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here you can find my review of "raii" album, and one review of "taai liira" single.
"raii" 1998, tape album
Before starting to write the review on Dvar's work, I spent many sleepless nights. I kept on recollecting all that had happened to me and people I cared for, since the moment when I got "raii". Weighing all "pro" and "contra", I asked myself hundred times, if I was to retell all that happened and connect all those events with Dvar or not. May this chain of tragic events is just a number of coincidences and Dvar and their album have nothing to do with all that? Have I the right to influence readers' fates, moreover, after reading this article many goths (and not goths) might be interested in band's creative activity. But nobody knows to what consequences may it lead.
I feel responsible for the possibility of accidents in your house or changes in your life after listening "raii". That's why you're offered 30 seconds to think about reading or not reading what is written below. You may skip to another web-site or learn that Dvar is probably the greatest occult band, working in darkwave genre.
Before the acquaintance with Dvar my musical favorites were: the cure, siouxsie and the banshees, curve, nine inch nails, mission and nitzer ebb. After "raii", thick dust covered all the records of these musicians. I bought Dvar's tape from a strange tradesman, at "Gorbushka" of course. I remember his words: "Take Dvar! You won't be disappointed! It really drives you crazy!" The most important thing is that I've never bought CD's without preliminary listening, but I bought "raii" without hesitation! When I first started listening to this cassette my fuse blew out. I accepted it as a hint to listen such music in darkness, or may be in the candlelight. Since that time I've been listening to Dvar's music only in the gloomy candlelight. A short ritual-ethnic intro manages to put you in a serious soulwork in a minute and a half for the next half an hour. My dog, Rottweiler Faust, that's never longed to be present in the room with loudspeakers jumping of high volume, showed strange reaction to Dvar's music. Hearing the first tunes of "raii", he entered the room, lay down on the sofa and listened to the whole album mesmerized. At times he used to fall asleep and then woke up and started to whine. After hearing the intro, you open the door to Dvar's world, incurable sick world, where there's no place even for a smile. There's only place for insalubrious laughter, which the vocalist often uses and that shows the highest degree of hopelessness. There are not many albums having something in common with "raii", that are able to create such evil atmosphere in the house in couple of minutes. Hands search for the rope and soap by themselves, without mind's control. Up to the third composition, which is called "schraai", the brain realizes that hands were right. The desire to listen to other songs up to the end saves you from making something with yourself. The next composition "ud rah" is more ritual and contains hysteric imprecations on some ancient language, known only to Dvar. The language is strange indeed, but old German roots are felt in it, may be the dialect on which the band's vocalist sings bred German language? The fifth song is a kind of a ballad, the melody of which has nostalgic notes. On hearing it, in split seconds, all the main events, that happened in this life flash in the mind. I heard, that such thing happens at clinical death: you get into the long black tunnel and fly through it to the bright light at high speed. And the bright light is "raii". After the epilogue, that is a low frequency noise with magic enchantments, you can't come to yourself for a long time and you never will. You'll never come to former yourself, whom you have been, before listening Dvar. And bear in mind that everything is performed by means of primitive analogue synthesizers with drum-machine and in some moments one can hear live flute.
Six days after Dvar entered my house, Faust had gone. Before his death he constantly fetched up and then he refused to eat. He was only five years old. But I didn't draw any parallels then. Another death came to us three months later. It was my grandmother, who often complained on loud sounds that came from my room. Probably you already guessed what exactly reached her senile ears. I dubbed the tape with "raii" to my friend Sigill and his girlfriend Liz. Sigill usually listened to the tapes in his car. Later this day we had to meet each other on Helloween party at "Krai". Sigill called me in the afternoon and said that they would linger a little bit. He also said: "Dvar - is cool! It makes me feel creepy all over." I still see discouraged truck driver from TV-program "Road Patrol" and hear his desultory story about the car, which suddenly darted out into the contrary row and clashed him. Somehow I realized that it happened when "schraai" was playing. The autopsy told that they were neither dunk nor drugged. The strange thing: while my nearest and dearest ones were gone, Dvar became closer to me. Their melodies dyed with new colours and hidden tunes arose from the depths. I started to worship them, while my health started to fade. I lost my immunity and now I can catch almost every disease. I realized that the reason I still lived was the sign from above. I had to do something for Dvar, to thank them for the happiness they granted me with their art by the existence on this perishable earth. And I decided to create Dvar homepage even it would be just a little bit of my gratitude to this band.
