New York founded gypsy punk Marxists Gogol Bordello’s sixth studio album Pura Vida Conspiracy is a hell of a listen. Rollicking, swashbuckling and anti-hegemonic are all adjectives suitable for this release. Opening track We Rise Again is an autobiographical explanation of the motivation behind this album. Ukranian born frontman Eugene Hütz explains, “With a fistful of heart and a radical future… We rise again” and continues to explain the band’s stance against imperialism with the line “Borders are scars on face of the planet.”
With a sound rooted in punk but with traditional Gypsy overtones, I have always imagined Gogol Bordello like the alt-folk artists Beirut on crystal meth. Speaking of the less aggressive side of the band via a gypsy sound produced by accordion, ukele and violin, the song Dig Deep Enough is a stirring explanation why Hütz keeps striving despite the enormity of overthrowing the dominance of a society that’s primary focus is the dollar, “We who seek long enough, dig deep enough, stay strong enough, find a way… one day.”
Sonically this record is sprawling with the production bordering on orchestral with all eight of the instruments sharing the front of speakers. This is a shift from one of the most well-known Gogol Bordello albums to date, Gypsy Punks: Underdog World Strike, that was essentially a punk album with a bunch of instruments in the background.
A new element of this album is Hütz’s delving into autobiographical song lyrics rather than his typical ‘fuck the government stance’. A good example of this is the twee ditty Lost Innocent World, that basically contends that Hütz doesn’t remember too much of his early days on this earth, but he knows he was always going to sing. This is a refreshing admission for such a political mouth piece considering ‘they’ normally claim it was injustice and oppression that pushed them to the microphone.
Well, it may not have been political angst that pushed Hütz to be a singer, but it is certainly protest that keeps driving him to release such amazingly impassioned albums.
BY DAN WATT
Best Track: We Rise Again
If You Like These, You Will Like This: Golem Fresh Off Boat, System Of A Down Toxicity, Beirut Flying Club Cup (maybe)
In A Word: Fiery
