I only found out about this yesterday, and given that the main act might sound a bit like Monozid, and have travelled a long way to get here, I really think I should make the effort and get my arse out. But with so little time to check things out, I have no idea what I'm really going to get.
I wasn’t expecting the support act to be from Moscow as well! Looks like we’re in for a Russian evening!
The opening notes from this boy-girl duo are distinctly post-rock, but the laptop backing is rather synthpop. As soon as Oskana kicks in, I’m starting to reach for Bat for Lashes or La Roux references.
6th gig ever, claims Oskana in a way that suggests she’s about as calm and controlled as a rather small girl in a rather large candy shop.
I’m not a great one for love songs, but when they’re performed by 2 people who’ve clearly written them about each other with such charm and such naivety, the emotion just somehow spills out. (There is a lesson to be learnt there by a couple of local acts I can think of. No names...)
Yes, it’s naff, cheap synthpop, but it’s done properly with some great melodies, and that fresh-out-of-the-bedroom charm that prove that more “serious” acts like the XX have somehow missed the point.
Pure, honest, and not overproduced. Big grins all round, and that’s just the starter.
There’s got to be a good story behind that name, but these four youthful Muscovites aren’t stopping to tell it.
The opening songs make me think of Editors – driving bass, shimmering guitar, and a fabulous baritone, but they’re strangely poppy with it.
They manage to plough through a very positive and upbeat set without being irritating. I’d noticed this with Monozid (with whom they share a lot of common influences) – they dare to do Post-Punk and go almost opposite of the doom and gloom you normally get, certainly in Belgium. (anyone remember the Lotus Eaters?)
The drummer had a touch of Stephen Morris about him (not just in the looks). And if you’d stuck a synth in over the top of “Baltic Sea”, you would have been forgiven for thinking it was a obscure Sad Lovers and Giants cover.
It’s always very revealing to hear what covers people play, and their version of Eurhythmic’s
“Here Comes The Rain Again” has be thinking SLaG (again) and The Chameleons at times.
No point in braying for an encore, as the bass amp has stopped amping half way through the last song, but some credit must go to the organisers who’ve managed to get the DNA almost half full, quite an achievement for an unknown out-of-town band on a Monday night when it’s 7 below freezing.
In these days of social media and information overload, where everyone is talking and has something to say, it pays to clap your trap and listen.
Summer in Crimea. Like.
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