The Legendary Flower Punk - Wabi Wu

Tonzonen Records

The Legendary Flower Punk from St. Petersburg, Russia is sort of hard to pin down. They are not overtly psychedelic or spacey, not main-stream, not pure jazz, funk or trance but maybe still all those things and a lot more. They can play in a very progressive style and know how to jam and rock out. Some of the stuff is also rather experimental but still really not that hard to digest. We know the guitarist Kamille also from his main band The Grand Astoria who are, at least at times,  a bit heavier than TLFP. Other main members are Mike Lopakov (bass) and Nick Kunavin (drums) and Wabi Wu also features a large cast of guest musicians from the Russian music scene (sax, electronics, flute, synths etc). Fans of Ozric Tentacles will be delighted to know that Ed Wynne plays a great guitar solo on "Hexagram"!

To me the band are at their best in the danceable up-beat tracks like "Prince Mojito" and "Hexagram" that bring to mind bands like Maserati and, espacially the last mentioned, also The Ozrics. The track "Aki Kaurismäki" has gained some momentum in the Finnish press since it's sort of homage to the famous Finnish film director and also includes some samples from his movie "Hamlet liikemaailmassa". It is also a pretty nice track, I must add! Some of the tracks are pretty close to jazz/rock fusion stuff with saxophone and overall jazzy motives and moods, but "Trance Fusion På Ryska" also has some, dare I say, disco elements. Somehow the band makes all these different influences work together. I'm sure there's a lot of stuff to discover for repeated listening times and you won't get bored fast with this album. It has a fresh, inspired and varied vibe to it and the sound quality is super crisp and clear. Well done guys! So far the album is only available on Bandcamp as a digital download but an LP release will follow early next year on the marvellous Tonzonen Records.

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