HOLKIN レコード& CD

Review: We've been quietly impressed with the quality of the scalpel works showcased on Russia's It's A Steal label to date, in part because they tend to avoid the obvious and focus on obscure and off-kilter source material. The label's fourth missive is another must-check affair. Newcomer Friend's Jacuzzi kicks things off with a tidy rearrangement of what sounds like a rubbery, turn-of-the-80s Russian disco-funk gem, before label regular Holin takes over with "Mountain Breeze", a wonderful tweak of a clarinet-laden deep jazz-funk gem. He's at the controls on side two, where the slap-bass heavy Russian disco-boogie flex of "Georgian Wedding" (a track that features a brilliantly over the top spoken word vocal and piano solos aplenty) is joined by the eccentric Eastern European new age/jazz-funk/jazz fusion quirkiness that is "Guitar Hero".