Wow, this takes me back. If it was only 1980 again and I was only eighteen years old, Motorama would be far and away one of my favourite bands. Why? Because they tick all the right boxes.
Back in 1980 I was an aspiring goth/indie kid, and an album like this would have just been perfect. The band plays an excellent set of indie/goth tunes that are heavily based around the Manchester/Leeds scene circa 1978-1982. There is some stunning guitar, minimalist synth work and motorik beats, added to a vocal that is shrouded in echo, making this a must for post punk and indie followers.
What makes this band different, is that they haven't grown up in a gloomy terraced house in Salford, but actually hail from Rostov-on-Don, a magnificent port city in the Southern Federal District of Russia. 'Poverty' is their third album, and follows on from 2012's 'Calendar'. There are nine tracks on the album, all of which would fall into the post punk/indie bracket.
As stated, the music is excellent, and there are some good lyrics as well. 'Dispersed Energy' for example, in my estimation one of the best tracks on the album, features some Doors style keyboards, and a dispassionate vocal that seems to indicate a weariness and futility perhaps directed at the club/party scene: - “Dispersed energy, something rotten in the air/ Dispersed energy, the smell of burnt hair/ Dispersed energy, crowd of dirty bodies/ Burnt tongues fried bones dirty bodies.”
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Other tracks, such as 'Lottery' display a poppier direction. Still rooted within an early 1980's soundscape, but with jangly guitars and less echo on the vocals: - “It's some kind of lottery' spinning the globe all night/ Choosing places where we gonna die, on a drunk night/ Put your finger to stop that plastic globe/ Pacific Ocean lovers, bottoms up good luck.”
Overall, this is a good album, which interestingly shows that some musical genres can accurately span both continents and generations. Motorama are copyists, but while their roots are detectable to one specific scene, they still manage to bring something new to the table.
Motorama album at Bandcamp
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