Love (album)

“In 1995, by the will of fate, I first went to war . Chechnya, January, the beginning of this campaign ... And maybe there I was even reborn. Because I saw such a thing there ... And I saw a consequence of this ... a false understanding of freedom, and a consequence of everything old, outdated, and new stupidity. This is a consequence of the river of blood.

We didn’t do anything in the 95th, we just played some kind of songs. In the 96th, these songs were raked out and the album “Love” turned out. Why love"? Everyone will probably understand me: when you bathe in the mud on your ears, and more than once, you really want to cling to something clean, bright ... And, besides Love, there is probably nothing like that. It was our attempt to cling to purity, and I think it was a success. On the other hand, we went into some kind of formal search, in search of a new sound, which later fully appeared in the “ World Number Zero ”. We experimented, tried to play simply, but juicy. It was an appeal to some other music that already existed around us. ”

- Y. Shevchuk "DDT. Understanding of Freedom", Fuzz # 1 2002 ^[4]

In August 1995, Shevchuk, at the invitation of Aerosmith manager Tim Collins, visited the United States a second time. The result was an unexpected decision for DDT to record a new album in the Long View Farm studio, near Boston , Massachusetts , where, according to rumors, the Smiths themselves started ^[5] . Friends from Bashkiria helped with the money.

The new album was recorded in February-March 1996 . Sound Engineer - Jesse Henderson. Half of the arrangements were redone on the spot. According to the musicians, due to the lack of time to think through the arrangements, the next rotations in the composition and creative differences, the album was recorded in a nervous atmosphere, as a result of which it was not the best record in the history of the group.

Says Vadim Kurylyov: “This is where the search for Love led us. After long disputes that took place instead of rehearsals, we still went to America - if Jura decided something, it was impossible to convince him. The album was planned stylistically, like a guitar, and I was going to turn around in all the glory of the guitar arrangements, but - there it was! I wanted to record a lot of interesting parts, but the author ordered in a different way - we write a minimum of instruments, but with a good sound. Show cool corporate sound! Sound is sound, but music should be, especially in an album with that name. I would better call it Nerves. Or "Bare Wires". Igor Tikhomirov reappears on this album, here he plays in several songs, and at concerts of that period he is a constant bass player. After the departure of Arthur Hovsepyan in the spring of 1995, I became a solo guitarist. This leapfrog with the guitarists tormented us all - in three years they have been replaced by at least five. And we decided that it was easier to find a suitable bass player, especially since Tisha had often been to our rehearsals by this time, helping in the first experiments with a computer. We suggested he leave the computer and pick up the bass again. However, since the new songs were not yet completed, and we wrote them “live”, I still had to record most of the bass tracks. Great guitar amps, cool Jessie sound engineer, fresh air from the North American forests - all this is not enough when the songs are not ready.

One of the few finished numbers was the song “Onanist”. However, Yura was not happy with this, and later the song entered the album in the “room” version. When we were still making draft sketches for the album in January 1996 on Tambovskaya , Yura unexpectedly suggested - should this song be sung by Andrey Vasiliev ? The instrumental phonogram was ready, and Andrei did not break, but immediately picked it up and sang. It turned out, as if Malcolm Maclaren , cuddled to death, lying in the bathroom, listens to some rock on the radio and humming under his breath, rubbing with a washcloth and sometimes turning to a scream. This recording illustrates well in what ways the song often goes to the final version. ^{[6] [7]}

By some miracle, we nevertheless recorded this album in a month. Prisoners of sound recording - that’s who we were in America. <...> We wanted to record an album a la alternative rock of the 1990s, but when we started recording, it turned out that each of us understands this genre in our own way. Some songs, however, turned out well, although not very alternatively. For example, “ Love ”, “Tale”, “I have you ...”. A good rock'n'roll number came out of the Soundtracker. The funny song “Marina” for some reason was ejected from the album, and hit the disc as a bonus track for a new re-release. The remastered hundred times “Onanist” was finally recorded almost simply with a guitar - and so he entered the album. The strange version of the song “Crows” was not understood by me - my guitar was removed from there for information. Another new member of the group is keyboard player Dmitry “Sand” Galitsky ^[1] . He is a Kalugan, an old friend of Igor Dotsenko, a companion in the Blue Bird ^[1] . After the departure of Sergei Ryzhenko , who did not take root in the group, Dima was discharged from Kaluga on docial advice. Here, on the record, he had more time to prove himself as a specialist in backing vocals. At the request of Jura, Dima even engaged in vocal chants with us under the piano. The most successful Dimin loss is in the song “I Have You ...” on the real “ Hammond ”. This legendary electro-organ, which just stood in the corner of the studio, caused us delight throughout the whole month. Unfortunately, Dima did not work in the group for long - until the spring of 1996, and again we were left without a keyboard player. In fairness, I must admit that for all my shortcomings, the album “Love” served us as a good warm-up before the beginning of the New History of DDT ” ^[8] .