It's rather hard to get information about the band. Collecting the bits from the various sources, I managed to learn that probably the band has been existing since the beginning of 90's. "Dvar" is translated from Hebrew as "word", "message". "raii" is the second album dated from 1998. The most pleasant fact is that Dvar are our compatriots! That means that they are so near, so close to us! Line-up seems to comprise of two men. There's a photo but it's hard to discern their appearance. Occultism is felt in every of their feature: hair, faces and manner of presentation. This photo looks like if it was taken in 20's.
I've recently learned about Dvar's new single "taai liira" and band's participation in "edge of the night" compilation. I can't advise you whether to buy it because of Dvar's song or not, because I don't know if it leads to good, to evil or to the end. As for me, I'm ready for everything. And I promise to try my best to present the most up-to-date information about the strangest people of Dvar and events connected with them until life forces leave me.
shadow angel
"taai liira" 2000, cd-r single
Once, when I was coming back home, I checked my mailbox as usual and found blank envelope without stamps and sender's address but with only one word written on it - DVAR. There was a CD-R inside and also little sheet of paper from which I learned that this CD-R contained of one composition "Taai Liira", which was granted by DVAR for "Russian Gothic Compilation". Without hesitation I put this disc into my CD-player and almost three minutes after I rang out all my RGP colleagues, joyfully shouting in telephone receiver about the discovery of a new amazing gothic band. Enough time had passed since that moment and we had already released "Russian Gothic Compilation" which featured the abovementioned composition, but I still found out nothing about this collective. Nothing except the scant information on the unofficial homepage, devoted to this band, the author of which apparently doesn't have any sufficient information as well. So, two weeks ago DVAR asked Russian Gothic Project to become the distributor of their new single "Taai Liira". Such secrecy is intriguing indeed, but how does this single sound like? Lets start with the artwork - although this single is not a professional release (it's a CD-R with semiprofessional polygraphy) - the artwork is very competent - from crazy frontcover drawing (ala asylum's patients art) to the blurred picture of the band placed at the back side. I am highly touched with the inset, which is decorated by the all sorts of bugs & insects and with the image of death with the scythe hiding in the center of the composition. And now about the music - if you read from the several reviews of "Russian Gothic Compilation" that DVAR is electronic black, please don't believe it, such things point only the insufficient competence of the reviewers. In fact, DVAR's music is a darkwave, one of the best representatives of this style, which I have ever heard in my life. If to compare it with something (there are no straight analogues though), so it will be the comparison with RELATIVES MENSCHSEIN or DAS ICH, although the music has something from the morbidity of early SOPOR AETERNUS. All the tracks on that disc are just pathologically morbid but they charm you with that. The music is utterly emotional and expressive, and you'll certainly feel its beauty if only you can see beauty in pathology. Pathology is presented everywhere, not only in music, but also in vocals, - it is not enough that the sexual origins of vocalist are not defined (just like in SOPOR AETERNUS) - personally I'm prone to think that these are male vocals - but they are performed so that one can't understand, how those sounds are derived from the human being. By the way about the lyrics, it seems to me that they are written in so called "bird's language", when lyrics are formed by harmonic passages of null, invented language, though in this case it is not bird's but rather crow's language. Although the names of the tracks sound in rhyme - "Hissen Raii", "Iina Tamira" è "Taai Liira" - when you hear them, you will understand what I mean. There are 5 tracks on the album (but only four are pointed in booklet - apparently the last one is some kind of a surprise-bonus). Besides "Taai Liira" known by "Russian Gothic Compilation" (and its ambient mix), you can hear the abovementioned "Hissen Raii" (my favorite track) and "Iina Tamira". Also I'd like to point out that the sound quality of the CD is quite worthy and meets the world darkwave standards. Moreover the material is so original that this album undoubtedly ranks with western representatives of the genre, even being better than many of them. It cannot be denied that this album became for me the discovery of the year, and to my mind this is the best and most perspective Russian gothic band.
coroner