U.: I don't like this one, all haphazard and with bad cold. I wasn't ready for it, Kovriga made me to do it while he still had that money for the studio ($30 per hour - it was and is too much). On bass and drums we had nice older guys, ex- "Zvuki Mu", but as session people they were not ready to deal with the others. Trying to save Oleg's money, and for the first time in a real studio, I was too nervous and tried to record everything in two days, after one and a half rehearsals. Of course it was a pain in the ass to mix it; we did it twice and had to pay, classically, twice. Printed abroad (no proper gear at home those times), it got rather expensive, so very few from our crowd could afford the purchase; and as I didn't like it, I couldn't think of a good name and called it "The CD". Still, there is some good stuff there, for example, "Voice Is My Home", the song that had come to me in a dream, like several others. It was the peak of our homelessness, when we had to spend every night at somebody else's place and no money for renting a flat. No longer in print, I hope.

Umka & Bro
The CD

  1. Kamikaze (1996)
  2. Voice Is My Home (1996)
  3. I Was Always With My People (1997)
  4. Legless Song (1986)
  5. Play Your Games (1986)
  6. Mad Dog Song (1997)
  7. Zoo Zoya (1996)
  8. Chocolate Addicted Girl (1996)
  9. Do What You Want (1997)
  10. I Hate Little Girls (1997)
  11. Where Am I? (1986)
  12. I Am Gone (1996)

Umka - songs, voice, guitar
Boris Kanunnikov - guitar
Vovka Kozhekin - harp
Pasha Pichugin - keyboard
Evgeniy Kazantsev - bass
Andrey Nadolsky - drums

Recorded in February, mixed in June 1998 in MMS Studios (Moscow) by Oleg Klishin and Pavel Sverchkov. Artwork by Olga Karpycheva. Design by Dmitry Dziuba and Umka. The Boss: Oleg Kovriga

Otdelenie Vykhod & Bro :) 1998. All rights allegedly reserved 

Voice Is My Home

I saw a dream of the hills so dark
distant dogs barking distant bark
abandoned church with a roof destroyed
bats in the corners, transparent void

four moons rolling in the dark blue skies
dark blue forest in the distance lies
starshine coming through the roof destroyed
freedom of the night, transparent void

take away my home but leave me my voice
voice is my place, voice is my choice
voice is my home, voice is my cell
voice is my heaven, voice is my bell
voice is my thunder, voice is my dome
voice is my brother, voice is my home

sometimes I dream of nightmare towns
among the houses I find my house
it might be the place where I was born
we lived there with someone - no return

yesterday's life, no more to share
strange old woman in a dirty chair
dust in the corners, a squeaky porch
bats and rats, an abandoned church

take away my home but leave me my voice
voice is my place, voice is my choice
voice is my home, voice is my cell
voice is my heaven, voice is my bell
voice is my thunder, voice is my dome
voice is my brother, voice is my home