Tour De Trans - on the eve of the TransMusicales festival

On June 20th, the first in a series of parties in Moscow and cities across Russia will take place at Arma 09 in anticipation of the grand TransMusicales festival. The TransMusicales festival is the most important European music event held in the French city of Rennes. Starting in 1978 as a showcase for the most progressive rock bands from Rennes and its surroundings, by 2009 TransMusicales had grown into a globally significant festival, attracting musicians and over 30,000 listeners from around the world annually. For 30 years, the unwavering team of TransMusicales organizers has been dedicated to promoting young musicians and showcasing the most original musical phenomena. In 2004, as part of the 'Year of France in China,' TransMusicales gathered over 9,000 visitors in Beijing, marking the first large-scale outdoor music event in China. In 2010, declared the 'Year of France in Russia,' TransMusicales will move to Moscow for a weekend, providing its stages to the most relevant French and Russian musicians. In 2009, TransMusicales began to connect with Russia: this spring, summer, fall, and winter, in partnership with the Miller Advanced Music project, a series of Tour De Trans parties and mini-festivals will be held in Moscow and several cities in the country. Russian talented electronic musicians will have the opportunity to perform alongside well-known professionals and like-minded individuals from France. These mini-festivals aim to explore the Russian music landscape and serve as preparatory stages for the 'big' TransMusicales in Moscow in 2010. About the participants of the first Tour De Trans party: Naive New Beaters belong to the supernova generation of French electronic music - even fresher and more unrestrained than Justice, Kavinski, and other representatives of the popular Ed Bangers label. Their rapid rise to fame came at the end of 2008 when they were positioned at Transmusicales in Rennes as the main newcomers. The group released a full album only at the end of May, and in the same month, Naive New Beaters performed live sixteen times! In addition to the Parisian Rock En Seine, their summer schedule includes a rather unexpected jazz festival in Montreux, Switzerland, and the massive Spanish Benicassim and the main Eastern European showcase of new music - the Hungarian Sziget. NNB's music - lively and quite aggressive nu-rave - has many analogies in Europe. The singer, who looks like a character from the movie 'Napoleon Dynamite', roaring electronic samples, roaring electric guitar, hip-hop rhythms, harmonies changing in the spirit of MGMT - this combination doesn't seem unusual. However, Naive New Beaters have established a reputation as an excellent live collective, playing in packed clubs, with festival crowds just right for them. For the generation born in the early 90s, NNB's music plays the same role that AC/DC and Guns N'Roses played for their parents. Although the MacBook has replaced the motorcycle as the symbol of faith for the new heroes, their hair is just as long, and the guitar riffs are just as sharp. The songs of the 'new naive beaters' bubble with no less energy because, besides rock, they have absorbed the strongest chemistry of the rave era. As a neat addition to the group information, one of its members is named Martin Luther BB King! DJ Tepr - also known as Tangi Destabli - was born in the early 80s in Western France. In his childhood, he listened to Kim Wilde and Tears For Fears, then systematically went through Nirvana and Daft Punk, Aphex Twin and DJ Vadim. After playing in a school pop group, at the end of the 90s Tangi immersed himself in electronics. He performed a couple of times with techno remixes of The Beatles at local festivals. His next project, Abstrackt Keal Agram, remained a pile of comparisons in the memory of music critics: 'it's like if Cex remixed a Prefuse 73 remix of a Godspeed You Black Emperor song,' they wrote, delving into the strange mix of post-rock and abstract hip-hop produced by Destabli. The next stage in his creative biography was a direct move towards the dance floor. Under the name DJ Tepr, he released two records in 2005, mixing baia-funk, reggaeton, ghetto-tech, and the rifled synthetic sound of the late 80s. A couple of years ago, he joined the team of Yelle - a French singer, responsible in part for the phenomenon of the dance style 'tecktonic.' In 2008, Tangi Destabli served as co-producer of her album 'Pop-up,' her keyboardist, and tour DJ. 'ACDG remix' by DJ Tepr on a Yelle song was featured in playlists by Justice, Erol Alkan, and 2 Many DJs, and Tepr's own sets are lively French electronic music of the Justice mold (let's mention it again!), which automatically makes you want to take off your shirt and dance with a bare torso, waving it over your head. Zombie Zombie - a completely different story. Replace the happy mask with an expression of cosmic horror! Renounce joy and give in to mournful reflections! The main alley of the amusement park leads to a gloomy cemetery. In the case of the duo Zombie Zombie, the name defines the consciousness, essence, atmosphere, and all other characteristics of the group. The Parisians Cosmic Neman (drums) and Etienne Jaumet (synthesizers) play krautrock, filled with ominous disco rhythms and graveyard moans. Of all the haggard youths who began to disturb the krautrock and dark disco scene in the early 2000s (120 Days, Turzi, Padded Cell, David Gilmour Girls), these are the scariest. Probably because Cosmic and Etienne admit that in their work they are not just inspired but literally follow all the rules of composing music for horror films. Thus, the album 'A Land For Renegades,' according to Zombie Zombie, was entirely inspired by Peter Watkins' film 'Paradise Park.' In addition to cat screeches and eerie creaks, the guys use a whole arsenal of vintage synthesizers - Roland, Arp, Moog, Theremin; when all this multistory machinery is set up on stage, before the concert-goers, Zombie Zombie emerges as no less majestic than the finale of 'Night of the Living Dead.' In another capacity, the guys perform a cover version of Iggy Pop's song 'Nightclubbing' - here references to not only cinema but also to the best examples of no-wave like Can or Suicide are acceptable. 'Their layered drum brakes, droning synths, sighing electro-organs, melodic glockenspiels, and their whole manner of instilling horror come together in a kraut-prog bad trip that hits the face with angry winds and tearing screeches,' Wire Magazine reviewer Philippe Sherburn wrote about their music. Devices - a super premiere! On June 20th, the first public performance of this live instrumental group, which doesn't even have a MySpace page yet and has only performed at private events, will take place. Five prominent young people play unusual music - with a rocking beat, a wall of guitar sound, and unexpected quotes from well-known movies, for which a genre definition has yet to be invented. They can be considered our response to Zombie Zombie. Keyboardist Petr Fedorov ('Russia-88,' 'Obitaemyy Ostrov') plays keyboards in Devices, looking at us from the pages and covers of glossy magazines. Flying Rods - the 90s are back! Under the name Karateka, these two musicians have learned to make nu-rave for hipsters, and under the name Flying Rods - music that may interest even those who attended real raves still stuck in the 90s. Even with a track sampling singer Maksim, their music sounds like trendy hip-house. Egofriend - the newest live project of DJ Compass Vrubel, one of the first Russian DJs, a resident of legendary clubs 'Ptuch' and LSDance - a leader of the Russian breaks scene and the host of the program '23 Hours' on 'Megapolis' radio. Compass-Vrubel will showcase a spectacular half-hour live performance and play a high-paced DJ set - in the best traditions of 'Ptuch,' thus bridging the glorious past and bright future of Russian electronic music. DJ Ssadina - a young Moscow music lover, author of the music blog 'Weirdradio' and an employee at the cult store 'Transylvania.' Accordingly, he plays less known old and just released music, which is not found on the shelves of 'Transylvania' or in the trendiest music blogs. Main stage: Naive New Beaters (live), Zombie Zombie (live), DJ Tepr (all - France), DJ Sandra. Miller Advanced Music Room: Devices (live), Flying Rods (live), DJs Egofriend aka Compass Vrubel, Ssadina. June 20, 2009, 23:00-6:00. Club Arma'09. Nizhniy Susalny per., 3/5. 500 rubles at the club ticket office on the day of the event.