Ax Ox

Russias Gnoomes fourth release on Rocket Recordings, Ax Ox. The band have a kaleidoscopic and questing vision shot through with potent melancholia and strident optimism. Here thec omponent parts that have always made up Gnoomes fresh and wide-eyed aesthetic - dreampop radiance, bold electronic experimentation and the propulsive motorik drive which moves them onward - are rendered still more vivid and transcendent. Ax Ox runs through a gamut of vibrant emotion across it's eleven tracks, from the elemental blast of kraut-pop that isThe Neighbourto the crystalline and techno-fied Loops, and across moments of jarring and skewed ambience such as Mirror and The Bridge. Ax Ox ultimately reflects something of an odyssey for a complex and inhospitable modern era, and with this in mind perhaps it's centrepiece is the uplifting kosmische travelogue Eternal Trans Siberian"It's a metaphor of what's going on to our country" reckons Sasha. "It feels like were traveling on a rusty and wrecked train through space and time. The epochs change, but the problems stay the same and we don't know how it's possible, but the train is still moving