Jazz Archives

“... the band is totally cool, intelligent and slightly enigmatic. They may be too strange to be embraced by rock masses, but everyone has full respect for the Refuseniks.”

“The band was formed in 1985 with a then-popular reggae/ska blend. Since then, they have gone through numerous stylistic changes, flirting with everything from free jazz to Russian folk. Their sound, however, has always been unique and immediately recognizable. Suslov’s rhythmic guitar work and unusual high-pitched vocals gives Polite Refusal’s music a precisely constructed, crystal-clear sound that is completely devoid of any of the extra noise so typical of rock-n-roll. The sound is so well organized that sounds almost academic.”

“In fact,” says Suslov, “we’ve always aimed at creating orchestral music, but guitars, piano and drums are the only instruments we have.”

“People usually label us as post-modernist, but we are not. All of our songs bear very little irony and are based on real-life experiences,”

Suslov says. "I’d rather call our work ‘naturalism’.”