Yuri Shevchuk regrets the incompleteness of the album: “In fact, the album“ Love ”could be better if we had the opportunity to wait another month and translate it. Something would be played out there, completed. And so it turned out again as a drawing for a picture, for a canvas. True, the picture is strong, good. But we didn’t have enough colors, colors. ” ^[9]

There is a story that Jesse Henderson (sound engineer at Long View Farm), after listening to Shevchuk and company records, delivered them the latest Aerosmith creations; the difference was enormous. He was asked: Wait, but what does it take to make the same record? Henderson asked: What equipment do you have? - Well, here's the remote. - Good. - Record player. - Well. - Microphones. - It's great. - What do you need? - Invite me ^[10] .

The video clip for the song “Love” was shot in St. Petersburg in 1996, directed by Sergey Debizhev . The title track was performed at the concerts of the From and To tour, dedicated to the 15th anniversary of the group. The version that sounded from the stage was longer. The reduction of the text, which entailed the removal of entire verses, was explained by Yuri Shevchuk with the desire to fit the track to the format of the clip. The editing was done while the DDT musicians were in the USA ^[11] .

Another song from the album - “Far, Far” - sounded in one of the commercials of the series " Russian Project ", namely - "I love", shot at one of the concerts of the "From and To" tour.

The release of the album was delayed for “purely human reasons” - the artist Vladimir Dvornik (a longtime designer of DDT) had a seriously ill daughter, and he spent days and nights with her in the hospital, and the group did not look for another artist ^[1] .

The album was published on CDs and tape cassettes ^[3] .

Words and music - Y. Shevchuk. 8 - folk music

1. The full moon - 5:11
2. Railway Worker - 7:17
3. I have you - 5:16
4. Crows - 4:04
5. Far, Far - 4:56
6. Love - 4:48
7. Soundtracker - 4:54
8. Masturbator - 4:22
9. Fairy Tale - 5:36
10. Marina (2001 reissue bonus) - 2:59

• Yuri Shevchuk - vocals, noise (1), 12-page hits guitar (4), claps (8)
• Vadim Kurylyov - guitars, bass, backing vocals (2, 3, 6-8, 10), harmonica (10)
• Igor Dotsenko - drums, percussion (6), email. drum " Korg " (1), el. Sitar “Korg” (2), volumes (4), tambourine (4, 6, 10), back vocals (1, 6), choir (7, 9)
• Andrey Vasiliev - guitar (1, 4, 10), choir (7)
• Igor Tikhomirov - bass (2, 4, 9), noise (1), choir (7)
• Dmitry Galitsky - keys, Hammond organ (3, 5), noise (1), choir (7, 9), backing vocals (3, 6)
• Jesse Henderson - Sound Engineer , Sound Engineer Voice (7)
• Fran Flennery, Kelly Walford - Sound Engineers
• Lori B. Flennery - mastering (Northeastern digital recording, Inc.)
• Sponsors of the album: Russian Gold CJSC and Bashkreditbank .

• K. Yu. Baykovsky. The symbolism tradition in the DDT song “Ravens in the Sky” . - Russian rock poetry: text and context, 1999. - No. 2 .
• N.V. Krylova, V.A. Mikhailov. Literary reminiscences in the "Petersburg" texts of Yuri Shevchuk . - Russian rock poetry: text and context, 1999. - No. 2 .
• Makhmutov, Nail. "In the wake of the legends of Ufa rock and roll . " - Ufa: Summer, 2015 .-- 290 p. - ISBN 978-5-87308-137-9 .
• V. A. Mikhailova, T. N. Mikhailova. Pushkin reminiscences in St. Petersburg texts by Yuri Shevchuk . - Russian rock poetry: text and context, 2000. - No. 3 .
• J. Sadowski. Railway in Russian rock poetry of perestroika and post-Soviet times (through the eyes of a Pole) . - Russian rock poetry: text and context, 2000. - No. 4 .
• Shevchuk Yu. Yu. Defenders of Troy. 2nd ed., Ext. St. Petersburg: Publishing House of the Russian Poetry Foundation, 2000.55 p. ISBN 5-89108-041-9
• Shevchuk Yu. Yu. Solnik: album of poems. M .: Novaya Gazeta , 2009.208 s. ISBN 978-5-91147-005-0

• Love on Discogs
• reproduktor.net: DDT - “Love” (1996 album)
• Time Z: Love (1996)
• kurilev.com: Love
•   DDT - Love (Official video)