Today Welcome to the 21st! releases their bold new album Dyatlov Pass which has had our eager ears waiting. Welcome to the 21st!’s historical concept album was written and conceived by Bob Blumenfeld (Guitars, from Texas, US) and Touanda (Vocals, from Manchester, UK), who met online AirGigs. The album was aided, mixed, and produced by John Dufilho a multi-instrumentalist and long-time indie music producer from Dallas, Texas. The rest of the instrumentation was mainly performed by, and mixed and produced by, John Dufilho a multi-instrumentalist, drummer, and long-time established indie music producer from Dallas, Texas. Bob’s other bands include The Disappearing Act and Lowdog. John is best known for his work with his band Deathray Davies.
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Dyatlov Pass is an 8-song historical concept album by Welcome to the 21st! about the mysterious fate of eight college-age students and their guide who died while on a winter trek in the USSR’s Ural Mountains in February 1959. The students were found over time after they disappeared, with varying injuries, and no one knows exactly what happened. It remains an open inquiry to this day. The theories as to what happened include an avalanche, a military test gone awry, and some even believe a malevolent supernatural intervention.
Robert Blumenfeld of the band shares:
“A few years ago, my good friend and former bandmate, Mark Mendel, gave me a nonfiction book about the Incident at Dyatlov Pass, a Soviet-era Russia unsolved mystery. If you haven’t heard of this, which most Americans haven’t, in February 1959, a group of eight students and their guide went missing on a winter trek through the Ural mountains. Search and rescue teams later found their empty tent pitched on a mountain side, sliced open, and a few frozen bodies, without shoes, laying some distance away. It took several months to find all the bodies and it has taken over 60 years to piece together what might have gone wrong. No one knows exactly what happened, and the forensic evidence discovered afterwards, for a lack of a better description, is really weird and creepy.
The album follows the 20-something nature travelers from meeting up before they left (“Hang on to Yourself”), to the early part of their voyage through a peaceful winter environment (“Sing to the Moon”), with hints of warnings along the way (“Warning Signs”). With the opening track “Hang on to Yourself” the group immediately set the tone for what’s to follow; mellifluent harmonies entangling with the slick, intricate grooves, all while fending off the impending doom emerging from the piercing reverb. And combined with the inspired addition of the scintillating dreamy riffs, I don’t feel Welcome to the 21st! could’ve kickstarted the album in better fashion.
The middle of the album tracks the group’s eventual demise near a frozen mountain pass (“Dyaltov Pass” and “Lost but Found”), to the search and recovery teams that looked for them (“Boots in the Rain”) and who have sought for years to determine what actually happened (“Misleading Clues”). A melodic masterpiece entwined with poignant lyricism, the album excels across all fronts, serving as the paradigmatic single to propel the band’s passionate and evocative songwriting to the mainstream.
Dyaltov Pass is able to be both powerful and melancholic, with the expert composition helping convey the potent themes in majestic fashion.
Dyatlov Pass was recorded over time at Clap of Thunder Studio (El Paso, Texas), Sonic Ranch (Tornillo, Texas), Elephant Cloud Studios (Dallas, Texas), and Pleasantry Lane Studio (Dallas, Texas).
As their most fulfilled album to date, Dyatlov Pass lays the foundation for the future of Welcome to the 21st!, whose dynamic approach ensures they exist as one of the most exhilarating bands. The band’s artistic power culminates in the record which exists as one expressive piece of art, setting the stage for Welcome to the 21st! Into the new year.
