{"id":46406,"date":"2024-06-13T15:33:05","date_gmt":"2024-06-13T13:33:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/novastan.org\/en\/?p=46406"},"modified":"2024-10-27T12:20:37","modified_gmt":"2024-10-27T11:20:37","slug":"sex-drugs-and-postpunk-the-new-album-of-bishkeks-duo-vtoroi-ka","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/novastan.org\/en\/culture-sports\/sex-drugs-and-postpunk-the-new-album-of-bishkeks-duo-vtoroi-ka\/","title":{"rendered":"Sex, Drugs, and Postpunk &#8211; the new album of Bishkek&#8217;s Duo Vtoroi Ka"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><strong>Bishkek musical duo Vtoroi Ka has recently dropped its third album: carnivalesque postpunk in a world where nothing is as serious as it seems. Novastan&#8217;s review.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>&#8220;<em>These post-Soviet cities have already seen quite some nonsense\/ But after seeing our Kyrgyz squad up close\/ the lockdown has been abruptly enacted for some reason<\/em>&#8220;, says the chorus of the single <em>&#8220;Vstrechyaite Govnyukov&#8221; (&#8220;Welcome the shitheads&#8221;)<\/em>, released in February 2023. The <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=VP5JqVO6Mc8\">retro-aesthetic video<\/a> shows an exuberant wedding party stirring up the Kyrgyz capital Bishkek. The audience has been warned: the &#8220;shitheads&#8221; are coming to cause a lot of trouble.<\/p>\n\n\n\t\t\t<div class=\"hp-newsletter col-span-3 lg:col-span-1 flex flex-col bg-primary-100 border-t-8 border-secondary-500 rounded-lg justify-center items-center lg:items-stretch px-6 py-6 gap-4 box-border\">\n\t\t\t<div class=\"flex\">\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"enveloppe\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<i class=\"far fa-envelope text-5xl text-secondary-300\"><\/i>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"formulaire_nl\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<p>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<span class=\"font-bold text-xl block\">The whole of Central Asia in your inbox\n<\/span>\n\t\t\t\t\t\tSubscribe to our free weekly newsletter\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t\t<form class=\"flex w-3\/4 lg:w-full\" action=\"https:\/\/us4.list-manage.com\/subscribe?u=6a15a2256d412b041fdec39e8&amp;id=d479236523\" method=\"post\" id=\"mc-embedded-subscribe-form\" name=\"mc-embedded-subscribe-form\" class=\"validate\" target=\"_blank\" novalidate=\"\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<input class=\"flex-grow py-2 px-3 border border-primary-300 rounded-l\" type=\"email\" placeholder=\"Email\" name=\"EMAIL\" id=\"mce-EMAIL\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<button class=\"bg-secondary-500 py-2 px-3 text-white rounded-r-md border border-secondary-500\" type=\"submit\" value=\"\" name=\"subscribe\">Register<\/button>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/form>\n\n\t\t\t\t\t<a href=\"#\" class=\"underline text-secondary-700\">Click here for the latest issue\n<\/a>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\t\n\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div><!-- newsletter -->\n\t\t\n\n\n\n<p>&#8220;Shitheads&#8221; &#8211; <em>Govnyuki<\/em> in Russian &#8211; is what Sultan and Ilya of the duo Vtoroi Ka, currently one of the most exciting music groups in Central Asia, call themselves. They adopted the term from a video blogger who mocked them with it and turned it into something positive. As Sultan says <a href=\"https:\/\/srsly.ru\/article\/show\/32858\/\">in a long interview<\/a> with the online magazine SRSLY: &#8220;<em>[We are] two shitheads. We&#8217;re explorers. The kind that aren&#8217;t afraid to try things and are constantly on an artistic quest<\/em>.&#8221;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>At the beginning of May, Vtoroi Ka released their third album, <em>Svinaya Poputka,<\/em> a mysterious title that could literally be translated as &#8220;<em>piggy ride<\/em>&#8221; &#8211; a not entirely inaccurate description of the listening experience. It opens with the inviting bass line of &#8220;<em>Teni ot pal&#8217;m<\/em>&#8221; (&#8220;<em>Palm Shadow<\/em>&#8220;): &#8220;<em>Come take me quickly to where the palm shadows are\u2026&#8221;<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">A cheerful Joy Division<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>The song, which was released in June 2022 together with a music video filmed in Bishkek and on Lake Issyk-Kul, is the duo&#8217;s most successful hit to date. A total of six of the eleven tracks on the album had previously been released as singles, all with funny and colourful videos. Die-hard fans of the group will therefore recognize some of the songs, but in any case <em>Svinaya Poputka<\/em> offers a musically delightful half hour.