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Lebedev-Frontov’s solo project is called Linija mass, whose Western debut lp Proletkult was recently released by the German label Membrum Debile Propaganda. Linija mass has used Soviet documentary material like newspaper clippings from the 1930’s industrialization campaign on their cover art and sound samples on the same theme, but Proletkult is the most accomplished and disturbing of the results so far. Judging by track titles (Total Mobilization, Mechanization, Gastev, Lenin on the Labour Discipline) the historical timeframe of this “theme lp” seems clearly delineated: the 1920’s. The sound is oppressive even on noise standards: lengthy (7 to 11 minutes) tracks with monotonous clanging sounds of a primitive, decisively ugly 20’s factory; no aestheticizing or heroism, pure slave labour. On most of the tracks there are also less regular sounds like the sound of shovels or some other horrible non-automatized tools. In the distance collective masses scream bleak hoorays, but not a single individual voice can be discerned. Except Lenin’s speech on “labour discipline” on track 1.

“I work only with analog tapes, without any samplers or computers. Some of the sounds on Proletkult I recorded already in the 80’s, when a friend of mine worked in a factory on the outskirts of Leningrad, and I went there to record the sound of the machinery. I think the most productive way of working for us would be to stay away from computers, and instead try to recreate the way in which Luigi Russolo worked. I have always loved machine aesthetics and have always thought that Nick [nick Sudnick, the leader of ZGA] and I are direct descendants of the Russian aesthetics of the 1920’s. There’s a psychological connection.”

The Deepest End, avec en plus Jason Newsted, Will Lee, Victor Wooten, Les Claypool, Jack Casady)