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On September 19th, 2009 the Rusty Pop label, based just outside of Moscow, will be celebrating six years of concerted effort with a Festival of Independent Music, operating under the title "13:30." To set the stage for the event - at least in terms of mood and general outlook - the folks at Rusty Pop have employed a phrase or two from Bruce Lee. Translated back into English, they read: “Empty your mind, be formless, even shapeless - just like water. Now you put water into a cup, it becomes the cup, you put water into a bottle, it becomes the bottle, you put it in a teapot, it becomes the teapot. Now water can flow or it can crash. Be water, my friend.”
Empty your mind, be formless, even shapeless - just like water.
In that state, anything can happen. And indeed it might, for the label sees itself - even after this lengthy period of work - as the embodiment of (unrealised) potential: "After six years, you'd think that a project would already have made it onto TV and the radio. Noooo... things aren't that simple!" The reason for some of their problems - perhaps - can be traced to several of the label's earliest concerts, when the Moscow police were summoned after accusations that the Rusty Pop musicians were playing music at a frequency to "destroy people's minds." These events are now part and parcel of the label's history.
And so to the future and a sense of common purpose among various "destructive" artists. When it comes to the matter of a shared style among massed subversives, we are referred back - in some karmic fashion - to the Bruce Lee quote once again. Fluidity and change are uppermost. Variety and metamorphoses are admirable traits of any label, but how does one brand multiplicity?
How is movement given a singular focus?
Hence the celebratory concert, in order to bring multiple activities into one venue - at least for a few hours before they, too, "as water," move off along numerous independent trajectories. Next week these shifting and subversive sounds will be lauded en masse, giving the capital's public a very rare chance to see them all under one roof.
In Moscow's Aktovyi zal a large number of groups associated either directly or tangentially with the label will not only be playing music; the gig as a whole will hopefully be committed to film, too, and then shown at several European and/or North American venues. In the same spirit of a briefly fixed or focused moment, each and every person attending will be given a CD to celebrate Rusty Pop's birthday. It contains several bands of whom we have already written, and some more that are equally worthy of attention. Five of them are included in this post. Together they constitute an aural equivalent of the CD's artwork, shown below.
Organizing, advertising, and recording the busy multiplicity of Moscow's non-commercial output is a major managerial task. The image here acts as fitting testament to the chaos at hand: mismatched fonts, tumbling text, and graffiti scribbled at breakneck speeds.
One would expect this world of heady, hedonistic dedication to be clamorous. In fact, one of the strangest aspects of Rusty Pop's work is how little noise there is surrounding some of these bands. Far from the world of commercial savvy, there is no slick PR, no primetime advertising. Nothing more than handfuls of well-placed stickers in the subway. The lack of cynical promotional materials may be a blessing, but this modesty - so far from anything resembling a "campaign" - can easily become a complete lack of any activity whatsoever. Hence the value of Rusty Pop in urging these musicians to keep producing bleeps, squeaks, and scratches in the absence of any "sensible" or fiscally pragmatic goal.
Take, for example, the promising foursome Homepage, represented on the new compilation. Although having been in existence for three years, the band does almost nothing to further its own cause online. Look at their materials at LastFM. Here we learn - in their own English, with little time for punctuation - that "this band was formed in Moscow (Russia) they are together since winter 2006. The music they play is some kind of punk-rock/powerpop/indie. At the moment they are at work on their debut EP." This text is now rather old, to say the least, since the band's album was actually released in September of last year. That, too, appeared with amazingly little fanfare from the people who made it. These musicians list Weezer, Rancid, and Led Zeppelin among their influences, but seem loathe to make similar noises in their PR department.
Other more pressing concerns take precedence. Such as lying down and smiling.
When that debut LP came out, the only information provided by Homepage was that "it costs 100 rub + bonus (limited edition). All questions re: how to get a copy should be directed to Rusty Pop." A track listing, a description of the "bonus" material, even the vaguest mention of the band's credo... all of this was missing. Or, more accurately, it simply didn't exist.
A possible hint at the rationale - or mindset - behind this silence lies in the admiration for Boards of Canada that we see among several Rusty Pop bands. Even potential noise-makers like Homepage include these whispering, rural ambient sounds from distant Scotland among their influences. Take, by way of illustration, DJ Qusok, shown below. He, too, is represented on the new compilation and will be playing at the birthday gig. His contribution to the CD is the track "Elektroworld," a title that might suggest the nervous, mechanical energy of early Kraftwerk. Instead we get an appealing, but somewhat sleepy piece of trip-hop: the soundtrack to a day that has not yet begun.
Qusok's online presence is just as tiny. His blog is empty, since he also is a man of horizontal intent.
Qusok represents a group of DJs in Moscow who go by the collective name of Homelistening. That moniker alone might lead us to anticipate more sleepy endeavors - and we'd be right. Their webpage won't open because of presumed malware; nobody is rushing to fix things. We can, having braved such dangers, nonetheless tell you that the organization is a relatively recent formation of clubs, DJs, cafes, and restaurants around the capital.
