Molchat Doma Cover t.A.T.u’s “Lyudi Invalidy”
Belarusian group, Molchat Doma, have contributed a track to a ,loplrecent compilation album dedicated to the infamous Russian electronic-pop duo, t.A.T.u.
The album, Трибьют t.A.T.u. (Tribute t.A.T.u.) for short, or Трибьют t.A.T.u. “200 по встречной” (200 Po Vstrechnoy), in reference to their debut, was released on November 5th and features covers from over twenty different artists.
Aside from the obvious difference of all the tracks being in Russian, their original native language premiere does differ a bit from the beloved English release, 200km/h in the Wrong Lane, that many of you are likely familiar with and fond of. (That means a new listen for my fellow super-fans out there.) It’s unfortunately not available for listen from Spotify in the United States. But if you’d like to check it out, someone was kind enough to upload the album to Soundcloud.
Back to Molchat Doma. Their selected song is not actually off the namesake album, and is from a later one. But “Люди-инвалиды (Lyudi Invalidy)” was a great choice for them. It’s interesting to hear how they take such an established sound from a disparate genre act and simultaneously pay respectful homage, keeping it intact, while breathing fresh life and sound into it, making it their own. They somehow manage to keep the t.A.T.u. electric twinkle and up-tempo percussion energy, while infusing it with their own hallmarked, post-punk moodiness.
Via Spotify
“The choice of which song we wanted to cover was made in about 10 seconds. When we were in Ukraine for our concerts, we stopped at a gas station. There, one of us played the song “Ludi-invalidi” in our headphones. And then our manager read a letter with a proposal to participate in the tribute. Fate?
The song is quite deep and relevant to this day, and we consider it one of the main ones in t.A.T.u.’s repertoire.”
Hear them in a way you haven’t heard before.
To celebrate the continuing influence of t.A.T.u.’s anthems, Spotify Russia is launching a campaign in Moscow and St. Petersburg that features billboards paying homage to the band. And listeners around the world can tune in to a new 25-track tribute album, releasing November 5, from some of today’s biggest names in Russia’s music scene.
For The Record
The campaign will culminate with Molchat Doma and other contributing artists performing t.A.T.u’s greatest hits live in concert at the Music Media Dome in Moscow on November 20th, 2021.
The Original
Люди-инвалиды or Lyudi Invalidy is both song and the title of t.A.T.u’s second Russian-language release, of which the track is featured. The album was released throughout Eastern Europe, Germany, and Mexico. But in the United States, Dangerous and Moving, was released as their second album. The latter is not a translation of the former, and in this case the albums do differ quite a bit. If you’re a fan, I would definitely recommend checking it out if you haven’t previously. You can listen to their second Russian album here.
Spotify does have available a solid, not too remixed, mix of the aforementioned song, but the full album isn’t licensed in this region.
*As a note, I realize I’m a nerd, but if anyone is curious for Googling purposes why their spelling differs, while Russian transliteration can differ, the romanization on this track is slightly less than standard.
t.A.T.u. Controversy
For non-Russian speakers or anyone who’s new to the song and might hit up Google Translate, the title of the track translates to “Disabled People”. Инвалид, or invalid, does mean physically or mentally handicapped in Russian. The group did not mean the term it in its literal usage, but that did not absolve it from being objectionably offensive. They argued that they meant it as a metaphor for those who are emotionally disabled or morally questionable. Disability groups were not pleased.
To make things more got confused, the music video, which was filmed in Los Angeles by an American producer, featured some actually disabled and non-normative folks in what appeared to be an underground sex club of sorts. The video, which might have been seen as inspired by the queer crip movement in the West and possibly looked at favorably in an anti-social, rebellious way to some here, did not go over well with the Russian audience. With vague viewpoint in the lyrics, ambiguous solidarity, and confused message, the group got themselves into a bit of a multilayered, trans-cultural, semiotic mess.
For anyone who might possibly be interested, there is actually a highly-detailed and well-written paper that discusses the song and goes deeper into the surrounding ableism discourse and the issues of cultural translation and countercultural appropriation at hand much better than I could or could afford to do so in this space.
New Wave Sadness Tour
And back to Molchat Doma, again.
For the first time since March 2020, Molchat Doma will be touring again. Their upcoming world tour, New Wave Sadness, kicked off November 5th, 2021, in Riga, Latvia. They will be covering a wide set of dates across Europe and the UK over the course of November and December, before they make their way to the United States for dates set in April and May. Don’t sleep on getting tickets if you’d like a chance to see them as shows have already been selling out, with some even needing to upgrade venues or add a second date.
Molchat Doma can also be found on:
MolchatDoma.com
Facebook
Instagram
Twitter
Spotify
Soundcloud
Youtube
The full tribute album can be found through the various streaming services listed here.
Cited material and more official information about the album can be found at
Spotify’s For The Record.