spirit". The slightly longer description is as follows: "gothic-rock/industrial mixed on romantic symbolism and Ancient traditions, pagan culture and dark renaissance of philosophy plus eternal seek of God and meaning of life". As the lyrics mostly seem to be in Russian, that's probably more than I'd work out from watching a gig, but it still doesn't tell me what they sound like! :)