Smelly Feet Records Is A Music Platform Which Showcases Both Established And Up & Coming Artists.
No Specific Genre, Just Real Underground Music.
Smelly Feet Records Is A Music Platform Which Showcases Both Established And Up & Coming Artists.
No Specific Genre, Just Real Underground Music.
Exclusive Mix & Interview
July 21st, 2019
Perforated Cerebral Party
City: Saint-Petersburg
Country: Russia
Genre: Electronic / Techno
Label: Somatik Sound System
Welcome. Very glad to have you two as guests. Introduce yourselves to our audience. Anything special you would like them to know?
Probably the most important thing that readers should know is that there is a unique sound in Russia - Somatik. A hybrid at a speed of 90bpm where Bass, Techno, Psy, Dub and Hip-Hop influences are heard. Many schools and styles have influenced the Russian scene, America, Germany and England. In Russia, many musicians imitate classical styles, but Somatik is the only original phenomenon. The ancestors of this style is the PCP group and their friends and followers. Somatik is like everything at once and no matter what.
Somatik fans are a whole subculture with their own distinctive features. They call themselves the sect of a new hippie urban and made a tattoo in the form of an ancient Hindu symbol “Om” combined with the icon “Wi-Fi”. This modernized ancient sign as their symbol of faith. Futurism and the pursuit of post-humanism coexists with ancient philosophy. Adherents and admirers of Somatik Sound System have their own closed Internet communities numbering thousands of participants with their distinctive signs and rituals. This is a secret rave where hundreds of participants dance completely naked and decorate their bodies with fluorescent body art. This is a new Russian psychedelic subculture.
Let’s take it back for a moment. Tell us about when and how you two first met and how you started working together.
PCP is an Electronic music formation. Through the years, different artists took part in playing, producing and performing as part of the project. There are a lot of albums out with many musicians, Vovapcp has been constant in all these years. The latest and most stable version is the PCP you know - Vovapcp and Tsaritsa Logiki, on stage together since 2006.
We met a quarter of a century ago. It was instant recognition of love at first sight. If you wish, we didn’t know yet what we were going to create and accomplish, but we definitely seen that we go together in life, love and creation. At first it wasn’t music. We were doing nearly related things like organizing events and managing clubs.
"...when a man and a woman write music, this is their relationship in sound. Beat and bass - masculine. Melody and atmosphere - feminine."
Tell us about your Live setup and performance. What inspired you to start producing and performing this way?
It’s two people and two Akai MPC's on stage. We used MPC 2500 for a long time, but this year we switched to Akai MPC Live devices which is pretty much the same, but gives us a lot more options with producing straight with MPC and less desktop use
Working as a duo, how does one compliment the other? Any advice for artists working as two instead of one?
Now the Electronic musician has a huge choice of ways and means to express his idea. You can spend a lot of time in the selection of palettes and sounds. It is sometimes difficult for one to understand that a fragment, beat or musical phrase no longer needs to be worked out until it is ready. Sometimes brute-sounding options hinders the finalization of the composition. Working together does not get bogged down at this stage. Together it is easier to drop the excess. Of course, sometimes we argue. For example, about the sound of the snare drum and a way to figure it out. Use two snare drums. One in the first step, the other in the second and everyone is happy.
This dualism diversifies the style of our sound.
In general, when a man and a woman write music, this is their relationship in sound. Beat and bass - masculine. Melody and atmosphere - feminine. You can also compare the small details of the sound design with the elements of comfort with which the woman fills the interior of the house that the man has built.
Before Perforated Cerebral Party was formed, what solo projects were you involved with?
Vladimir had a Punk and indie band as a teenager. It is hard to call them serious projects but this was a necessary way for process and fasting. At the beginning of 10x, we released a somewhat conditionally “solo” EP. Separately, as Tsaritsa Logiki and Vovapcp, over whom, too, worked together but did as much as we wanted - whose projects we wrote and did not argue. Nastya sometimes plays both DJ bass and dubstep and very rarely techno sets from her vinyl collection.
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"...we deliberately distance ourselves from the lost content which has become a mass rave culture. We are looking for our own way."
Describe the electronic music scene in Saint Petersburg as you see it. Tell us about some of the venues that have shaped the cities nightlife.
Now the scene has become very big. We don't know it all. We follow those who are close to us. Behind the Bass scene, for example - The association in [Bass] with which the Somatik Sound System practically merged - we do together.
“Ghetto Psychedelic” parties and many members of our Sound System label are their residents. German Techno-culture has a strong influence on the electronic scene of St. Petersburg. Techno is mainstream. Big commercial Techno raves for a generation of middle-class hipsters. Rave has become the commercial machine of the world consumption, “generation Instagram” with large alcohol and tobacco sponsors. As independent artists, we deliberately distance ourselves from the lost content which has become a mass rave culture. We are looking for our own way. With our style, which is strange and not as popular as Techno, but we can confidently say that it is ours. We do it with our friends without being guided by any trends.
We and our like-minded people have their own base of “KPD” club. This is a fairly large three story club in the building of a former cable plant on the bank, in a place where the Neva River flows into the the Baltic Sea. We organize concerts, raves, performances and exhibitions of young artists. We are pleased that we have a base for our experiments and are independent of sponsorship money and can create without adjusting to the trends of the world of consumption.
Any future goals or upcoming projects you wish to speak upon?
Our main project is our group. Our label Somatik Sound System and club “KPD”. We are fully focused on it's development.
Perforated Cerebral Party, in a few sentences. Tell us about this mix you made for us. Where did you get your inspiration. Is there anything special you want the audience to know?
PCP is a continuous creative process. It is the process and not the final product. Products have an expiration date, and the process goes on. We just offer our viewers to watch it.
In Quantum Physics, there is the concept of the "observer" in the presence of which the wave becomes a particle. Something similar happens to our group. In the absence of an observer, we are just a wave, a set of probabilities. Our fans, our observers make us a group - a particle. This is what we show in our merchandise, a hoodie with an eye on the hood.
Inspiration is spread in the space where we live. We travel around this space and draw it from everywhere, as a fish passes water through it's gills and separates oxygen for life.
