Shortparis presented a battle video for the single "Moscow Speaks" - idea, background, recording
Содержание
On May 1, 2021, the St. Petersburg group Shortparis published the video “Moscow Speaks” on its YouTube channel: a slightly gloomy video in which the band members demonstrate their combat training gained more than 250 thousand views in just a few days ... All comments are mostly enthusiastic. Well, we can say that it was a gift to all listeners and just Russian aesthetes from Shortparis in honor of Labor Day. By the way: the music video was filmed by the band members themselves. As in the previous works of the group, there is a lot of choreography and marches here! Soviet images are mixed with the attributes of modernity... References to French surrealism and the march of the foreign legion have earned special attention. Where did it all begin? Let's find out below...
About the song: how did it all begin?
The most interesting thing is that initially “Moscow Speaks” was a song in ... French! And yes: it was in this format that Shortparis performed it during rehearsals for more than six months ... It is worth noting that the text of this anthem is completely abnormal for official, state songs ... For example, the “blood sausage”, which was discussed in the early version, is a reference to the anthem French Foreign Legion ("Le Boudin"). What do Shortparis themselves say about their creation? Let's listen:
“We soon named our song “Counterattack” for three good reasons. First of all, it's really a beautiful word. Secondly, the counterattack is an element of defense. And thirdly, this was the name of the circle of radical left revolutionary intelligentsia founded in France in the 1930s ... "
“It can be added that the counterattack is a completely atypical revolutionary association organized by recognized writers, artists and philosophers. Armed with "revolvers" and leaving the boundaries of the "aesthetic", these people invaded the political ... At the head of all this was the surrealist Andre Breton, who proposed a completely new revolutionary tactic: to hit the subconscious of the masses in order to bring them to the necessary emotional excitement ... "
Shortparis also emphasized that it is really very important for them to draw a parallel between abstract ideas and real mass actions in society ... But why was the song originally written in French suddenly performed in Russian? As the band members themselves put it, “the mouth is tired of singing French words”:
“These words got in the way in the language, got stuck in my teeth, I wanted to spit them out ... Whether it’s a Russian text that proudly sweeps over the music ... Moscow crushed Paris! Modern Russia has triumphed over the mind games of the past... And most of the meanings, like the title of the song itself, have been reworked... This often happens to us. And thank God…”
“... Fear of a revolver
It's like faith
Eternal measure
Our love
And discipline
This is the reason
Said the man
Out to the wall
The decision is mature
The rifle sang
There is only business
It's about the price…”
Music video
The music video for the song was filmed by the members of Shortparis on their own: the cameraman Gleb Neupokoev was responsible for filming. The video is full of both Soviet images and attributes of the modern world ... Here, as always, there are a lot of dance numbers, militaristic aesthetics and merciless Russian anarchism ... Shortparis musicians are marching, and also demonstrating their combat training!
Of course, this work refers to French surrealism and the march of the foreign legion...
Finally…
Shortparis is a unique musical project of contemporary artists... These guys do not recognize the trends of the modern scene: their goal is to search for original musical and artistic solutions on their own! The group was formed in 2012. The main musical directions of Shortparis are post-pop, pop-noir, avant-pop, experimental... As the audience and critics note, each live performance of this band goes beyond just a musical performance... Shortparis already has prestigious music awards in its collection, and the number of their subscribers on YouTube is growing inexorably!
Before the release of “Moscow Speaks”, these guys also took part in the creation of the tribute album “Keep My Speech Forever” dedicated to the 130th anniversary of the birth of Osip Mandelstam ...
According to the poems of the poet, they created the composition "This night is irreparable."
