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Last summer we took a look at the work of Flu GI from the Moscow suburb of Lobnya, followed by their side-project Terra Fantastica in December. Seemingly alternating between these two outfits, Nikita Kouznetsov has now swung his attention back to the former: Flu GI have a brand new album for the public, entitled (somewhat mysteriously) "Pesstrekh Day." It is available both on CD and as a download. As with the band's previous work, it does not fit easily into one any of the core categories upon which it clearly draws: dance (as hip-hop), rock (as a "hardcore trash-attack"), or pop (as lo-fi techno).
This difficult process of classification is made no easier by a couple of additional conditions. Firstly - as has long been the case - the band's official website, although attractively designed, remains almost completely devoid of information. Secondly, many of the tracks on "Pesstrekh Day" reference aspects of popular or commercial culture, simply in order to abuse them. Knee-deep in mass or popular phenomena, this new recording refuses to stand still, wading back and forth in order to do maximum damage to its objects of attention.
It exists within pop, yet remains actively (if not stubbornly) apart.
The ever-contrary CD opens with a nine-second, one-line track, declaring the arrival of Flu GI as "medicinal music with pineapple chunks." That same phrase has been used for a few promo-texts, such as: "Flu GI! This is super hip-hop from Lobnya... in fact it's avant-garde, experimental hip-hop. There are only two members, but they sound like an entire orchestra. Their music is medicinal..." and then we lapse into more discussion of fruit.
Flu GI! This is super hip-hop from Lobnya... in fact it's avant-garde, experimental hip-hop. There are only two members, but they sound like an entire orchestra. Their music is medicinal...
Quite why we're dealing with tropical delicacies at this time of the year goes unexplained, but the reference to pineapples in the Russian context certainly brings to mind people such as Igor' Severianin.
A turn-of-the-century poet, Severianin wrote of such pre-Revolutionary excesses as "pineapples in champagne" for two reasons. He both reveled in and reviled the "vulgar," commercialized excesses of middle-class urban Russia. The same could be said of Flu GI, paying equal attention to levels of both pleasure and pain in modern praxis.
From one or two well-hidden articles online, we learn that "Pesstrekh Day" was actually recorded before the band's previous album, "Lobnya Calling." Putting these recordings side-by-side, and bearing in mind the band's chronological inversions, one Russian webzine recently made the following remarks. "If Flu GI did not exist, somebody would surely have to invent them. As if born to play this role, they fit both easily and successfully into a strange niche between rock and hip-hop; this, until recently, was a space occupied almost exclusively by [Petersburg hip-hop trio] Kirpichi. But... whereas Kirpichi operate in a very straightforward manner, Flu GI are a couple of self-assured wise guys who're really hard to define. Their kind of music needs to be listened to several times; you need to pay attention to every word, if you want to keep up with their intricate lines of thought."
Rather than wear their heart on their sleeve, Flu GI prefer to sport a dictionary on their forearm.
"So how do you make an album like 'Pesstrekh Day'? Take a concept and chop it into big pieces. Crumble some rhythms, poetry, metaphors, and wit over the top. Grind in some cockiness and sarcasm. Slice some post-punk and mix it all together with electronica. Add a touch of conceptualism, existentialism, and references to masturbation... according to your taste. Fold it into some liquid forms of weighty significance. Boil the whole thing 'til you're blue in the face. When the liquid has entirely evaporated, take a fresh CD from the bottom of the pot. And there you have it, guys: it's all ready!"
Hot off the press and hot to the touch.
The same article wonders whether the new CD, although admirably innovative, might be a little over-complicated, given that these two young men are trying to sound "like an entire orchestra."A recent interview, published both by the entertainment listings "Look at Me" and the net-label "Drugoy Hip-Hop," tried to bring some clarity to the situation. Logically enough, the chat began with the question: "Who is this 'Pesstrekh'? Where did the name come from?" The band replied: "It's 100% from our dreams! It's rather like the Surrealists' principle of 'putting reason to sleep and descending into waves of reverie.' There are all kinds of waves or air-flows, various aerodynamic disturbances...."
It's 100% from our dreams! It's rather like the Surrealists' principle of 'putting reason to sleep and descending into waves of reverie.' There are all kinds of waves or air-flows, various aerodynamic disturbances....
As we've mentioned before, Flu GI live close to a local airport, the sounds from which are very intrusive. One kind of commercial, airborne traffic is (hopefully) being sidelined by a private and penniless flight of fancy.
The effort involved in ignoring urban ugliness, though, is clearly enough to work up a sweat.
"'Pesstrekh Day' is a day when all [mindless, impersonal, and urban] systems will come to a halt for sixty seconds..." That imagined moment of immobility would presumably allow society's members to see - for the first time - the kind of insidious practices that constitute their daily lives. And indeed, the contents of this new album have been called "Fourteen short stories on the subject of temptation in an age of technocratic, reptilian existence..." Those stories or songs are, we're informed, "all organized according to some pretty generic rules; you've got an opening, dramatic development, a culmination, and then something to wrap it all up. This is medicinal music."
It cures most ailments, save a few minor visual problems.
A familiar reference to medicine returns, albeit this time with a little less vagueness. We're offered an aphoristic expression: "Only the Tempted Can Be Gifted." In the context of what we've just been told about reptilian existence and narrative development, it seems reasonable to suggest that Flu GI are keen to show listeners the vile charms or temptations of lizard-life consumerism, in order that those same listeners then become sufficiently "gifted" to avoid them. Again the double-edged decadence of Severianin comes to mind.
In composing these critiques of excess, the duo leaned heavily on the tunes and technology of the '80s, another decade that saw more than its fair share of glossy mercantilism.
"It took use three months to write the album. We'd get up some time around 1pm, sit around on the balcony, and get to work only by 5pm. We'd start writing... but we had nothing pre- or half-prepared beforehand. In other words, we did nothing except write and record music for three whole months. We decided that we'd work in the spirit of the '80s, so we got hold of some analog synths. A friend of ours gave us a Roland TR909 drum machine for a couple of days. From time to time we messed around on a Yamaha DX7, too. Most of the work was done on a PC, though."
The cost of such equipment, even as second-hand or antique items, made furniture a costly luxury.
And so, day after sleepy day, these fourteen tales of social breakdown came together. If, however, they're designed to make a social statement, why - asked the journalist - are there places on the CD where the vocals are inaudible? The band responded with a wry smile: "That's a little trick of ours. It means that our listeners are left with a sense of unsolved mystery... Lots of people will, as a result, want to try and solve that intrigue. Only after listening to certain passages over and over will they be able to reveal the true, full meaning of the tracks." Only by getting closer to the nasty details of reptilian life will we know them well enough to steer clear.
Hence, perhaps, the pineapple chunks - designed to sweeten the taste of a bitter antidote to society's ills. Heads hang low in contemplation of troubled times, while a neighbor investigates the new album.
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