Wonder james

The group was founded in early 2003 by Danila Smirnov (Bricks, Pravda, Spermadonarz), Tikhon Kubov (IFK, Jazzlobster, WOMBA) and John Ludevig (Bricks, Pravda).

Initially, WJW was conceived as an exclusively studio project. After a series of studio sessions, a debut album was recorded at Danila's home studio. The album includes 27 tracks ranging from harsh noise and ambient to art rock, psycho-electro and Slavic post-chanson. The main artistic technique musicians consider redundancy and collage of images. The myth-making of the collective is based on a series of allusions to the phenomena of mass and hermetic culture. Special analysis is required for texts constructed in the traditions of Dadism and post-modernism. Alexander “Edward” Telpuk (Pravda) and Sergey Kagadeev (ex- “N. O. M.”) also participated in the recording.

In the spring of 2004, an agreement was reached on the release of the disc at the independent RAIG studio. In parallel, discs of the MUX and WOMBA projects, which were part of the ZveZdaZ creative association, were released. The unique packaging design and design of the disks from Zonder Zond also distinguished them from a number of Russian experimental releases. In June 2004, WJW, as a trio, gave their first concert, which took place on the open venue of the "Honored" club in Moscow. A month later, the group became the first group to perform as part of the club activities of the AVANT movement. The non-conformist approach to the stage show provoked a lively response from the unassuming public and the press. Soon Edward and drummer of the Bricks group Vadim Latyshev joined the permanent concert line-up. Won James Won continued to give infrequent but memorable concerts. In December 2004, for the first time, an art video directed by Elena Mishkina with whom the team continues to collaborate to this day was involved in a performance in the cultural center Dom.

Since WJW made it a rule to record all their performances, the first concert auto-bootleg of The Drisneyland Chronicles Vol.I was released from a series of live recordings, released by the efforts of the musicians themselves and sympathetic marginals. On this disc, spatial readings of the post-industrial landscapes of MUX come into tight contact with the lame WJW plays.

The history of recording the second studio album of the collective was winding and long. The first option was consolidated (Danila traditionally again acted as sound engineer and producer) and sent to Moscow for mastering in August 2005, but the result deeply offended the musicians and the material was subjected to forced processing. The final version was released by RAIG only in March 2006. The official presentation was held on March 31 at the KC House with the support of the group “I am from Above from Above”. The disc is distinguished by a kaballistically pure compositional structure, an increased emphasis on street electronics and indescribable spiritual ambitiousness. The anthem of the entire human "Red Bat" / Un Pipistrello Rosso "was brilliantly performed by Sergey Kagadeev. The album also included cover versions of songs by Fugazi, Slapp Happy and Eric Clapton, hopelessly deformed in the style of WJW. Particularly noteworthy is Armageddon-Noise-hop "History of the World." The disc was published in a limited edition exclusive with a 20-page booklet of collages by Zonder Zond.

In the spring of 2007, Daniel and Tikhon quickly recorded a half-hour soundtrack for the film “Dante. Moscow ”, mounted by Elena Mishkina from photographs of Sergey Kosyanov and Alexander Maslenitsin. The exhibition was opened May 24 at the Winzavod Center for Contemporary Art and included 38 photographs illustrating Dante Alighieri's Divine Comedy. The excellent DVD with the film was released in a limited edition and distributed at the exhibition. The music can be described as near-motionless melancholic ambient slumber.

The band's third official release on RAIG was entirely composed of concert improvisations from 2005-2007. In addition to the regular participants at The Hollow Grail (2007), you can hear the play of Alexander Bochagov (J-Lobster), Vasily Nikitin (Foojitsu, Kruzr Ken) and other distinguished fighters of the Moscow underground. The disc is completely devoid of textual message and exposes the more radical, hysterically noisy and unpleasant side of the collective’s creativity. Design by ZonderZond traditionally falls into the category of collection material.

In the period 2008-2009, the group released two free-download EPs - a micro-suite in the street-art-rock genre “The Flood of Ixtlan”, dedicated to the fun era of technological disasters and an acute shortage of natural resources, as well as the fragrant collection of outtaiks and reyritis “ Les 120 Minuetes de Sadomasonodoraemonocuporamenosodom ”, in which the collective's craving for ostro-social statements, practical scatology, a thorough industrial and gop-stop dub-step was clearly manifested.

The year 2010 was marked by the release of a new physical medium from James. The strictly limited edition of the album “Corpus Unhearmeticum” by ZonderZond immediately gained a cult status among connoisseurs of unique packaging. The concept of this record is directly related to hearing injuries and autism problems. It included several remixes, archival records, as well as a host of new studio material. This inhuman, abrasive and almost inaudible record took pride of place on the shelves of connoisseurs of a true concrete-assolt.

In two subsequent network releases - Homeostat (2011) and the General Staff of DESBOT (2012), the team continued work on combining electro-acoustic spaces with schizoid sempladelica, without disdaining and desecrating the canons of the good old radio show ("Event").