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-rich is-provider-embed-handler wp-block-embed-embed-handler wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\nhttps:\/\/youtube.com\/watch?v=qyTjfhJpEAI%3Fsi%3D-nAQ6fToq_MT9v7e\n<\/div><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">&#8220;Palm Shadow&#8221;<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>Since their debut album &#8220;<em><a href=\"https:\/\/novastan.org\/de\/kirgistan\/einen-sound-fuer-bischkek-erschaffen-den-zawisimosti-vom-bischkeker-musikerduo-wtoroj-ka\/\">Den&#8217; Zavisimosti<\/a><\/em>&#8221; (<em>&#8220;Dependence Day&#8221;<\/em>, 2020), which was still clearly a rap album, Vtoroi Ka seem to be moving further and further back into the musical past. The second album, <em><a href=\"https:\/\/novastan.org\/de\/gesellschaft-und-kultur\/plattenbauromantik-und-retrosound-serial-des-bischkeker-duos-wtoroj-ka\/\">&#8220;Serial&#8221;<\/a><\/em> (2022), features excursions into the alternative teen rock of the 2000s, and the most recent tracks are full of allusions to the post-punk of the 1970s and 1980s.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>However, the characteristic sound of bass, drum computer and synthesiser, which according to <a href=\"https:\/\/t.me\/korneevets\/509\">one critic<\/a> is sometimes even reminiscent of the late Soviet cult band Kino around <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Viktor_Tsoi\">Viktor Tsoi<\/a>, does not underpin a dark soundscape as is so often the case. &#8220;<em>Vtoroi Ka play post-punk, but their music doesn&#8217;t have the depressive vibe so typical for the genre,<\/em>&#8221; <a href=\"https:\/\/the-flow.ru\/releases\/vtoroy-ka-svinaya-poputka\">emphasises<\/a> hip-hop magazine The Flow. On the contrary: <em>Svinaya Poputka<\/em> is full of colourful irony &#8211; a kind of cheerful Joy Division, as those who grew up with English-language music might say (especially as Sultan&#8217;s bass voice is not so dissimilar to that of Ian Curtis).<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Read also at Novastan: <a href=\"https:\/\/novastan.org\/en\/culture-sports\/bishkek-metal-boom-portrait-of-a-music-pioneer-in-kyrgyzstan\/\">Inside Bishkek\u2019s Metal Boom: Portrait of a Music Pioneer in Kyrgyzstan<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Musical references and quotations can be found in abundance, whether in the lyrics themselves (&#8220;<em>An old cassette, vernissage in the loudspeakers<\/em>&#8220;) or in the musical elements. The reels that Sultan and Ilya use to promote their music on social media are like building instructions. For example, for <em>Dura<\/em> (dummy), their latest single: &#8220;<em>Oh, try singing like <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Zhanna_Aguzarova\">Zhanna Aguzarova<\/a>&#8220;<\/em>, an eccentric Russian-speaking singer who was particularly successful in the late 80s.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Sex, drugs and gangster romance<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>While <em>Svinaya Poputka<\/em> takes listeners back to the 80s musically, its content primarily relates to the first decade of independence after the end of the Soviet Union. In the words of another reviewer: &#8220;<em>The main characters in these songs are bandits and shitheads from the times of the wild 90s, such country road romantics&#8221;.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>This is symbolised by the &#8220;<em>Tonirovannyi Kaban<\/em>&#8221; (<em>&#8220;Tinted Boar&#8221;<\/em>), which is enthroned on the album cover with Bishkek&#8217;s skyscrapers and a &#8220;<em>Kosh Kelingizder<\/em>&#8221; sign (Kyrg. for <em>&#8220;Welcome&#8221;<\/em>) in the background. On closer inspection, you can also recognise a &#8220;<em>pig duck<\/em>&#8221; on the sign, the signature of graffiti artist Cherv1, which adorns many a wall in Bishkek. <em>Kaban<\/em> &#8211; Russian for wild boar &#8211; is the popular name for the <a href=\"https:\/\/ru.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Mercedes-Benz_W140\">Mercedes W-140<\/a>, a status symbol particularly popular among the nouveau riche and mafia of the post-Soviet 1990s. However, the bonnet is emblazoned with a pig&#8217;s snout instead of the usual star.