I must confess I had never seen, nor heard of Little Fyodor until his CD Live @ XX-Day crossed my desk. Apparently, he has been around for some time. In the early to mid-eighties, he was in a band named Walls of Genius, which seems to have broken up due to them beginning to take the music too seriously. Just from looking over the press release, and before listening to the CD, it is obvious that Little Fyodor is the antithesis to seriousness.
If you require your music to be, well, music-like, then Little Fyodor is not for you. However, if you have a strong sense of the absurd, then you have found your messiah. It is impossible to write a straight review of his music. To do so would only serve to make me look foolish and mean, because you can’t take someone’s work seriously when they don’t themselves. I could comment on his song structure (none), his singing (if you want to call it that), or his lyrics (often nonsensical), but the only thing that would prove is that I’ve missed the point entirely.
Little Fyodor is a freak-show, and he knows it. He and his keyboardist Babushka, who looks exactly like the image that word conjures up, revel in peculiarity. This man has taken in the many oddities, which reside in humanity. He owns them. He gets up on stage and puts them on display for anyone willing to see. In this way, he provides absolution to us all for our own idiosyncrasies.
In a slightly different world, I see Little Fyodor as an immensely popular children’s singer. He would have to tone down lyrics such as “you give me a hard-on,” but he has the silliness that appeals to children and lunatics. Live @ XX-Day gave me a headache. I had to purge myself afterward with hours of Mozart, just to remind myself that there is beauty in music, but I get the feeling that it is all part of his plan. Despite this, should I notice that he is playing nearby, I will be drawn to the show, if only for a little while.
