Check out this beautiful image of the VDNH space monument. It was taken yesterday in the morning by Konstantin. Some blue Moscow sky, but it was not for long like this. Later it got gray and stormy along with heavy rain. Where is the summer?

The Kosmos Monument at VDNH. Photo: Konstantin Leibovitch

Nikl, finished his Soyusnick road trip and just came back into town after visiting Berlin, Barcelona, Marrakesh, Milan and his hometown Schwäbisch Gmünd in Germany. Check his blog for some nice photos of a 4 week trip. I am jealous. Haven’t had road trips for a while and I think it’s always fun to travel like this. Nikl just flew into Vnukovo airport that night and we went out to party right away. Our friends from “Flammable Beats” threw a party at IKRA, a new club and we got our names and a few plusses on the guest list.

Das Nikl & Chris “Two-Zero”

Flammable Beats is a DJ and Lifestyle crew based out of Moscow. They are some very good Hip-Hop, Reggae and Funk DJ’s for which I pay the outmost respect. Not only that they are spinning a very good and un-commercial sound, which you’ll rarely find anywhere else outside the US and especially NYC. Moscow is an R&B Mecca. I have seen R&B’s victory over local dance floors across Europe and it’s even more fashionable in Moscow. Here it’s either cheap commercial pop, some house or R&B when you go visit some clubs, especially the upscale establishments. While others make the big cash with regular R&B nights (these are spreading out all over the city), the Flammable Beats crew stays true to its unique underground hip hop style.

DJ Pirumov is not only a famous extreme sports photographer, but knows how to work the turntables as well.

For more than 2 years the Flammable Beats crew threw Hip Hop parties on Tuesdays at Propaganda. It was the only suitable party night on Tuesdays and ever since they left Propaganda I have a black hole in my weekly party calendar on Tuesdays. After a short time, bi-weekly at Kult, the Flammable Beats crew found some new home at R&B Café and now it’s another regular on Thursday nights. I haven’t checked it out yet, but will soon go for a visit. Other than that, the crew is organizing parties in Berlin, St.Petersburg and additional gigs in Moscow, such as the monthly gig at IKRA, where the promoter Oleg Magdy flies in some special Hip Hop underground flavor from the US and the UK once a month. Unfortunately these gigs are undervalued and not very well visited by the Moscow crowd. I wish there would be more people to keep these great events and Oleg’s activities going. So people, where are you? I hope I see a full house next time. It’s always a very good crowd and much fun at the Flammable Beats, but often not a full house. I guess Moscow is just not ready (will it ever be?) for a true Hip Hop lifestyle.

Mary, Pirumov and Tactics of Flammable Beats @ Ikra/Moscow

Last Saturday we went to IKRA to see the Baltimore Club party with Amanda Blank, a 19 year old Latina chick MC, throwing around a lot of “explicit lyrics – parental advisory” filth, which turned on the Russian audience. I guess you don’t need to know a lot of English to be able to understand: Fuck, Motherfucker, Pussy and so on. Ikra is a nice big club with 2 floors. It hosts a café, restaurant and a dance floor on the upper level. IKRA claims to be the only true metropolitan club in Moscow, but I don’t see much difference to any other club. Nevertheless, their DJ and event calendar is impressive. It’s a fine mix of commercial and underground gigs, with names such as Prefuse73, Mad Professor, Swayzek, Tiefschwarz, Coldcut and many other big names. Therefore Ikra is filling a gap in Moscow’s club scene, but I doubt there is a huge audience for these very special gigs in commercial, chart-lovin Moscow.

Entering Ikra

Back to Baltimore Club. Time Out writes good things about upcoming female MC Amanda Blank, who usually comes as a side dish of famous Spank Rock. Time Out figures that people are tired of racist, political and anti-globalization rhymes and apparently they want to hear more about sex and pussy. Been there, heard it! The Miami bas(s)ed Two Life Crew shouted “Hey, we want some pussy” in the mid-eighties and B-More’s beats and samples sound just too familiar to good old sexy Miami Bass. It’s all a cycle and a repetition of what was there before. To be honest I cannot talk a lot about Amanda’s Lyrics, I didn’t listen much. Don’t know if my disinterest was caused by the last Vodka Red Bull or just seeing her back all the time. Or was it the monotonous rhymin and her never changing style?

Amanda Blank

Yes, Amanda showed us her back a lot, looking and rhymin towards Aaron La Crate, who was working the turntables. Maybe she thinks her ass is nicer than her face? Mayb she is in love with Mr. Crate? I don’t know, but I think as a MC you should talk to the audience and not show us your back most of the time. Amanda’s rhymin Style was as monotone, as the sound of my washing machine. Always the same up’s and down’s. Only her lyrics, which according to some Russian friends who really paid attention were hot and explicit. Aaron La Crate span a nice mix of 80’s and new tunes, but some of the tracks don’t belong into a Hip Hop set. Some were popular tunes and crowd pleasers, which would have worked for a none-Hip Hop audience, but not for the Skateboard-, Graffiti-, and Snowboard-crowd that the Flammable Beat Family usually pulls into the club. Just too bad Miss Blank didn’t brink Spank Rock, Diplo or Hollertronix into town. It would have been nice to see them together.

Aaron La Crate

Although being critical (probably too much, but hey, that is the definition of a critic or maybe I just don’t get B-More), it was a good night and we all enjoyed ourselves. I left about 5 AM and Nikl even 2 hours past my bedtime. I will come again; check more events at IKRA and the Flammable Beats crew. Next is some hip hop gig of the famous Indy label DefJux. No, unfortunately it’s not one of my favourite DJs RJD2, but I wonder if the Moscow crowd would appreciate and understand him anyway. In the meantime go see Vinylkin, Pirumov, Tactics and Chagin + friends at R&B Café on Thursdays. They’ll feed you some of the finest underground hip hop and it couldn’t be much better as in New York. Just don’t expect any R&B. You’ll find plenty of that elsewhere in town.