The fundamentally anonymous managers of Homelistening are allegedly able to organize concerts, exhibitions, poetry evenings, parties, festivals, and various other "contests." Some of the founding members, such as Qusok, used to be break-dancers in their younger years, but now direct their zeal towards other realms: "Funk and lounge, techno, and trip-hop..." As the list continues, the genres get slower. In fact the last documented influence on Homelistening's MySpace page is Blue Note. We travel in a few seconds from the hormonal twitching of 90s' hip-hop to the stately, adult elegance of Blue Note.
And Boards of Canada. Again the sounds of nature predominate over anything resembling focused enterprise. Sounds are found, rather than actively made. Music is a matter of chance discovery.
How, then, to muster all these sleepy individuals and force/invite them to make the noise of which they are patently capable? If we add together the total number of acts and performers in Rusty Pop's care, the number is close to fifty(!). Major organizational skills are evidently needed. And this, in essence, is the wonder of the label's activities. Rather than take pushy, paternal responsibility for the long-term "care and guidance" of these performers, the lead figures at Rusty Pop see their duties more in "evental" terms. They bring unrelated elements together for brief periods of activity... and then let the constituent elements fall or "flow" - in Lee's terms - back in their place(s). Today's Moscow is not an environment that's conducive to long-term planning and, in any case, the bands in question - as we see - are not of a mindset that makes goal-oriented activity terribly likely.
The High-Speed Kings (offered above) are a stupendously raucous collective, but as their name and live shows suggest, these are not forces that will happily stay seated for long... Their moniker alone could be paraphrased as Monarchs of Movement.
Every parent's nightmare.
These fifty people need to be coaxed into one venue. A cow-prod might be a good investment. Once this work is done, the fluid passage(s) of an event can take place over any prestigious past or promising, linear future. The present is uppermost, as a moment of potential. This outlook has already been properly contextualized by the chosen venue, the aforementioned Aktovyi zal, which has now been in operation since 2006. That's the same pedigree as Homepage (shown above at AZ), yet this 900-day period has been spent in a slightly more orderly fashion. "Aktovyi zal presents not only plays, films, and music. It also takes direct part in the city's creative processes. The venue supports today's young artists, directors, and performers from all manner of genres. Aktovyi zal directs considerable attention to the areas beyond Moscow's city limits, together with international exchange projects. Over and above these activities, we also offer our buildings to any individuals wishing to arrange professional lecture series, seminars, and master classes."
That is the sound of organization.
It's precisely what's needed to appreciate the disorderly wonder of other Rusty Pop outfits, like †B†C†B† (shown above and below). Here's how the Moscow duo frames itself for public consumption. "The twosome was formed in Moscow, back in the autumn of 2008. The permanent lineup consists of Bruno B**tard (bass, producing, vocals) and Daniel Debauch (aka Fat B**tard), who provides backing vocals and drums. The ensemble has no time for a lead guitarist. Instead these two guys rely on an absolute minimum number of instruments: a bass guitar and drum kit."
From Day One the band has actively refused the symbolism of a "lead" member; instead they prefer the wayward, visceral clamor of a "base" and wholly rhythmic foundation. All manner of Darwinian or evolutionary quips suggest themselves at this point, together with another opportunity to remark how these and related attitudes towards music-making are clearly uninterested in self-management.
The band's contribution to the birthday album is called "Vicious Truck" - the sound of malicious hardware, the soundtrack (quite literally) to a heavy load with absolutely no destination.
†B†C†B† even go out of their way to make sure that anybody representing a singular direction, common sense, or logical interpretation of their music is deliberately burdened with maximum inconvenience. "Some people say that the two founding members of †B†C†B† met at a Nirvana concert. Bruno and Daniel themselves sometimes joke that they met in prison. Or maybe on a pirate ship. Perhaps in a gay bar... and that's the way they deliberately confuse both journalists and their fans."
They deliberately confuse both journalists and their fans.
The further we travel down the list of Rusty Pop bands, into projects such as the dreamy trip-hop of Moscow's 813 (above), two things become clear(er). Rusty Pop remains one of Moscow's most interesting and impressively "decentered" labels, from a generic point if view. Secondly, its organizers - such as Nikita Kuznetsov - deserve major state awards for their managerial efforts. There's a glorious romanticism at work here, in the celebration of brilliant, short-lived transience, and an obvious disdain for profiteering. As we've mentioned before, many of Rusty Pop's CDs come in hand-made covers. All the same, though, these flash points of excellence coalesce only after long (long!) preparations.
Visit the concert if you possibly can. As Bruce Lee tells us, all things revert to a shapeless flow in time. And in the world's biggest country (where there's plenty of room for aimless wandering!), people and projects can so easily disperse.
Thank heavens the water is frozen.
PS: The label would love to see members of the press - and are more than happy to provide complementary tickets. All enquiries should be addressed to Sergei at (8)916-459-33-48.
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