CDs Review:
(www.independent.pl, www.rock.com.pl, www.etno.serpent.pl, www.gaz-eta.vivo.pl, www.visagino-country.lt)
When the day is boring and you do not want to be bored – you badly need this particular disc to change your spirits from bad into cheerful ones. There’s not so many rockabilly performers in Ukraine whose creative activity is so much stuffed with Ukrainian pepper that you get full of it over head and ears. OT VINTA! is a good example of such a group. But for all that, rockabilly itself is the music which is Western, that is, American by its nature. And it is more pleasant when it acquires a new interesting colorings. This album is a real whirligig which does not allow anybody just to sit still and to spit out of the window. It makes you move and I think, it is for better…
As the history shows in general, and the experience of this group in particular, rock'n'roll is simply an inexhaustible source of energy and inspiration. In case it turns into rockabilly, its energy grows up to almost unmanageable size. And if musicians are not able to cope with all this, then a listener has nothing to do but to raise his hands up and to throw them far away, as well as the rest of his perishable body, so that it would not interfere with swimming freely in this flow. The brain, after all, is also thrown to dump. Because if the music itself does not knock you down, then the lyrics will kill you completely. That’s the very reason why you are not surprised during the rockabilly concerts when you step over bodies which are almost unable to move, but only quietly shiver in convulsions keeping rhythm with music. Properly speaking, at that time your body is in the same state (if you haven’t come to the concert in earplugs), but you yourself are not a body. Here an incredible plus of a human construction lies. So, my friend, make use till there is the chance. By the way, since everything mentioned above has a direct relation to this album, you may use this chance right now. Be happy!
INFO:
The band "OT VINTA!" got together in 1994 in Rivne, Western Ukraine. The styles their music is closest to are rockabilly and psychobilly. From the very start, "OT VINTA!" sang in Ukrainian. That was pretty unique back then, given that most rockabilly and psychobilly bands the world over - Ukraine included - sang in English, thinking that no other language was good for the style. But the guys from Rivne broke the mould and what is more, started a style of their own, called ukrabilly – an energetic blend of rock-n-roll drive with surf, blues and country tunes, flavored with Ukrainian folk music. Another interesting thing about the band is that instead of the unwieldy double bass "OT VINTA!" uses the kozabass, a traditional Ukrainian instrument. No one else has been known to use the kozabass in rock.
In 1994-99, "OT VINTA!" toured all over Ukraine, performing in clubs and at open-air venues. Their first recorded songs appeared in the compilation "The First Ukrainian Rockabilly Front", where "OT VINTA!" was the only band singing in Ukrainian. The song "You said we were going to listen to some rockabilly on Sunday" became a hit both in Ukraine and Russia.
1999 saw the band’s first concert in Moscow, Russia. The same year, "OT VINTA!" was named Ukraine’s best rock-group at "This Season’s Pearls" music festival. Next year, the band made its first trip to Poland to play gigs in Warsaw and to perform at the folk & rock festivals. Now OT VINTA! is the best known Ukrainian band at the music market in Poland. "OT VINTA!" toured more actively at home and abroad, and today the band is fairly popular in Ukraine, Lithuania, Poland, and Russia for its club performances and festival appearances.
In 2007 the band appeared in Europe at summer festivals like Leipzig Fest (Germany), Zwarte Cross (Holland), Hodokvas (Slovakia). 2008 summer tour will run through Ukraine, Austria, Croatia, Hungary, Poland, Germany, Slovenia & Switzerland.
The band’s discography includes four albums - "Dryg-Tyn-Dymba" (2002) , "Darma ya nayivsya tsybuli" ("Shouldn’t have eaten so many onions") (2005), "Poperedu" ("Ahead") (2006), "Dupo-triaska" (2007) and tracks which appeared in compilations, such as "The First Ukrainian Rockabilly Front" (1998), "Psychobilly Night" (2003/2004, Poland), "Aloha from East Europe" (2004, Russia) and numerous festivals' compilations.
5th album from Ot Vinta coming soon!
