Over the last few years, I have been reviewing some fascinating Russian bands, and now Der Finger has just come to my attention. They may have a German name and be signed to an Italian label with their Bandcamp site also in Italian, but these guys are Russian with a strong desire to not conform to what anyone feels music should be about. They are a trio, with Anton Efimov (bass guitar, effects), Evgenia Sivkova (drums, saxophone) and Edward Sivkov (bass clarinet, saxophone, bass domra). Anton described it to me as “free jazz, dark jazz, improvisation” but those tags do not really do the music justice. This is Gridfailure with horns and drums which can be heard, a post-apocalyptic nightmare which is frightening, compelling, bleak, and strident. Some 75 minutes in length, with just five songs, this powerful stuff. There is no easy way into it either as they kick off with the longest number, “Verwirrung”, which is more than 20 minutes long. Avant-garde in the extreme, like Gridfailure they are pushing the boundaries of what most people will even define as being music as opposed to noise, but I keep finding myself drawn to this style of improvised chaos, where music does not conform to any set style and therefore challenges the listener to let go of any preconceptions and just have a guttural response to what is being presented to them. It may be hard to listen to, but this is worth the effort with a drone of white noise against bass and drums which may, or may not, be playing together and sax over the top. Anton’s bass sound reverberates on some songs like a demented Chris Squire yet on others it can hardly be heard at all, while the sax and clarinet are often incredibly important, or may just be missing in action and the drums are all over the place. Industrial free jazz, it is dark and emotive, creating reactions in the listener which may not always be pleasant, but is a reaction all the same. Powerful stuff. .

Rating: 8/10

Links:
https://derfinger.ru/
https://www.facebook.com/totenschwanrecords/