It's been almost twenty years since the Iron Curtain that separated the West from the East came tumbling down. Poland, Hungary, Romania, Bulgaria, and what was then Czechoslovakia had all been satellite countries under the thumb of whoever was in control of the Kremlin in Moscow. The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, (USSR) stretched from what are now the independent Balkan countries of Latvia and Estonia, to the borders of Mongolia in the East and the Himalayas in the South, and included within its borders Georgia and The Ukraine.

The Cold War, so called because neither side ever faced each other directly and only fought each other through puppet states all over the world, had raged since the day Germany surrendered in Europe after World War Two. When Stalin refused to withdraw his forces of "liberation", the West led by the United States and Britain began to wage a war against Communism that would shape foreign policy for the next fifty-five years. Both sides became ridiculously intransigent against anything that was remotely reminiscent of the other. While America black listed intellectuals and artists who were even suspected of having "un-American behavior" by having been members of the Communist party at some point in their lives, Russia was equally vigilant in protecting its citizens against the corrupting influences of the morally decadent West.

Chief amongst those influences was popular music. While some jazz was tolerated rock and roll was considered far too subversive, and even innocuous music like " I Wanna Hold Your Hand" by the Beatles was considered too immoral for the innocent ears of the Russian citizenry. Even in the satellite countries rock and roll was considered an act of subversion. The Plastic People Of The Universe in Czechoslovakia could only give concerts by letting people know the locations and times at the last moment, and even then they ended up doing jail time for sedition.

So the idea of a rock and roll band, or any sort of popular music for that matter, from Russia is still enough of a novelty for me that I jump at any opportunity to listen to one. Quite a few of the earlier ones ended up merely being clones of power trios, or heavy metal/hard rock bands, so once the novelty wore off of hearing them sing in Russian they quickly became boring. Yet, that still doesn't prevent me from checking out each new band that I come across.

I'm glad I do, because otherwise I might never have bothered to listen to Auktyon, a twelve piece band from Russia who has created a sound that blends elements of both Eastern and Western Europe. The result is something that I doubt you've ever heard before. When I listened to "Profukal," the first song of their new album Girls Sing,  it reminded me of was the former Canadian band Lighthouse. It has the same very large sound that you only get with a multi piece band including brass and wood winds. But as the song progressed I changed my evaluation, realizing that although there were similarities, Lighthouse never played music that sounded like psychedelic, punk, polkas.