Momus - covered in Russian Europop tune....

Kahimi Karie & "Lolitapop Dollhouse" to thread! (Not for this, but for the whole Momus cover thing.)

hearing a lot of russian pop music i have to say that a lot of (mostly shitty) russian pop artists do not covers but direct rips of songs of all kinds of artists. by "direct rip" i mean they take a song, steal the melody note for note, sing (mostly shitty) everyone's-heard-a-thousand-times before lyrics and present it as new songs. one of the popular "sources" is kylie.

of course you don't know on which radio station you've heard it?
if you knew at least the radio station it could be tracked... at least there'd be more chance

and i think momu has to be informed about this, ha ha.
he might have some objections

(i mean momus)

hmmm drawn a blank with "руский поп момус" bit difficult to know how on eartyh to go about finding out what it could be.

foudn an arrticle about Momus and Cherubashka and how they are similar, emerging into the big wide world from underneath a box of oranges (?!)

seems like momus has played in moscow, at art-garbage, i wonder what he thought of it.

there is a way, actually
i'll get the momus track and see if i have heard the "cover"
or question my friends

when you travel in taxicabs here you hear all sorts of russian pop shit i mean hits.

"Hairstyle of the Devil", in the verse at least, uses a chord sequence that's been used in lots of songs. It's called a "cycle of 5ths" and basically does a sort of "circle in a spiral" through chords related by 5ths before returning to the home chord. Songs that do this: "It's A Sin" by the Pet Shop Boys, "Wild World" by Cat Stevens, "The Windmills of Your Mind" my Michel Legrand, "Hier Encore" by Charles Aznavour, even "My Way". That cycle of 5ths thing is almost like a European version of the blues. I'd say it's not "Hairstyle of the Devil" if it doesn't have the chorus.

That explains so much. I love all those "Cycle of 5th" songs. (Well except My Way, because I *hate* Sinatra, no scratch that, the La Lupa version is pretty good) You do it again on "Platinum", don't you?

Russian pop-music is grebt (do we say that these days?). It's nothing but these sort of cycles, and minor chords. Doesn't surprise me at all they're nicking Momus melodies.

Actually I replied direct to Momus...heres my reply:

It definately has the whole song structure...verses, chorus, stabs,
everything....but done in a poppy/trancey style...I'm going to be back
in Moscow fairly soon and I'll ask in the one bar where I heard it
before...if only my comprehension of Russian was better then I could
tell if the lyrics were the same...

I will spend more time drinking with Russians to make sure I have a
translator ready.

Thanks for responding...

Well, if it IS my song I think the chances of my seeing any royalties are pretty slim.

"Russia has the world's biggest illegal music market outside China. Piracy increased by 25% in 2002, having nearly doubled in value over the last four years. Sales of pirate recordings totalled US$311 million compared to a legitimate music market of US$257 million."

Global Anti-Piracy Watch

(Then again, I am a pirate. Maybe they'll share their booty... at cutlass point!)

Matt, who's on the vocals - a man or a woman?

(pirate sales are one thing, and stealing other ppl's tunes is another).

As I recall - its a female vocal...but not a LOT of it...

ha!
allright, i'll keep my ear open for that.

and there's an internet site where all rips/stolen melodies/chords/etc. made when/by who/from which song/into which song are sorted in a most comprehensive way. i'll try to find it.

My experience with Russian pop dictates that Russians will unconsciously gravitate toward anything in A minor (their pop is Gypsy/Jewish and not really Slavic in its origins, since that was the entertainment in taverns and restaurants), especially if it's sung in a hoarse male baritone; hence, Leonard Cohen, Nick Cave and Tom Waits are all disproportionally popular. Momus would be a completely logical addition to that group.

A more interesting sidenote is that Russians uphold a hysterically funny distinction between "rock" and "pop," wherein "rock" is defined primarily by the perceived purity of the author's inten... uh, wait. Never mind.

i beg you to continue please

i'm really interested!

LOL LOL LOL

yeah "r***ist" was MADE for Russia

"their pop is Gypsy/Jewish and not really Slavic in its origins, since that was the entertainment in taverns and restaurants)"

I'd love to know more about this distinction. I'm starting to think 'a minor' might be my favourite all keys :-)

theres a russian ska punk band called "la minor" who do a good tune called "girl in a cotton dress".

well its more gypsy/jewish/slavic folk something or other hehe