Release Date: 26 August 2016
Label: Zirka Records
Packaging Type: Digipak
No of Units: 2
Barcode: 4015698005769
Genres: World Music European
Description
The Ukrainians' stunning 'Evolutsiya!' album features 20 of the band's best-loved tracks and 20 of their rarest from the last 25 years! All sound raw and fresh, as vodka-fuelled fiddles, accordion and mandolins interweave with thrashing drums and zizzy electric guitars – an energy level they have maintained unbelievably for a quarter of a century!
CD1 collects the most popular tracks from their 6 critically-acclaimed studio albums;
CD2 contains the best tracks from deleted singles, EPs and live albums plus previously unreleased live and studio tracks. So, the album will appeal to fans new and old!
The Ukrainians created their intoxicating cocktail of traditional Ukrainian music and British Indie pop even before the term 'world music' had been coined. The NME said of the band's live shows that they "blow your trousers off"! In fact The Ukrainians' energy and cross-category appeal has meant that over the last two and a half decades they have wowed audiences at hundreds of World / Folk / Roots as well as Rock festivals throughout Europe and North America, including both Glastonbury and Womad in the UK.
As well as raiding the traditional Ukrainian folk repertoire The Ukrainians write their own songs and play Ukrainian language versions of Western pop songs, here including their very idiosyncratic interpretations of classic tracks by Kraftwerk, Motorhead, The Smiths, The Mamas and the Papas, Joy Division, The Sex Pistols and The Velvet Underground.
The Ukrainians' career began with their eponymously-titled debut album in 1991, the same year that Ukraine declared its independence from the Soviet Union. Since then the band has released a series of critically-acclaimed albums including 2009's excellent Diaspora, an album about migration: the heartbreak of leaving family and homeland coupled with the excitement of starting a new life. This album was and is extremely topical at a time when tens of thousands of young Ukrainians, Poles, Bulgarians and Romanians are making new homes in the West.
Some members of the band have Ukrainian parents or eastern European ancestry and feel a strong connection to the lands of their ancestors. The themes of their songs have travelled down the generations, as if they had hitched a DNA ride to the present day. Yet The Ukrainians transcend geographical and political borders; as well as being specifically Ukrainian, the band's music and themes are truly universal.
Tracklisting
The Legendary Len Liggins
Various Artists
Len Liggins
The Legendary Len Liggins
The Sinister Cleaners
The Legendary Len Liggins
Follow The Moths
The Ukrainians
The Ukrainians
The Ukrainians
The Ukrainians
The Ukrainians
The Ukrainians
The Ukrainians
The Ukrainians
