Radio Silence (Boris Grebenshchikov album)

Radio Silence is an album by Boris Grebenshchikov (simplified to "Grebenshikov" on the cover), leader of the Russian group Aquarium. The album was recorded in 1988 – 1989 in studios in the United States, United Kingdom, and Canada, mostly with Western musicians, and produced by David A. Stewart. It was hailed as the first contract of a Russian (then, Soviet) rock musician with a Western label.

Radio Silence
Studio album by
Boris Grebenshchikov
Released1989
Recorded1988
StudioThe Hit Factory, New York
Church Studios, London
Chapel Studios, Los Angeles
Orca Studios, Los Angeles
Reb Bus Studios, London
Le Studio, Morin Heights, Quebec[1]
GenrePost-punk, new wave, art rock
Length46:53
LabelColumbia
ProducerDavid A. Stewart[1]
Boris Grebenshchikov chronology
Equinox
(1988)		 Radio Silence
(1989)		 The Black Rose
(1990)
Singles from Radio Silence
  1. "Radio Silence"
    Released: 1989
  2. "The Postcard"
    Released: 1989
Professional ratings
Review scores
SourceRating
Allmusic [2]

Having by then achieved the status of the most prominent rock musician in Russia, Boris had just recently been permitted to travel abroad (thanks to Perestroika). On most tracks, only Alexander Titov (bass) is of the then-current Russian Aquarium band, the rest being Western musicians (with the exception of Death of King Arthur where many Aquarium musicians can be heard). It was originally planned that the album would have half songs in Russian and half in English, but in the final album there are only two Russian songs on the B side.

History

In 1987, American music producers Marina Albi and Kenny Shaffer noticed Grebenshchikov; they helped him to obtain a US visa and to sign a contract with CBS for recording eight albums. Radio Silence was the first one. It was recorded and presented in 1988 and distributed in 1989.[3] The recording process was documented in the 1989 film The Long Way Home by Michael Apted.[4]

Russian critics don't like Radio Silence because a) it is atypical for Aquarium, b) it never won any prize, implying the inferiority of Russian rock, and c) is atypical. As usual, they are right, and they understood nothing. RS crashed Aquarium, which then lived by its huge success in the Soviet Union (since late 1986 we were constantly cheered by the crowds, as if we had crushed socialism in the USSR), and placed us face to face with worldwide reality .. after 11 albums, it would make no sense for me to move to New York just for recording a 12th album of the same music. Its style was shaped after my encounter with David Stewart. (Boris Grebenshchikov in 1997)[5][3]

Track listing

All songs were written by Grebenshchikov, except for "Death of King Arthur" and "China".[1]

United States version
  1. "Radio Silence"
  2. "Winter"
  3. "The Postcard"
  4. "The Wind"
  5. "The Time"
  6. "That Voice Again"
  7. "Real Slow Today"
  8. "The Young Lions"
  9. "Mother"
  10. "Fields of My Love"
  11. "Mother"
  12. "China" (music by Alexander Vertinsky and lyrics by Nikolay Gumilyov)[1]
  13. "Death of King Arthur" (music by BG, lyrics by Sir Thomas Malory)[1]

International version
  1. "Radio Silence"
  2. "The Postcard"
  3. "The Wind"
  4. "The Time"
  5. "Winter"
  6. "That Voice Again"
  7. "Молодые Львы (The Young Lions)"
  8. "Fields of My Love"
  9. "Death of King Arthur"
  10. "Real Slow Today"
  11. "Mother"
  12. "Китай (China)"

Personnel

Charts
Chart (1989) Peak
position
US (Billboard 200) 198[6]
gollark: ...
gollark: You should just pick your words using an actual uniform random number generator then, it is known that humans are awful at this.
gollark: It's 61 for 4 though.
gollark: Oh yes, for one word, right.
gollark: 61 bits of entropy? `log2(40_000) * 4`?

References
  1. Radio Silence (1989). aquarium.ru
  2. Radio Silence at AllMusic
  3. Событие. handbook.severov.net
  4. The Long Way Home. IMDb
  5. Boris Grebenshchikov (1997) Краткий отчет о 16-ти годах звукозаписи. planetaquarium.com
  6. "Billboard, 30 March 1998". Billboard.
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