Radio Africa is an album by the Russian rock band Aquarium.

The album's style presents an eclectic mix of influences: 60's Rock 'n Roll, hard rock

Hard rock

Hard rock is a loosely defined genre of rock music which has its earliest roots in mid-1960s garage rock, blues rock and psychedelic rock...

, art rock

Art rock

Art rock is a subgenre of rock music that originated in the United Kingdom in the 1960s, with influences from art, avant-garde, and classical music. The first usage of the term, according to Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary, was in 1968. Influenced by the work of The Beatles, most notably their Sgt...

, jazz

Jazz

Jazz is a musical style that originated at the beginning of the 20th century in African American communities in the Southern United States. It was born out of a mix of African and European music traditions. From its early development until the present, jazz has incorporated music from 19th and 20th...

, honky tonk

Honky tonk

A honky-tonk is a type of bar that provides musical entertainment to its patrons...

 and others.

According to the liner notes of the remastered version of the album, it was recorded in a mobile studio

Recording studio

A recording studio is a facility for sound recording and mixing. Ideally both the recording and monitoring spaces are specially designed by an acoustician to achieve optimum acoustic properties...

 owned by the Soviet government, after the band bribed its technician.

Many guest musicians participated in the recording, including the notable saxophonist Igor Butman

Igor Butman

Igor Butman is a jazz saxophonist born in St. Petersburg, Russia in 1961. He is considered to be a virtuoso saxophonist, and a skilled bandleader. American saxophonist Grover Washington, Jr. was instrumental in introducing Igor Butman to American audiences by featuring the Russian saxophonist on...

 and avant-garde jazz pianist Sergey Kuryokhin

Sergey Kuryokhin

Sergey Kuryokhin was a Russian film actor, film composer, pianist, music director, experimental artist and writer, based in St. Petersburg, Russia.-Biography:Kuryokhin began his acting career as a piano and keyboard player with a school band in Leningrad...

.

The album includes some of Aquarium's best known and most cited songs - Captain Africa (Капитан Африка), The Art of Being Humble (Искусство быть смирным), and the bleak anthem Rock 'n Roll is Dead (Рок-н-ролл мёртв), which was chosen by Nashe Radio

Nashe Radio

Nashe Radio is a rock music station designed to promote Russian rock bands . It is broadcast in every major Russian city as well as having an internet stream...

 as one the top 100 songs of the twentieth century.

Due to its eclecticism and historical importance it was dubbed "The White Album of Russian rock

Russian rock

Russian rock refers to rock music made in Russia or in the Russian language. Rock and roll became known in the Soviet Union in the 1960s and quickly broke free from its western roots. According to many music critics, its "golden age" years were the 1980s , when the Soviet underground rock bands...

".

Track listing

1. "Music of the Silver Spokes (Музыка серебряных спиц)" - 3:34
2. "Captain Africa (Капитан Африка)" - 5:12
3. "The Songs of the Drawers-Out (Песни вычерпывающих людей)" - 3:22
4. "Snake (Змея)" - 1:00
5. "Vana Khoya (Вана Хойа)" - 5:43
6. "Rock 'N' Roll Is Dead (Рок-н-ролл мертв)" - 5:37
7. "Radio Shao-Lin (Радио Шао-Линь)" - 1:33
8. "The Art of Being Humble (Искусство быть смирным)" - 5:03
9. "Tibetan Tango (Тибетское танго)" - 3:15
10. "The Time of the Moon (Время Луны)" - 3:59
11. "Evgraf the Boy (Мальчик Евграф)" - 2:35
12. "To Your Star (Твоей звезде)" - 2:07
13. "It Was Snowing From the Morning (С утра шел снег)" - 3:53
14. "One More Falling Down (Еще один упавший вниз)" - 5:49

External links

• About Radio Africa on Aquarium's official website
• About Radio Africa at The Boddhisattvas of Babylon
• About Radio Africa on Pavel Severov's "Aquarium Handbook" (with sound samples)