This latest album by Moscow's Volga is a gloriously strange affair, bringing together electronic beats, Eastern instrumentation and the often other-worldly vocals of Angela Manukian.
The album begins with the somewhat eerie 'Reapers', which showcases Manukian's vocal wares at their most subdued, while a nebulous soundscape floats around her. This beatless opening number gives little indication of what's to come however: were it not for those singular, distinctive vocals, Pomol might be justifiably described as a techno pop album, but instead tracks like 'Kozel' sound like a kind of Bollywood reworking of Bjork's Debut.
Midway into the album, some of the band's more experimental tendencies are revealed by the crunching electronic weirdness of 'Svaha' and the 4/4 echo drone of 'Tausen'.
The album draws to a close with two tracks that represent the opposite ends of their broad stylistic spectrum, with the almost Tatu-like hyperactive electronic pop of 'Ropes' coming immediately before the abstract vocal piece 'Sufi', which harkens back to the album's impressive opening track.