Short Reviews [Evil Bear Boris - 2013 - "Das ist Boris"]

I don’t know why, but there have been times when IWKC have played as Evil Bear Boris instead of IWKC, while the third IWKC album is called ‘Evil Bear Boris’ although the track of that name does not appear on the album but does appear on this 2013 3-track EP. Confused yet? The core quartet are still Nick Samarin (bass), Nikita Samarin (drums), Andrew Silin (keyboards) and Artem Litvakovsky (cello) alongside various musical guests and a choir (I must confess to not often seeing “chainsaw” listed as an instrument). It would be easy to surmise that they perform music under a different name so as not to confuse their audience when they perform music which is outside their usual area but given they have changed so much over the years I am not sure of the need. Here the band is much more in your face, far more art rock than post rock, with the bass being the most important instrument. There are times when they bring in the older styles, especially on closer “Geheimnisse des Dritten Reichs” which would easily have fitted on the previous IWKC album, ‘Before We Disappear’, yet the other two tracks are far more in your face. Opener “Fight Club” has a dramatic harmonica which makes one think of the late Sixties and the likes of Blue Cheer, yet with plenty of horns and keyboards to lift into something dramatic and powerful. This is an interesting adjunct to IWKC, and well worth investigating. Currently available on Bandcamp for the princely sum of “name your price”.