and Chinese economics and
worked all over Asia as an interpreter, then later as an investment bank employee in mid-
’90s London. But within two
years of basking in the thriving
Britpop revival, Lagutenko
decided to bring Mumiy back
from the dead.
With production help from
big names who’d worked with
the Stones, Duran Duran,
the Cure, and Tears for Fears,
1996’s pop-y Morskaya [Sea]
and 1997’s more rocking Ikra
[Caviar] made Mumiy stars
back home. But despite working mostly with British and
American producers and being
huge in their homeland (they’re
often called “the Rolling Stones
of Russia,” and rock is purportedly sometimes discussed in
“before/after Mumiy Troll”
terms), Lagutenko and Tsaler’s
quartet has only recently begun
to make inroads abroad. Their
9th—and first English-only—
studio album, Vladivostok, aims
to change that.
Recorded in L.A. with
Lagutenko producing in tan-
dem with Mike Clink (Guns
N’ Roses, Megadeth), Joe
Chiccarelli (My Morning
Jacket, the Shins), and Greg
Brimson (Bush, Eminem), the
10-song outing finds Mumiy
Troll reinterpreting some of its
past hits, but also going for a
more organic, live-feeling, and
guitar-centric vibe. Through it
all, Lagutenko (an avowed fan
of Fender Esquires and Music
Masters) enchants you with an
inimitable voice that’s half Bela
Lugosi, half David Bowie, while
Tsaler wields vintage axes—a
Tele, Strat, Jazzmaster, and
Gretsch—to crank out liquidly
sustaining leads, glorious atmo-
spheric washes, and spaghetti-
Western warbles.