IKRA
Address: Kazakova St., 8a, in the building of Gogol Theatre
Metro: Kurskaya
Tel: 505-5351
Web: http://nobullshit.ru/index.php

Next Hip Hop Event at IKRA:
24/06 “Hipo”: ROB SONIC featuring CREATURE & DEE J A LA FU (Def Jux/US) DJs FLAMMABLE BEATS; DMC RUSSIA FUTURE WINNERS
Первосортный хип-хоп для понимающих
01:00-07:00 Предварительно 300р.
http://nobullshit.ru/article.php?show=concerts.performances.06062402_txt

Flammable Beats every Thursday at
Rhythm & Blues Cafe
19 Starovagankovsky Per.
Tel. 203-6008
(Metro Biblioteka Imeni Lenina)

Nikl’s Road Trip Blog:
http://soyuznick.livejournal.com/

Amanda Blank on Flickr:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/fiftyonefiftyone/84063583/in/set-1795196/

Here are some more photos of that night. They we all taken by “Nikl”. Thanks man:

Amanda Blank up close

The crowd

Wild crowd

Aaron La Crate working the turntables at Ikra/Moscow

Nikl likes Legz

Amanda Blank and Aaron La Crate at Ikra/Moscow

Susanne and Masha

Amanda Blank & Aaron La Crate at Ikra Moscow

German Mr. Franz, doing a design internship at Art Lebedev with his sister.

Our friend Gleb.

Sonia & Chris

Sonia: “I hate it when I get out of a club and its bright daylight!”. Chris: “Why? I love it!” Nikl came out 2 hours later.

Its pretty cold and people wonder when it finally get’s warm. Hot summer in the city is just a dream until now. Sun, clouds, rain, wind, sun again. The weather feels more like April than end of May. Moscovites are wondering if this will get another rainy, cold summer. Last year it has been pretty dry, but the temperatures were well below of what we expect of a typical Moscow summer.

I have been on a party last Friday and will post a story about it shortly. Also, Saturday was the day of gay pride in Russia. Some people tried to organize a gay pride parade, but it was prohibited by the mayor and a court. Still a hundred people met and walked down Tverskaya, which ended in fights with the police, neo-Nazis and Orthodox Church members. Give me a day or two to formulate my opinion and I will also have a collection of ENG language articles for you. I guess it’s a hot topic and up for discussion.

Until then, enjoy the nice and first summer photos of our friend Konstantin.

This is Ulitsa Krasnaya Presnya (Red Presnya Street). It is beetween the Krasnopresnenskaya/Barrikadnaya and Ulitsa 1905 goda metropolitan stations.

This is Ostankinskaya Telebashnya (television tower). It is located between Dmitrovskoe shosse (route) and VDNKh (oops! VVC - this is a modern name of VDNKh)

This is Novy Arbat (with the restaurant “Praga” on left side).

This shoot was taken from a bridge between Frunzenskaya Naberezhnaya (seaside) and Park Cultury.

Novokuznetskaya Metro on a Sunday morning at 5:45 AM

Tverskoy Boulvar

Near the Bolshoy Kamenny Most (Big Stoned Bridge) 7

All photos and comments by Konstantin Leibovitch. Thank you Konstantin!

Saturday Morning. I am just having my first coffee and I am planning on posting a new Moscow-Blog story. I sit down at my computer and get an email from my webhoster. Basically it said: Somebody spammed from your server and so we took it off the net. You need to re-install the server in order to get your server back online. As proof they attached a SPAMCop message which was over 4 weeks old. No alert, no warning.
Since it was the weekend it was almost impossible to get someone on the phone at my Hosting company. Finally, after 20 calls we get through and I have somebody in a Bulgarian callcenter, although my hosting company sits in Germany. I send the necessary faxes and wait hours and hours until I get feedback. Nothing happens until Monday morning, although I call a million times. Monday I am asked to re-send the fax I sent on the weekend before. It takes until Wednesday night until we get the server re-installed from their end and access to it. Then my Sys-Ad uploads the backups. By the way, he found out that the Spammer used some of my clients mailforms to Spam and didn’t break into our system. I told my hosting company, but its company policy to have the server re-installed. All together I paid 80 EUR to the company and I spent another 50 EUR to call them and check on them. Otherwise our server would still be offline. Aggggh. Sometimes its better to pay a little more and have less troubles. Something I learned out of this.

Anyway. Moscow-Blog.com is back and I will have a Moscow story for you soon.

The advertising people search for ever new ways to get our attention and nothing is safe from them. Big brands such as Benetton used scary war images. Sisley is producing porno like campaigns, which are supposed to be artistic and not porno, but still shocking. Now the French company “Shaiwear” crossed the border and shows a sexual act to advertise its new clothing line. It’s nothing new, but wasn’t done for a while. The eye wear company Black Flies hired porn stars in the mid-nineties and showed videos and photos with them in sexual poses, like sperm on the glasses of a girl after she gave a blow job (supposing, that you couldn’t see).

So French Shaiwear is not breaking the border as the first one, but they sure will get the attention they want. I like the way they use flash to stop the movie and show the clothes in detail. That should be done more often by catalogue sites, to make boring product catalos more interesting.

http://www.sexpacking.com/

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