Vasyl Hontarsky, Vasya Club. Konokrad. (Horse Thief)

Despite the banal laws of showbiz, despite the business as it is – "Vasja Club", that is Vasyl Gontarsky, already releases his third album. And already for the third time pleasantly surprises with sincerity and freshness, which can be found with far not every young guy even – and this fellow is adult already. It seems he should have long ago and forever settle down, longer for comfort and definiteness – but, you see, he listens to his soul, and it looks for different things. And looks for them actively, is not trampled down – therefore, it happens so that each new album expressly differs from the previous one. Not so much that you won’t recognize – but sufficiently to avoid getting used to it. You get used only to one thing: when buying a new disk, you do not know for surely what exactly you should expect – but you know exactly that something interesting is in store. As to me – just a wonderful habit, one of the few that have an absolute right to exist. That is why I would not like to speak a lot about what music has been hidden here this time – in the end, you will not get off with just one definition. But it is possible to say that there was more rock-and-roll on the first album, on the second one – more of punk-chanson, and on this one – more of blues. And frisky blues, with elements of swing, with the atmosphere of nightclubs of the pre-electronic epoch, with a surprising smile in the sad eyes... At that, next to classic American blues, sheer Ukrainian blues sounds here as well – as far as it is possible in general. However, I will not set to explain such feeling – you need to listen. Exactly, to listen – it is necessary.

Anton Jozhik Leyba (Hedgehog)