UNTITLED by Phooey!

"For me, Nikita Ogurtsov is an example of a perfect musician. At least after this album. Listening to these songs, one intuitively understands one thing: this man sincerely makes music. He creates because he's not able not to do so. And that person was fortunate enough to have enough time, perseverance and experience so that each idea, each of his "musical thoughts" becomes fulfilled. Because of that, practically every month we see a release of a new Phooey! album, and quality-wise he is still ahead of those who take 2 years to make a new record.
"UNTITLED" - a fantastic mix, collage, puzzle, made up of pieces that are, it seems, too different. However, this did not prevent harmony. Perhaps, it is necessary to introduce a new concept - "musical mosaic", it would ideally characterize this record. If there is a garage rock genre, then this is the avant-garde in garage rock, ambient in garage rock, and many more. Even by trying to describe everything that is on this album you start feeling like a pioneer." - Lubko Davidovich

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I started writing these songs after returning from the first ever Phooey! tour of Russia in autumn of 2013.
After having one of the best experiences of my life, two and a half weeks on the road, being positively received by virtually everyone and meeting amazing people, I returned to Ozerne and fell into deep depression (small town Ukraine will do that to ya). I deleted my social network accounts and went into one of the most reclusive periods of my life.

It was then when I started reading "Revolution in the Head", a book by Ian McDonald about The Beatles, which blew my mind. I started thinking differently about what music can do, how melody moves, timbre etc.
I spent weeks sitting in the closet of my parents' apartment with a laptop, acoustic guitar and a bass, making songs and singing them into the laptop mic while my parents where screaming at each other outside the door (the family was slowly deteriorating at that point). Songs like "Bored", "Come Let Me In" and "Bird" represent that time perfectly - those original recordings remained practically unchanged in their final version. After working all day in the closet of my parents' apartment, I would return to my grandma's apartment, where I slept/lived. At night, when grandma was asleep, I would make these strange instrumental pieces, that ended up as various "intros" on the album ("Defensive" was also made at night on an android phone piano app).
The other, smaller bulk of songs was created when I was living in Kiev in autumn-winter 2014. "Crows" was my first experience with a MIDI-keyboard (all my music up to that point was made by manually creating all the drum and piano parts with a mouse, note by note). "Don't Pry", recorded in late 2014, is one of the first instances of me playing a proper drum kit on a Phooey! record; I was dissatisfied with my playing and doubled the drum tracks so it would sound weird.
I finished up the record when I lived in Kharkiv in early 2016 - added parts, remixed stuff and recorded entire songs. I also did lots of reamping which gave the instrumental pieces this great ambient quality that I never tried to achieve since, but some day I will.

This album is perhaps the messiest thing I've ever made.
I actually had a nervous breakdown while mixing it.

Tracklist

1.	in#1	1:25

2.	I Like You Too Much	1:55

3.	I Don't Care Anymore	1:36

4.	Mama Tell Me	1:50

5.	Oooh	0:34

6.	in#2	0:34

7.	A Dream	1:34

8.	This is Life I	1:02

9.	Bored	1:15

10.	in#3	1:24

11.	August	1:16

12.	Don't Pry	1:50

13.	Thora's Song	3:17

14.	Green Machine	2:21

15.	in#4	1:11

16.	Somebody That I Used To Know	2:11

17.	Haircuts of the Young	3:32

18.	Crows	1:41

19.	Don't Know	2:39

20.	Lonesome Me	1:38

21.	Come Let Me In	1:28

22.	Bird	1:20

23.	Jenny	2:39

24.	Defensive	2:31

25.	This is Life II	1:32

Credits

released April 15, 2016

written, performed and produced by Nikita Ogurtsov.

Ozerne, Kyiv, Kharkiv.

2013-2016

License

CC BY-NC-SA 3.0. See the Creative Commons website for details.