Аквариум - "Искушение святого Аквариума" [1973]

Artist: Аквариум

Title: Искушение святого Аквариума

Genre: Psychedelic Rock, Noise Rock

Country: USSR

Release date: 1973

Track List:

1. Мой ум сдох
2. Концепция 14
3. Осторожно, берегись поезда
4. Бустер в ночи
5. Река Оккервиль
6. Ария шузни, влюблённой в джинсню
7. Мочалкин блюз
8. Поэзия
9. Гуру Панджахай
10. Ну а ты?
11. Он пришёл из туманной дали
12. У меня шузня. Гимн
13. Песня о кайфе
14. Господин Раутбарт
15. Голос
16. Упади на песок
17. Я — Шизо
18. Большая увертюра для квака B-mol
19. Маленький большой водопад
20. Ля-ля-ля
21. Фамилия — это субстанция
22. Париж
23. Во мне кто-то третий
24. **
25. Для Ахтараута
26. Сказка о двух королях
27. Мой ум сдох
28. Пение птиц и птичек на могиле сдохшего ума

This album is a good answer to why the recordings of any independent Soviet rock bands priot to the end of 1970s are so scarce. Even if nearly every school and university had at least one rock band back then, very few of them had access to professional recording equipment, and what they could record at home usually didn't sound much better than this tape. No doubt it also would be forgotten by now, if not for the fact that it's a debut recording of a very well-known band.

"The Temptation Of St. Aquarium" was recorded during January-February 1973 (or 1974, according to some sources), using home-made monitors and mixing console (which needed a repair after every 20 minutes of use), an old tape recorder called "Dnepr", a 9-string guitar and some makeshift percussion. Some non-standard instruments and sound sources were also used, including the sound of a boiling plasic. The band members describe the results as "a surrealistic perversion made by two idiots: very funny, but very poorly recorded". The lyrics are mostly of jocular or absurdist kind, thus fitting the music (or, more like, "music") quite well.

The tape was considered to be lost until it was discovered in 1997 and released on CD in 2001. While its only value is historical, and it bears little relation to the band's later work, I find it to be strangely appealing to my dissonant, "industrial" side. After all, it's still better than Genesis P-Orrige & Thee Early Worm :)