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The single of the same name, in which Sultan and Ilya stage themselves as music dealers, is also dedicated to the &#8220;<em>Tonirovannyi Kaban<\/em>&#8220;: Bakai Kolchaev, director of the Bishkek music label <a href=\"https:\/\/novastan.org\/de\/kirgistan\/spotify-expandiert-nach-zentralasien\/\">Infinity Music<\/a>, which also distributes the music of Vtoroi Ka, plays the role of a mob leader in the music video.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"\u0412\u0442\u043e\u0440\u043e\u0439 \u041a\u0430 - \u0422\u043e\u043d\u0438\u0440\u043e\u0432\u0430\u043d\u043d\u044b\u0439 \u041a\u0430\u0431\u0430\u043d (Official Video)\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/TyiyGN9SNGY?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<\/div><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">&#8220;Tinted Boar&#8221;<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>But unlike the Russian cult series <em><a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Brigada\">Brigada<\/a><\/em>, which definitively associated the &#8220;<em>Kaban<\/em>&#8221; with the criminal 90s, <em>Svinaya Poputka<\/em> is not so serious. &#8220;<em>We don&#8217;t want to be taken seriously &#8211; like <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Skryptonite\">Skryptonite<\/a>. We want to be simpler, with irony. Sometimes serious, but with a bit of fun,<\/em>&#8221; says Ilya, <a href=\"https:\/\/srsly.ru\/article\/show\/32858\/\">summarizing<\/a> the group&#8217;s approach.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Through music, colourful imagery and witty language the actually serious references turn into carnivalesque. A typical example for this is the music video <em>&#8220;Dura&#8221; (&#8220;Dummy&#8221;)<\/em>, whose bizarre characters seem to come from Alice&#8217;s Wonderland. At the same time, the piece is peppered with allusions to the world of erotic webcams, an equally l<a href=\"https:\/\/novastan.org\/de\/gesellschaft-und-kultur\/erpressung-und-ausbeutung-im-webcam-business-in-kirgistan\/\">ucrative and dodgy business<\/a> in Kyrgyzstan, and a recurring motiv in Vtoroi Ka&#8217;s work.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Dura<\/em>&#8216;s text speaks of &#8220;her&#8221; admirers (&#8220;<em>Ukhazhory<\/em>&#8220;), who &#8220;<em>give her money wholeheartedly and so earnestly<\/em>&#8220;, while she repeatedly goes &#8220;on air&#8221;. The same applies to the extremely danceable &#8220;<em>Ona sovsem odna<\/em>&#8221; (<em>&#8220;She is all alone&#8221;<\/em>): &#8220;<em>Her body is a glossy comic for adults<\/em>&#8220;, and further: &#8220;<em>All admirers are wild, with brisk movements, unarmed\/ In the chat, uncles over 40 are frolicking<\/em>&#8220;.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"\u0412\u0442\u043e\u0440\u043e\u0439 \u041a\u0430 - \u0414\u0443\u0440\u0430 (\u041f\u0440\u0435\u043c\u044c\u0435\u0440\u0430 \u043a\u043b\u0438\u043f\u0430, 2024)\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/uvEjdbAPiCU?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<\/div><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">&#8220;Dummy&#8221;<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>The underworld of Vtoroi Ka with its very likeable characters, always on the lookout for the next <em>&#8220;Dvizh&#8221;<\/em>, the next adventure, is romantic. In &#8220;<em><a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=JaB3PgLHA_8\">Boomerang&#8221;,<\/a><\/em> a couple hides from unclear dangers in cosy togetherness in anticipation of the next <em>Dvizh<\/em>: &#8220;<em>Here we are an easy target\/ Let&#8217;s leave these rooftops<\/em>&#8220;, whether meant metaphorically or literally. &#8220;<em>We don&#8217;t have to die ye<\/em>t&#8221;, it says, as in <em>&#8220;Teni ot Pal&#8217;m&#8221;,<\/em> which tells of a girl who has become a &#8220;<em>great shooter<\/em>&#8220;, probably not without allusion to Luc Besson&#8217;s <em>Leon &#8211; The Professional.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Obviously, if you die, you can&#8217;t have fun anymore. Intoxication and artificial paradises run through the album like another leitmotiv. The place of longing, where the palm trees stand, is one &#8220;<em>where a kilo of junk for the nose costs a thousand<\/em>&#8220;. Or &#8220;<em><a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=C3pKbGUJX-w\">Pomyat<\/a><\/em>&#8220;(<em>&#8220;Crumpled&#8221;<\/em>), a wild piece about the state &#8220;<em>when there is nothing to recharge yourself with<\/em>&#8220;. <em><a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=Hd49tKGJLBc\">&#8220;Bong&#8221;<\/a><\/em> stands out in particular with its rock&#8217;n&#8217;roll rhythm &#8211; and is, unsurprisingly, dedicated to the water pipe, which, according to the lyrics, should definitely feature in Vtoroi Ka&#8217;s Stage Riders (or that of their fictional characters?).