I Am Above On The Left - An A-Bomb To Wake Up - CD (2006)

Labels: RAIG
Review by: Kunal Nandi

This lot from St. Petersburg neatly sidestep the seemingly insurmountable language barrier by not bothering to open their gobs at all. IAAOTL deal in meaty, satisfying chunks of “For Respect””-era Don Caballero styled instrumental workouts with a neat line in goofy psychedelic guitar effects over the top that keep things on the right side of audience confusion. It mostly consists of great riffs following other great riffs with awkward but skilfully handled stop-on-a-dime time changes interlinking everything but what marks them out from the crowd is the immensely natural flow this fairly mathematical rock has and the level of tempo variety. Further proof that the Russian art-rock / hardcore scene is as fertile and varied as it is overlooked.”