Hot and edgy, these young Halloween trick-or-treaters are on the cusp of a Dark Wave.
After six years the two twenty somethings called IC3PEAK have been drawing in a devoted young following, touring countries as diverse as China and Brazil and making conservative authorities break out in a cold sweat with their fresh recordings.
Discovering that they were to manifest and the prestigious Glav Club I made my way to Leninsky Prospekt on a Sunday evening populated with relaxed people on bicycles and scooters.
Demonic upstarts.
IC3PEAK comprise Nikolai Kostylev on synths, samples, sequencers and percussion and the 24-year-old Nastya Kreslina who provides the verbals and vocals. They have produced some four albums and `Witch House` is what commentators have dubbed their brand of vaporous and baleful lounge music and dance grooves, thus linking them with other bands from hip-hop traditions who toy with crepuscular iconography.
This duo, however, like some sort of cross between the bands Otto Dix and Pussy Riot seem willing to take a stand on important issues in spite of having had some brushes with the law. Some of their gigs were cancelled following interventions from the Politsia last year but, later on. they still played at an event protesting the new government laws allowing for the restriction of the internet.
Buzz.
More than any other concert I have been to, this one exuded a feeling of being an occasion.
Most of the thousand or so punters seemed to consist of grungy teens (the ticket stipulated 16+ age limit but I think some were stretching this a tad). Some Emo/Goth tribe members were here for the `Witch` and other townie tribalists were here for the `House`, others for Witchever. Myself, in a Gary Numan T-shirt from 1993, took my place among the chin stroking elders who were here to see `what all this Witch House malarkey was about`.
A one man faux-avant garde noise merchant provided the warm up act. The audience, chanting the name of their heroes with impatience, were churlish enough to cheer when he left the stage – but he had provided a context for what was to follow.
What followed was more noise – as an aural curtain raiser for the main act. A spacey ever rising crescendo shook the hall so that when IC3Peak arrived – silhouetted in the magnesium flare of white light – the fans were at fever pitch.
Bewitched.
Kostylev, sometimes crisscrossed by beams of red light, was busy behind his techno-deck but would sometimes add a bit of needed visual stimulus by pounding on electronic drums.
Kreslina, meanwhile, strutted back and forth along the stage, now with a dignified straight-back, then all of a sudden falling into a crouch.
Her malleable voice came to us as a percussive shriek, a witches cackle, a vituperative nagging, a girlish fawning and an angelic serenade. She can hit the high notes in a way that would put Julia Volkova to shame. Sometimes her warblings bring to mind Lalo Schifin’s score to the 1979 The Amityville Horror.
The pieces were introduced by a backdrop that featured the title written out as an electrical storm and were blasted out at a fair volume. Many of these came from their last two – more confident and coherent albums – Sladkaya Zhisn (`Sweet Life`) and Skazka (`Fairytale`) but I did recognise Quartz from the Substances album too.
The band has made the commendable decision to start singing in their native tongue and some of their recent videos, particularly the one for Skazal make a point of throwing a whole load of Russianisms into the air.
That said there does appear to be a notable Japanese manga influence working behind their whole act. Just look at Kreslina’s ponytail and kimonos and listen to those Eastern melodies and observe the digital focus of it all.
Another clear ingredient to IC3Peak’s impact comprises the erotic presence of Kreslina which is all the more alluring for not seeming to be forced.
Traditional.
The masses raved. They chanted and sang along. They took snaps with their phones and waved their hands in the air. They cheered whenever Kreslina said `Preevyet Moskva!`. They let the band toy with them by returning for an unexpected second encore. All in all, genre trappings aside, this could have been a rock gig by Aria.
In the face of such adulation, and corresponding new income, it remains to be seen how much the sociopolitical significance of IC3Peak can survive….
So I was ushered out of the club following the hour and a half set and found myself, still with a beer in my hand, at the entrance to the club just happy to soak in the early summer evening. Next to me a group of teens had formed a circle. They began a playground chant based on IC3PEAK’s Smerti Bolshi Nyet (`Death Noe More`):
`In my gold chains/ I’m drowning in the swamp…`
Skazka (Fairytale)` by IC3PEAK.
