When you go and put a didgeridoo on your album I for one am heartily predisposed to give it a spin (not you, Jamiroquai), and that instrument`s odd charm is one of many here. Trip is the third album from Moscow`s Grey mouse, whose line-up has been so fluid that apparently it`s even changed since this recording. This hour-long slab of music comprises drones, drums (or `drams` as they`re pleasingly mistyped on the sleeve) and drama. A creeping didge lulls you into a false sense of serenity before spunky singer Victoria Barsukova lets fly with a string of f– and c-bombs, Kirill Chunikhin`s battery kicks in and then, well, all hell breaks loose. Yet this is a trip of light and shade. In with Andrew Batalin`s chunky 70s-style guitar fills are gentle interludes featuring Maxim Shutikov’s sitar, harmonica and jaw harp. There’s an appealing organic, jammed fell to the compositions, and a live-sounding production job adds guts to the whole enterprise. Barsukova puts me in mind of another gutsy performer. District 97’s extraordinary Leslie Hunt. That band’s vibe is in here, along with a dash of SunnO))), Sabbath, and a tie-dyed spirit of adventure to which you can only say da.
GRM, PROG magazine №41


progarchives.com review by Kev Rowland:
"By the time Grey Mouse came back for their third album in 2013 there is no doubt they had been on quite a journey, but that is not the "trip" referred to in the title but instead is something of a rather more drug-induced nature. While the rhythm section of Alexey Chunikhin (bass) and Kirill Chunikhin (drums) were still around, there had been a significant change in both musicians and instruments. They had changed singers from male to female in Victoria Barsukova, now had guitarist Andrew Batalin and had brought in Maxim Shutikov (sitar, didjeridoo, jaw harp) who had obviously changed the sound quite dramatically. Herman Aleshin had returned as a guest (providing drone on one song) while they had also brought in a second sitar player in Andrew Bochko who plays on two.

Second track, "Villain?", seems to have everything from gentle small girl vocals to venom, experimentation to early Seventies hard rock, and a band which are obviously in control but are the only ones who actually know what is going on. They have managed to maintain some links with what the band was doing previously, even though only the rhythm section have been involved with the other albums yet have moved far more into experimental and progressive. The stoner elements are still there, but now with the knowledge that here is a band who are highly confident in what they are doing and no longer want to stay within the norms and instead are pushing boundaries. Victoria at times is so quiet that it is almost impossible to hear what she is either singing or saying, while at others she is on the crest of the wave and relishing what is going on beneath. "Ultima Thule" even brings in classic Indian stylings yet bringing in Western influences to turn it into something else. This is such an incredibly enjoyable album as it is easy to listen to yet is always changing and moving. "
www.progarchives.com/Review.asp?id=2777275



Italian arlequins.it review by Giovanni Carta:
"Sitar ed ancora sitar, un bel didjeridoo ed una fiera dose di chitarre elettriche, il tutto confezionato con “stupefacente” amore dai moscoviti Grey Mouse giunti con questo album alla loro terza prova discografica pubblicata nel 2012 e ristampata recentemente su smilzo ma dignitoso digipak cd od in alternativa una più gratificante edizione in lp (ma con qualche importante brano tagliato) uscita ancora nel 2014 per la greca 69 Watt/Anazitisi Records.
Divenuti nel tempo cult band nel giro stoner/heavy rock, presumibilmente poco noti alla maggioranza dei fruitori rock grazie alla loro provenienza vista ancora con un po' di sospetto e qualche pregiudizio, i Grey Mouse, formazione alquanto liquida, per questo giro quintetto pilotato dal chitarrista Andrew Batalin, dai fratelli (?) Chunikhin alla sezione ritmica, dal suonatore di sitar (oltre che didjeridoo ed armonica) Maxim Shutikov e dalla carismatica voce di Victoria Barsukova, dimostrano di avere le idee ben chiare sulla propria musica, intesa come esperienza lisergica e catartica, con un saggio sguardo al passato ed un’apprezzabile irruenza sonora…
Genericamente etichettabile come stoner rock, “Trip” è comunque di fatto un album di acid rock relativamente classico che ha la bontà di associare momenti alquanto e volutamente sopra le righe con passaggi strumentali altamente raffinati. Nei passaggi più spacey e desertici non si fanno mancare drones narcotizzanti ed inquieti, chitarre eteree e melodie visionarie speziate con tonalità jazz rock; la Barsukova interpreta bene il proprio ruolo di sacerdotessa rock pagana, specialmente quando si inserisce nelle trame esotiche ordite dal sitar, in scenari musicali desertici più affini alle lande dell’ex repubbliche sovietiche piuttosto che a quelle più rassicuranti della California, esotismi che rimangono comunque, direi anche per fortuna, strettamente vincolate nell’immaginario pop/psichedelico senza cadere in pericolosi percorsi world music/musica etnica. Traiettorie sonore elettriche che si orientano quindi attraverso una vasta nebulosa sonora fra Vespero, Colour Haze e le più tradizionali mosse sonore d’obbligo verso King Crimson e Black Sabbath.
La scelta di registrare il disco praticamente live in studio mette bene in evidenza il buon estro anarchicheggiante dei Grey Mouse e rappresenta in maniera onesta le loro capacità strettamente musicali… Quindi, una occasione per (ri)scoprire un altro buon gruppo del panorama musicale undeground russo/orientale, creativamente sempre piuttosto turbolento e ricco di proposte stimolanti ed estremamente interessanti."
www.arlequins.it/pagine/articoli/alfa/corpo.asp?ch=7363