Blatnyak - Lya-Minor

La Minor's brand of Russian folk chanson is a wonderful sound, the band's first album Blatnyak (which refers to the style of music - essentially "gangster songs") has the usual mix of wind instruments, accordian and the crooning voice of Slava Shalygin to come up with a suave jazzy klezmer sound. The fastest tracks have either an almost ska sound or a swing sound and the occasional burst of an aggressive phrase or two (as can be seen in Istorija Studenta) whilst the slower numbers have a distinctly sadder old-school klezmer soun and are accordian heavy. There's no doubt that the musicians are extremely talented and have done a succesful ...  Read the complete review