Dialogue were one of the first recognized professional art-rock formations in the USSR. The band's roots go back to 1974, when Kim Breitburg, a singer and a keyboard player, gathered his first band with more or less constant line up in Mykolaiv, Southern Ukraine. The four-piece band roamed about the country for a couple of years, until in 1978 it settled in Donetsk and became an official unit of the local philarmonic society. By that time, Dialogue almost completely abandoned performing covers of Western rock hits, and concentrated on Breitburg's own compositions which became the core of the band's repertoire. "I am a Man" is one of the earliest recorded efforts of the band. It features a 41 minutes long concept rock suite based on lyrics by Justinas Marcinkevičius, a contemporary Lithuanian poet. Somewhat evocative of art-rock epics by Yes or Genesis, the album has a distinctly symphonic feeling, but at the same time shows Breitburg's strong interest in hard-rock, space rock and new wave music. Surprisingly, although the marriage of symphonic art-rock with hard/new wave is what probably gave birth to neo-prog, "I am a Man" sounds nowhere like a typical neo-prog album. To the best of my knowledge, this album hasn't been in circulation on anything other than tape until a couple of years ago the full anthology of Dialogue was released on CDs in Russia. The original cover (if it ever existed) is not available, the photo depicts the band's leader Kim Breitburg.
The link is to be found in the comments.
Without Dialogue the life is not good.
ReplyDeleteThank your for this rare album.
If this is what I think it is,I have it on CD.
ReplyDeleteIt even has the translations from the lyrics.
Released on WMMS 006 in 1989.
Cheers,
Hugo
(I will scan the cover for you tomorrow)
Thanks for your feedback, Hugo. I believe WMMS 006, namely "I PUT THE SPELL ON THE FIRE", is something else. Same band, yes, but different material, and, importantly, different sound. I will give it another shot one of these days and, if it turns out to be decent stuff, will post it here as well. The cover scan would be really appreciated.
ReplyDeleteAh,I'll download this one then to see what it's like.
ReplyDeleteI also had The Cry of The Hawk by Dialog (they dropped the "Dawn" from their name by then).
A mediocre AOR like album which I sold.
Hugo
I wouldn't recommend anything recorded by Dialogue after 1985 to a prog lover. It is all mostly AOR or hard-rock of dubious quality. I haven't heard The Cry of The Hawk, but I can imagine what kind of music it is from sampling over some other albums by Dialogue of that time.
ReplyDelete