Ума2рман - Ночной Дозор

а ну-ка наколдуй мне: Forget all your superheroes – Anton Gorodetsky kicks their ass! If you have watched the European version of the Russian movie “Night Watch” you have unfortunately missed out on this amazing track which effectively summarizes the plot of the movie. Which is quite an achievement on the part of the band - I mean how many hip hop songs do you know that tell the plot of an entire movie? But I am getting ahead of myself. I remember the day my father brought this album (V Gorode N) home after getting it from one of his students. When this song came on, I was at first extremely amused by the opening: The first lines seemed so awkward and disconnected from the rest, seemed so much like Russian hip hop trying to emulate other models that I couldn’t fight feeling it was slightly ridiculous. It felt as though I had just gotten into the groove of the song when it skipped onto something completely else, never to get back to the beginning again. Yet, my amusement soon gave way to awe, as the song went on and I realized how amazing hip hop in Russian sounded, especially this song with its falling speech melody at the end of each line (as I realize now, similar to Mexican rock/hip hop band Molotov’s song “Here We Kum”). I have long admired hip hop for its word craftsmanship and its awesome beats which tend to hit you directly into the oldest part of the brain. Yet I could never really warm up to most hip hop lyrics, for their sexism as one obvious reason, but also for the need to put down your competitors/opponents as something which is directly opposed to the ethos of punk music in which everyone can be a musician as long as he means it. Still I could not stop pondering the potential that hip hop held for really saying a lot in case an artist had a lot to say. Rage Against The Machine is certainly one band which realized hip hop’s potential in that sense, but this is not bad at all either. Umaturman’s mix of musical styles is truly admirable, and despite this being their only hip hop song as far as I know, it does not mean it lacks quality in any sense. I did not know anything about the resourcefulness of these lyrics when I first heard the song since I understood exactly zero of it. By now they have been explained to me since, and I feel that the potential of hip hop lyrics has been realized in a way that satisfies my sense of musical economy: Telling an entire story – in this case the plot of a movie – appears as putting the lyrical potential of a hip hop song to good use. Umaturman went on to enjoy a special place in my listening habits, particularly as the soundtrack of countless vacation car rides with my father. It’s hard to get tired of accomplished pop music so diverse and lovingly created – you have ballads, up-tempo tracks, reggae, Latin rhythms… you name it(, we got it). Still in all of it there is a sense of Russianness, if there can be such a thing. It is hard to pinpoint, but there seems to be some very abstract quality in the melodies which has written Russian all over it (just as I get the notion of something typically Japanese in the music of Japanese bands as diverse as The Alfee and Koji Kurumatani). Of course pop music was not invented in Russia, and neither was hip hop. Therefore if Russian artists appropriate these genres, they had better add something of their own, lest their music become derivative and cheesy like a cheap rip-off. However, there is a thin line between adding something of your own, and becoming a parody of yourself in your emphasis of your “own-ness”. We don’t want a Russian band that tries very hard to be Russian and in trying so hard ends up reinforcing clichés and becoming a parody of their own Russianness (for example if they started including balalaikas in their songs which would be the cheesiest way a rock band could emphasize Russianness). Fortunately, Umaturman don’t have to try hard. They seem to just write music that they like which they might think sounds similar to the models it is based on, but which for some reason turns out Russian. I suspect that it is the situation of living some place in Russia which as any other place has its unique soundscape – songs on the radio, music traditions etc. – for all their lives that determines the band’s musical grammar and logic, and at some point in the creation of music adds that certain unmistakable flavour. Why do I like the Russianness in Umaturman’s music? It is no secret that Russia is getting a bad rap in Western media these days. Since I lack the necessary unbiased information, I am in no position to comment on politics in any way, but I am certainly in a position to say that I would never extend any possible political strife to the country, Russian people, and Russian culture. I have never been to Russia, but I suspect that as in any other country there would be friendly people, and some that I would not like at all, and if I lived there long enough I would become close to some people, have good and bad experiences, learn the language (better), and fall in love. I have met Russians outside of Russia, not least in my own house on a number of occasions, and my experiences have by and large been favorable. So listening to music with something Russian about it adds to the variety in life and widens the horizon. Mother Russia, do not suffer, I know you’re bold enough; I’ve been around the world and I have seen your love.