In 2013, three years of work was completed on perhaps the largest ambitious opus of the Airborne Forces “Warrior of Vesumia”, designed in the style of an electrotechnical post-chanson or Talc rock. Although formally this record can be considered a return to the song format, the apocalyptic ballads performed by Sergey Kagadeev are traditionally patchwork non-linear for James. Ominous and prophetic zongs, which soulfully describe the alternative development of a metaphysical civil war in the territory of Parallel Russia, were illustrated by the hallucinogenic fantasies of Arkady Melik-Sargsyan and the evil charts from Zonder Zond. This is the first work of the team, in which the gifted young sectarian Andrei Astro Gankin took part as a full-fledged shareholder of the brand. Lovers of freak folk can also note how subtly played the legendary Generator (Uratsakidogi) on a live accordion.

The presentation of the album in St. Petersburg was the last joint performance of the Airborne Forces with their close friend and ally Sergey Vladimirovich Kagadeev, who left this mortal world in September 2014.

The band's next full-fledged work, Red Wedming, was released a year after the release of Warrior. The conceptual megamix of mystical horror pop, soil black metal, anabiotic psychedelic and wild collage interludes was packed into an unforgettable design. The discs were accompanied by Magic Crystals from viviparous plastic carefully grown by magicians from Zonder Zond. Equal Minds Theory drummer Yevgeny Konchakov also took part in the recording. Before the release of the release, narrow circles of connoisseurs tore the first single in the history of the group called "Red Ded", designed in the style of Medieval Europop. This heartbreaking hit, according to the apt definition of one foreign music lover, "took a bastion of good taste with a bloody assault."

On February 28, 2015, the presentation of the new EP of the Spit Holes (4 Eyes of UDO) band was held. Fans appreciated the elite fur packaging generated by the Zonder Zond team from domestic vivisectar waste. In addition to the usual experiments on turning a nano-minimum into a wall of digital sound, one can hear on the record true noise rock from the inhuman ensemble Fudger, an ambient fugue manifesting the Second Coming of the True Messiah of Russia, Aleshenka Kyshtymsky, the only surviving recording of the cast-iron violin of the guitarist Paganini and Paganini .

Current

• Daniil “Muskular” Smirnov - bass, synthesizers, programming, vocals, guitar
• Tikhon "Hee-Haw" Kubov - vocals, lyrics, samples, funny sounds
• Andrey "Astro" Gankin - Guitars
• Eugene "Professor" Lastochkin - concert sound

Former members

• Sergey Kagadeev (2003-2014) - voice
• John "Mandwill" Ludewig (2003-2007) - Guitars
• Alexander "Edward, The King of Noiz" Telpuk (2003-2005) - polyvox , programming
• Alexander "Bocha" Bochagov (2005-2009) - guitar, synthesizers, effects
• Vadim "NOS" Latyshev (2004-2009) - drums
• Vasily Nikitin (2005-2009) - drums, pipe

• Bricks (Danila Smirnov, Ivan Ludevig, Vadim Latyshev)
• True (Danila Smirnov, Ivan Ludevig, Alexander Telpuk)
• Goon Gun (Danila Smirnov, Tikhon Cubov) - GG page
• J-Lobster (ex-Jazzlobster) (Tikhon Kubov) - J-Lobster Bandcamp
• Spermadonarz (Danila Smirnov)
• Steroid 50333 (Danila Smirnov, Vadim Latyshev, Ivan Ludevig)
• N.O.M. / NOM EURO (Sergey Kagadeev, Vadim Latyshev)
• IFK (Tikhon Cubov)
• MUX (Danila Smirnov, Alexander Telpuk)
• WOMBA (Tikhon Cubov) - WOMBA Bandcamp

LP

• Tol's Toy (RAIG, 2004)
• The Drisneyland Chronicles Vol.I (ZveZdaZ, 2005)
• Theorist Attack / Theoretical Act (RAIG, 2006)
• The Hollow Grail (RAIG, 2007)
• Corpus Unhearmeticum (RAIG, 2010)
• Warrior of Vesumia (RAIG, 2013)
• Red Wedming (RAIG, 2014)
• The Drisneyland Chronicles Vol.II (ZveZdaZ, 2015)
• UTOPLENIADA - Live From Brusov! (ZveZdaZ, 2016)
• Prozrachnik (Baba Vanga, 2017)
• [空] Venus in Abyss (ZveZdaZ, 2018)

EP

• Dante Moscow / Dante. Moscow (Arbor, 2007-RAIG, 2008)
• The Flood of Ixtlan (RAIG, 2008)
• Homeostat (RAIG, 2011)
• GENERAL STAFF OF DESBOT (ZveZdaZ, 2012)
• Spit Holes (4 Eyes of UDO) (ZveZdaZ, 2015)
• Larvadrom (ZveZdaZ, 2016)

Compilation

• Les 120 Minuetes de Sadomasonodoraemonocuporamenosodom (RAIG, 2009)

Single

• Red Ded Army (ZveZdaZ, 2014)

• Of. website
• Profile on RAIG
• Bandcamp
• VK
• Last.fm
• Tol's Toy Review
• Review of Theorist Attack
• Review of The Hollow Grail
• Review of "Dante.Moscow" (inaccessible link)
• Review of Corpus Unhearmeticum
• Homeostat Review
• Review of "GENERAL DESBOT"
• Review of "Warrior of Vesumia"
• Review of "Red Wedming"
• Review of "Spit Holes"
• Review on "Prozrachnik"
• Interview with Tikhon Kubov, 2009 (Italian)
• Interview with Tikhon Kubov, 2014 (inaccessible link)
• Interview with Tikhon Kubov, 2017