Yago-e-Aboo: Charming a Fanbase with the Debut Album

Right at the start of 2009 we showcased the talents of Novosibirsk’s Yago-e-Aboo, and suggested that this year could bring them good fortune, especially given the promise of their first few tracks. Today, after six months of waiting, we’re now blessed with an eponymous debut album, which can be downloaded for free. Good times are here.  As objective proof of the band’s slow ascent upwards, it’s worth noting that in January their MySpace page had been viewed only 400 times; today that number is over 17,000.

We should start where we finished in our first post, by answering the most logical question – which would concern the precise meaning of Yag0-e-Aboo.  The band’s name comes from the Russian equivalents of Iago and Abu, the parrot and monkey from Disney’s Aladdin (1992). Upon that foundation of early, childish enthusiasm, the group now draws more adult inspiration from a number of British bands, most notably Bloc Party.

With the release of a debut LP, our Russian musicians are able to say with greater confidence how they hope to develop their own style, following any initial British prompts or prods.  The qualities they want to nurture are “speed and dance-ability, precision and daring.  That’s what we need – the sound of the 21st century, free of any nervous self-regard! Dynamic guitar riffs, unpredictable rhythms, and a sense of growing pressure, too.”

Lock up your pets; it’s going to get noisy.

One of the core issues in developing a “post-British” sound in Russia will, of course, be the choice of language.  To this the band says: “First and foremost, Russian indie music does exist.  But most of it is sung in English.  We weren’t really sure why that was, but then we actually heard some material performed in Russian. It was all wrong; even the vocals were kinda irritating. We left with the impression that our own language just doesn’t suit that kind of musical style.”

Yago-e-Aboo claim to have “solved the problem in an original way. You won’t realize at first that you’re listening to your own native language. It’s as if the words have melted into the sound. The first thing you’ll catch on to is the general mood of the tracks. Then, little by little, you’ll start to distinguish the kind of people who wrote them, too: their characters… their hotheadedness and, at the same time, their gentler side.”

We feel like we’re being invited to dinner.

The promo-texts go on in the same flirtatious fashion. “Our lives have become one drawn-out adventure. It’d be silly to start digging around in what we’ve achieved to look for any super-serious texts, stunning guitar-work… or some other desire to do something retarded. What you will see and hear are the traces of everything we’ve grown up with. We don’t understand heavy-going music and we can’t enjoy or relax to anything light-hearted, either. We just enjoy creating a really good mood – and we need your emotions, too.  We need your smiles to give us confidence… and your tears to inspire us.”

We might even need your screwdrivers.

The success or failure of these charm-assaults is going to depend upon their reception: Yago-e-Aboo are unabashed crowd-pleasers, but we need to know the make-up of that crowd if we’re to stand any hope of success. As a result, the band have turned the tables, so to speak, and tried to find out more about their fanbase. Who are those 17,000 people who’ve wandered across the MySpace page and listened with interest? A small questionnaire has been built into the ensemble’s page on V kontakte.

“We’re conducting a census Each and every listener is precious to us, so we don’t want you to miss out on any of our big events, like the CD launch, concerts, visits to your town, etc. Over and above that, however, we’d also like to know what kind of people our listeners are!  So here’s a little questionnaire. Please let us know: (1) Your name or nickname; (2) Are you a guy or  girl – assuming that’s not clear from the nickname:-); (3) Your hometown; (4) Your email.  We’d actually like to know how old you are, too, but our decent upbringing won’t let us ”

More smiles and more charm, together with four new songs we didn’t use in the last post.  And, at the forefront of this promo-flirt, is the car that the band have just dolled up as a mobile ad (below).  Four young men with “no sense of self-preservation,” touring a major city in a DIY drag car… named after themselves.

Would you let your daughter date the driver? Parents, you have been warned.

Download music and images from this site to your smartphone!  Go to www.cloudtrade.com and look for us under far_from_moscow