Rational Diet

At Work

Label: AltrOck Productions Country: Italy

"While the first Rational Diet release appeared inevitably not as homogeneous, collecting compositions and recordings spread over the space of several years, At Work offers a more complete and direct image direct of the belorussian band. The improvised sections have been reduced to the essential, and the matching of acoustic and electric instruments is even more successful this time around. But what is really amazing is the attitude of these musicians, so far away from every canonical rock and prog influences, and yet so well characterized and recognizable in the chaos of "alternative" rock and its infinite branches.

The style comes from the Russian twentieth century: the music oozes with Stravinski and Shostakovic everywhere, but refracted through the "chamber rock" lens, capable of inconceivably dynamic. Among the songs we'd like to mention "Pukhow": after an unexpectedly melodic introduction, it goes through rhythmycal sharpest knots, where piano, bassoon, guitar and violin chase each other until they join together in a rocklike three-notes phrase. A pleasant surprise is Olga Podgaiskaja's voice, a perfect Queen of the Night: listen to her interventions in "Dear Kontrabandist" or, even better, "Wet Moss", brief but simply devastating. Finally we point out the beautiful "Condemned", the real peak of the album: aggressive and at the same time persuasive, in about ten minutes it gathers all the timbrical, rhythmical and expressive facets of Rational Diet, then closes in a pure fury crescendo. The album ends with the slow modal melody of "On Tuesdays", still played by the voice, hypnotic and mysterious, that seems to emerge from the sound mists drawn by violin and saxophone, and cradled by the solemn gait of the organ.

In short, At Work is an astonishing work for its lucidity and conviction by a group of musicians with enviable qualification and a talent that would deserve much more attention by the audience and - a side that we, in Western world, often neglect - less political and civil obstacles in their country."-AltRock Productions