Greetings, Gentlefemmes.
In the beginning...
"In the Middle"
Their first video. I love the way we move from a Disney version of "street style" to BDSM-couture and stilettos (a progression of ever more queerness); the way that the voices don't align consistently with the faces; the way that the one-note melody of the main vocal hook ("in the middle") is at odds with the implied harmonic foundation (a perfect fourth above the tonic); the brilliant sample of the gasping voice that is blended into a synth hook, as well as the sharp inhalations/exhalations that become part of the rhythm track. After several years, they're still out there, and have released two "albums."
Their first video. I love the way we move from a Disney version of "street style" to BDSM-couture and stilettos (a progression of ever more queerness); the way that the voices don't align consistently with the faces; the way that the one-note melody of the main vocal hook ("in the middle") is at odds with the implied harmonic foundation (a perfect fourth above the tonic); the brilliant sample of the gasping voice that is blended into a synth hook, as well as the sharp inhalations/exhalations that become part of the rhythm track. After several years, they're still out there, and have released two "albums."
"Crazy Law"
[Trivia: the clip was shot in the now-abandoned Murru Prison, a Soviet-era prison/labor camp in northern Estonia.]
Yes, they're not Russian (they're Ukrainian, although I believe Artur was born in Armenia) - but that hasn't stopped them from commenting (not so) obliquely on Russian legislation. Who knew that electroclash/synthcore/neo-new-wave could be so socially committed?
[Trivia: the clip was shot in the now-abandoned Murru Prison, a Soviet-era prison/labor camp in northern Estonia.]
Yes, they're not Russian (they're Ukrainian, although I believe Artur was born in Armenia) - but that hasn't stopped them from commenting (not so) obliquely on Russian legislation. Who knew that electroclash/synthcore/neo-new-wave could be so socially committed?
(Neo-new-wave indeed; I can't listen to the vocals of the "chorus" without hearing this. Hurrah, another excuse to invoke the 80s.)
(And for fun - try to figure out the vaguely unintelligible lyrics. Others have tried - with humorous consequences.)
It's not just that they are so visually delicious (although they are sure to make men as insecure about their bodies as the beauty "industry" and male scopophilia have done to women for decades centuries), or that they are stunning examples of so many post-s (-modern, -human, -gender, -Soviet) - many of their songs are actually quite good (thanks in part to their slick, sick production). I originally assumed they were simply dancers lip-synching to tracks laid down and composed by other musicians/vocalists, but turns out that two of the members - Artur and Kirill - are responsible for most of the songwriting, and that they and Oleg provide most of the vocals.
Of the original four - Oleg, Stas, Kirill, Artur - three were gay, one was straight, and two were lovers. All are (obviously) trained dancers. Oleg, the main choreographer, is apparently still associated with the group, but doesn't perform in their new videos; Stas has left for the second time, and has been replaced with Artemii, so the quartet - for now- has become a trio.
"What You Gonna Do"
Hot track, and really gorgeous video (which, as always, makes me think of "you and you and Gareth Pugh").
How about a smackdown with these guys?
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