Various Adventures with Small Animals: Moonoton and Ponty Mython

The elegantly understated St Petersburg project known as My Favourite Pet has just announced the forthcoming publication of some blissfully retrospective house tracks from Moonoton (aka Andrei Nikonorov). More specifically, audiences are soon to be offered an "amazing nu-disco sound based on early house grooves." Novelty is teased from fond melodies of the past, thanks in part to borrowed vocals from Moscow jazz and blues chanteuse Olga Ponomareva.

Adding to the general air of reinterpretation and gentle improvisation, various remixes will be included, too - and not only from the capital. Over and above the efforts of Sportloto (who recently moved 600 miles from Izhevsk to Moscow), we find dancefloor alternatives from Alexey Krjuk (who usually performs with Yekaterinburg's 7he Myriads) and Kievan house exponents, Zhiguli. A question seems to pose itself: what exactly in the raison d'etre of this project is finding such wide appeal?

A nu-disco sound based on early house grooves

That forthcoming Moonoton EP, it should be noted, will also involve the sounds of Ponty Mython, whose stage-name and identity can be explained in a few moments. Even without the overt support of these workplace colleagues, though, Moonoton/Nikonorov is already enjoying promotional assistance from another label-mate at My Favourite Pet, in other words the promising DJ who is known to a northern public as SPDSC (Saint Petersburg Disco Spin Club).

Moonoton (Andrei Nikoronov)

SPDSC attests to the success of Moonoton's recordings in the field, so to speak: "My girlfriend once asked me, 'What's that playing right now?' - only seconds into Moonoton's 'My Love Will Follow You.' That was all I needed to know! She has really good taste - and so I fell in love with the track, too... mere seconds afterwards. The original is a real classic. The remixes are going to be played and charted by some big names, I'm sure!"

From these brief opening paragraphs it's already clear that My Favourite Pet is blessed with a busy, familial ambience. A great deal is happening and the overall atmosphere is one of happy, voluntary collaboration. The risk of hyperbole in these snowballing endorsements is actually slim, since even the most enthusiastic words of encouragement are spoken in earnest. Any sense of security that's found in retrospection - and soundtracked to early house grooves - is admirably matched by a touching amity in the present.

I'm truly in love in '80s house music (Moonoton)

As we've mentioned before, Moonoton has no qualms in stating: "I'm truly in love in '80s house music." That passion for antique, understandably consoling sounds has - until recently - also been expressed though his secondary role as one half of Andrei and Eleonora. And that duo has likewise appeared on these pages before. 

Andrei and Eleonora

Mr. Nikonorov continues to tabulate his influences as cosmic disco, Krautrock, spacefunk, electro- or psychedelic rock, dirty disco, and - returning to outer space - galactic funk. All of those reference points recall the text we offered last year, when Andrei and Eleonora spoke in adoring tones of old-school pioneers such as Cerrone, Chaz Jankel, Harry Thumann, Gwen Guthrie, Larry Heard, and One Way.

Various incongruous elements line up in that manner and, en masse, create a variegated, yet signature sound. Just as the staff at St. Petersburg's RussianAdults webzine are fond of promising, "All shapes and sizes" are welcome from the musical world, since this digital endeavor is designed to operate on "a good-natured and convivial basis." Once again, friendship accounts for a great deal.

The love of Andrei and Eleonora specifically for cosmic disco, in fact, takes us back a little further in time, to those days before the birth of Euro-house. It's a style that began in Italy and from the outset was grounded in respectable sources, such as Brazilian and jazz-funk traditions. In an attempt, though, to get away from the growing mainstream horrors of Italo-disco, DJs of a "cosmic" leaning would deliberately play their records at the wrong speed - either too slow or too fast. Commitment and silliness, therefore, were never too far apart; a big smile became a form of defense against marketplace cynicism.

Moonoton: "My Love Will Follow You"

These and other issues have just arisen in an interview with Nikonorov for the Russian press. At one point during the conversation, he is asked about his employment with (and hopes for) My Favourite Pet. The interviewer remarks that the project's logo of varied, usually strange animals leaves an impression of "funny little beasts" running all over the place. Multiple, incongruous elements have lined up, broken into celebratory or unpredictable movement, and then, en masse, fashioned a harmonious tone! Reality gives way to the logic of animation, so to speak.

Hence the odd figures on display - in several senses - including the small rodent that now appears on all the label's artwork. Nikonorov agrees that these miniature mammals are a wonderful social metaphor: "Yes - they're really pleasing little beasties."

First and foremost, perhaps, in this toytown menagerie is Aleksandr Pletnev (below), known to us both as one half of the excellent duo Ifwe and as founder of the entire My Favourite Pet endeavor. At one step's remove from Ifwe's bedroom lyricism, Pletnev also spins his own version of nostalgic house - under the aforementioned stage-name of Ponty Mython. As he outlines his idiosyncratic worldview, we'll see that friends, colleagues, and "beasties" all come together to mutual benefit - and in networked systems of charity. 

Ponty Mython (Aleksandr Pletnev, St. Petersburg)

From this performer's catalog we're told to expect "a primitive '90s bass line, simple disco beats, and short, jazzy vocal samples." Together they weave the sort of happily unfocused worldview (with only the vaguest sense of chronology) that operates within the Ifwe recordings, too. When asked about the wistful, markedly childlike tone that informs all these compositions and cartoons, Pletnev recently declared:

There are so many contradictions between 'adult existence' and what strikes me as 'a happy life'

"Judging by my age, I should've become an adult long ago... but, to be honest, it's a frightening thought. There are so many contradictions between 'adult existence' and what strikes me as 'a happy life.' But an element of infantilism is probably inherent in anybody who hopes to 'be themselves' [come what may]..." According to that same logic, individuality is best expressed by refusing to enter the faceless processes of "grown-up" social enterprise. The decelerated DJ-ing of cosmic house adopts a second, overtly civic resonance here - as an ability to manipulate the passage of time. 

Selfhood, in other words, is well served by playing variations upon past (stable) themes and prior practice. The rationale behind retro-house indeed starts to grow clearer. 

Pletnev even speaks about erstwhile, pre-adult events as "a kind of anchor. Happy emotions grab hold of all that... We're probably doing the same kind of thing as [Evgenii] Grishkovets, only with more reverb on the voice!" Grishkovets is a nationally famous raconteur and playwright, whose minimalist shows usually consist of a simple, yet honest character musing on the past. Events of one's youth or childhood are distilled to the point where they consititute almost painful clarity: life's truest lessons are, for many of us, the very first that we encounter. Grishkovets' sentimental narratives contain high levels of charm and practical application, even, in a land where adult existence appears so tricky. 

Let’s simplify things to the n-th degree… so the stories’ endings are always the same

Grishkovets' drama might be termed a kind of naïf register or form of childish reductionism, perhaps. It's all constructed in a style that is echoed elsewhere, say in the music and film soundtracks of Igor' Vdovin, or the animation of Ezhi i Petruchcho. The latter’s creator, Andrei Andrianov, says he wants a style “that couldn’t possibly be any simpler. Let’s simplify things to the n-th degree… so the stories’ endings are always the same.”