<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Flawless craftsmanship<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Svinaya Poputka<\/em> impresses no less with its detailed and flawless production, all handcrafted by Sultan and Ilya, who, by their own admission, like to control &#8220;<em>everything from start to finish<\/em>&#8221; when it comes to their songs. Without overloading their songs, they manage to surprise you &#8211; even on the hundredth listen &#8211; with a noise in the background, an imaginative rhyme or a particularly successful transition. The tracks are entertaining, all around two and a half minutes long, with snappy intros &#8211; and therefore fit perfectly <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonpost.com\/entertainment\/interactive\/2024\/shorter-songs-again\/#\">into the streaming age<\/a>. However, if you listen to the whole album in one go, you might get the feeling that you&#8217;ve had enough of the interplay between bass and drum machine.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>But Vtoroi Ka, who must have felt the same way when they were working, have an answer to this: &#8220;<em>We would like to say that we are concluding our post-punk story with this album. From now on, there will be other songs, other videos, maybe a different us.<\/em>&#8221; We can therefore remain curious &#8211; and quickly browse through their <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=uvEjdbAPiCU&amp;list=PL40Qos2blU08B15nhmzKw-vKweIFlm6LU\">video library<\/a> &#8211; so that we can still claim to have discovered this gem before it became mainstream.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Svinaya Poputka<\/em> can be heard on all <a href=\"https:\/\/infinity.ffm.to\/piggyride\">streaming services<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n<p><em>For more news and analysis from Central Asia, follow us on <a href=\"http:\/\/twitter.com\/Novastan_Eng\">Twitter<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/Novastan.org\/\">Facebook<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/telegram.me\/novastan\">Telegram<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/company\/fondation-novastan\/\">Linkedin<\/a> or <a href=\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/novastanorg\/\">Instagram<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Bishkek musical duo Vtoroi Ka has recently dropped its third album: carnivalesque postpunk in a world where nothing is as serious as it seems. Novastan&#8217;s review. &#8220;These post-Soviet cities have already seen quite some nonsense\/ But after seeing our Kyrgyz squad up close\/ the lockdown has been abruptly enacted for some reason&#8220;, says the chorus [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":88,"featured_media":46507,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4670,3],"tags":[4149,3975,4758,4759],"coauthors":[88],"class_list":["post-46406","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-culture-sports","category-kyrgyzstan","tag-bishkek","tag-music","tag-postpunk","tag-review"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/novastan.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46406","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/novastan.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/novastan.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/novastan.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/88"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/novastan.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=46406"}],"version-history":[{"count":20,"href":"https:\/\/novastan.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46406\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":46895,"href":"https:\/\/novastan.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46406\/revisions\/46895"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/novastan.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/46507"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/novastan.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=46406"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/novastan.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=46406"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/novastan.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=46406"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/novastan.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=46406"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}