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Soviet |
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Long Live the 80s It’s always a funny thing to write about a band that you’ve never seen and try to extrapolate how they might be live from what is on a record. I can tell you the history of a band like Soviet. Something like: despite the fact that Soviet debuted in 1999, and currently live in New York front man and singer Keith Ruggiero has been making recordings on a four track since the mid-90s at Syracuse. But what does that tell you? Lots of guys and gals create songs on four tracks. It’s kinda interesting, but does that information inspire you to buy the Soviet album or see their upcoming show at the Onopa? It might, I suppose, but that might not quite be enough for even the most adventurous music fan. On the other hand, I could begin to tell you about the record itself. For starters it’s another entry in the field of electroclash. If you have never heard of electroclash, I’m not going to go into it here, but you can get a primer by picking up any somewhat recent local publication – like this one for instance – and there is bound to be something about the genre. Supposedly it’s pretty hot right now, which means any truly hip publications have stopped writing about it because they invented the name years ago. This is Milwaukee. We have to wait to get all the hot trends. Sometimes we’re even spared the truly irrelevant ones, but that’s another story. In shorthand, electroclash could be called neo-wave, elecro-pop, synth-pop or new romantic just to give a smattering of comparisons. The closest comparison point for Soviet is new romantic which was a style that emerged in the 80s through bands like Talk Talk, Duran Duran or OMD that were heavily inspired by Bowie and Roxy Music. But the new romantics were inspired by the style as well as the music. Considering Soviet’s 2001 cd, We Are Eyes We Are Builders (Plastiq Musiq), has only pictures of empty anonymous hallways, we’re left with only the music to go on. Soviet are shoegazers in the extreme. The sound is almost flat-out of the 80s, so it’s hard to imagine that almost bubblegum synth sound could be so morose. And yet, it is. Frankly, listening to the record, one becomes aware of a sensation not unlike a time warp. In a sense, you’ve heard the record before, it was just scattered over a dozen records that were released in the mid-80s. Admittedly, that tells you nothing about their live show. Yet, the record is solid enough to lead me to believe that while it breaks absolutely no new ground, the work is made by folks with a genuine affinity for the style rather than a desire to catch the latest craze. But you shouldn’t trust my opinions any more than I would trust yours. So go, see for yourself if this electroclash thingie is all it’s cracked up to be or just another flash in the pan. You may end up loving it. If you end up hating it, you can salvage the night in years to come by irritating your kids, future kids, grandkids or the neighbor’s kids by telling them what it was like being in the middle of a music sensation. Like Woodstock, but on a much, much smaller scale. • -- This article was originally published in ThePRESS and http://thepressarchives.com. |
