CD: 10.000 Russos - Kompromat

It’s seven years since Portugal’s muscular psychedelicists, 10.000 Russos got together and five since they released their barnstorming, self-titled EP. In that time, they’ve put out numerous other EPs, singles, appearances on compilation discs and three albums, including a collaboration with Dutch industrialists, RMFTM.

However, their latest long-player, Kompromat could just end up being their defining piece of work. Comprising just five tracks, only one of which comes to an end in less than seven minutes, it is a glorious mix of thumping, trancey grooves, reverb, distortion and half-heard vocals that demands total immersion throughout.

Make no mistake, Kompromat is no whimsical trip but an acid-soaked call to arms. This is especially evident on opening track “It Grows Under” and “The People”. “It Grows Under”, in particular, is powered by a throbbing groove that is aimed straight at the dancefloor. João Pimenta’s robot-like vocals intone “Nowhere to be found” over and over again, while Pedro Pestina and André Couto lay down a gold standard, motorik stomper. Meanwhile, “The People” meanwhile, is a heavy psych call to arms with more than a hint of Spacemen 3’s “Revolution” about it, that has Porto’s finest kicking out the jams in no uncertain terms.

Elsewhere, the tick-tock groove of lead single “Runnin’ Escapin’”, with its hypnotic refrain of “There is no one around you” and the trippy, feedback-enhanced “Quite a Charade” is driving and insistent with monolithic drones and mad loops that all but demand swinging hips and stomping feet. While, final track, “The Wheel” is disorienting and spaced out with its shimmering guitars and cyclical groove but is no less relentless than what has come before. Indeed, Kompromat is urgent stuff, that occasionally brings to mind Evil Heat-era Primal Scream and is bursting with a revolutionary spirit that has no intention of taking any prisoners whatsoever.

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