NewTone got everybody talked about a couple of years ago in connection with an advertisement of a promising Ukrainian game called “Collapse”, which trailer demonstrated one of the best band’s track entitled “The Path” to the public and let us see that NewTone came to music industry seriously and for the long haul. The guys from the group were doing really quite well: NewTone made excellent remixes for t.A.T.u, Bjork, and Marilyn Manson, their own tracks were on the OST of the Russian blockbuster movie “Shadow Boxing 2: Revenge”. The tracks from the “Collapse” and “Shadow Boxing 2” weren’t exclusive ones, they were a part of a mythical NewTone’s album, which had to be released in a moment, but like “Collapse” its release was being postponed to the later date again and again. The PR manager of the group in his turn aroused interest promising that the album would spring a plenty of surprises. An unexpected turning-point happened in August 2008 when Alexey aka HardDrum, a producer and a leader of the group, announced that a debut album of NewTone would be released in a non-traditional way and would be a first official torrent-release in Russia; a Russian National BitTorent Tracker torrents.ru would act as a label, and the album's be distributed for free. Much to our regret the above-mentioned turn of events became the only surprise.

We could not bring ourselves to say that ”No Copyrights” is an album, cause 9 tracks (and one remix), half of which showed up in “Shadow Boxing 2” and we had enough time to be bored to death with them, are lasting for 36 mins only. 36 paltry minutes! Such timing is usual for EP, but that won’t do for a full-blooded album at all. «Rich in sounding but poor in matter» - the result of almost 3-year work can be described in this way. In this period of time NewTone found their original sounding. i.e. a mixture of aggressive broken rhythms and rough guitar riffs with atmospheric synths and tender ethnic flair and also with a live cello, that’s very unusual. It’s quite a new solution moreover not only for a Russian electronic music scene, cause already now according to some charts NewTone are pushing away the similar western collectives to the second places. However NewTone has more rock than electronic approach to music writing, i.e. their compositions aren’t overloaded with instruments and sounds like most of rock arrangements. It’s this relative simplicity that makes NewTone’s music intelligible for masses; all their tracks are written exactly counting on being hits and on the back of it they’re pop compositions: for one thing they are "radio-friendly" (about 3-4 mins), for another thing they have a simple but very easy to remember melody, that keeps going through your head, and structure.

"Contabele" starts like a retro-romance with a piano melody, acoustic guitar and vinyl crackle in the background, and almost in no time it bursts with beating for effect chaotic drums and cold electronic sounds. In “The Path”, the most famous NewTone’s track, electro guitar takes the place of the acoustic one, and lyrical keyboards are replaced by atmospheric synths, ethnic percussion and a charming vocal performed by an invited singer Iva. In a daring song called “Follow the Point”, which is the second and the last vocal track of “No Copyrights”, Pavel “Pashtet” Filipenko (MC and showman on live performances of NewTone) with its voice and delivery adds an acute social nuance to the song, that makes it sound like music by Dolphin and Kasta simultaneously. All the other tracks of the album are driving and impenetrable in the same way (except for easy “Vacuum” maybe), and mostly we have nothing to cavil at: “Run!!!!” sets the mad pace for the following tracks, and “Marrakech slam” turns out to be a direct continuation of “The Path”.

However it’s worth to look attentively so as to mention that everything that lately has been distributed for free by famous musicians is, to put it mildly, many times worse than the music they usually write. Radiohead, the setters of this trend, released the album “In Rainbows” (2007) in which digital tracks were encoded at a shamefully low bit rate and it was made available in reduced 10-tracks format. The album was weary, dull and labored itself. However one could pay and purchase a deluxe boxed version that includes a double vinyl disc, eight bonus tracks and two CDs, that somehow compensates poor music contents.

Nine Inch Nails were the following musicians who took up the idea of Radiohead’s management and released one-third of their 4-part instrumental album entitled “Ghosts” for free (particularly since NIN have no problems with bit rate), nevertheless one could buy the collection edition for money. However like Radiohead’s work music by Nine Inch Nails can’t be described as irreproachable – the second CD of “Ghosts” obviously appears to be unnecessary and all these instrumental pieces doesn’t even approximately reach the level of an ordinary song by Reznor. Two months after the release of “Ghosts” Nine Inch Nails hastily wrote a new vocal album entitled “Sleep” presenting it to the public absolutely free of charge both in mp3 and in format which surpasses a CD quality. Though to tell the truth, “Sleep” leaves the impression that Reznor only fed his listener shit and nothing more.

But if commercial versions of albums by Radiohead and Nine Inch Nails are just extended gift editions then what will represent the edition of NewTone album “No Copyrights”? Will it be released in physical format or not? And the main question is won’t it happen so that this November all the civilized world will receive an extended CD version while at the same time a Russian listener will be left with 10 tracks, which could be easily given for free without any regrets. Everything turns out to be highly suspicious. Was the album released the way it was planned? Why isn’t there an original version of “The Path” without vocal part on the album? Where is the promised vocal track performed by Kieron Pepper, ex live drummer of “The Prodigy” (the main inspirers of NewTone)? Why does the album have such a shameful cover? Where after all is the world going?




Pasya