Diskoteka Avariya

Дискотека “Авария”
Diskoteka “Avariya”

Cover of new album
Background information
Origin Ivanovo, Russia
Genres Pop rock, Eurodance, pop rap, house, disco, hip-hop
Years active 1990—present
Labels Corporation Avariya
Website http://www.avariya.ru
Members Anna Hohlova:
singer

Aleksey Olegovich Ryzhov:
writer and composer, musician, DJ, occasional singer, rapper (band creator)

Aleksey Borisovich Serov:
rapper (joined in 1997)
Past members † Oleg Yevgenyevich Zhukov:
rapper (1997-2002, deceased)

Nikolay Stagoranovich Timofeev:
singer (band creator, left in 2012)

Diskoteka "Avaria" (Russian: Дискотека "Авария" - Disco "Crash") are a Russian band from Ivanovo, Russia. The trio consists of Anna Hohlova (Хохлова Анна), Aleksey Borisovich Serov (Серов Алексей Борисович) and Aleksey Olegovich Ryzhov (Рыжов Алексей Олегович). Its former members include vocalist Nikolay Stagoranovich Timofeev (Тимофеев Николай Стагоранович), who left in July 2012, and rapper Oleg Yevgenyevich Zhukov (Олег Евгеньевич Жуков), who died on February 9, 2002 of cancer.

Although "Avaria" knew only moderate success in Russia during the 1990s, they are considered to be pioneers of house music in that country, as the genre only started to appear there around 2000. Following Zhukov's death in 2002, the trio slowly lost original popularity and oriented themselves into a mainstream electropop movement.

History

The origins

Towards the end of the eighties Nikolay Timofeev and Alexey Ryzhov met in high school. Both being creative minds with good sense of humor, they started creating humorous material. After being noticed at a KVN (Клуб Весёлых и Находчивых, Klub Vesyolyh i Nahodchivyh, Club of Funny and Smart, is a Russian TV show, a humor contest, which indirectly spanned similar contests in schools, independent from the show), they started receiving invitations to provide entertainment at parties. Timofeev and Ryzhov's first intended musical direction was rock. At a summer camp, they created a very short lived rock band called "Огнетушитель" (Ognetushitel, "Fire extinguisher"). But both of them lacked money to buy instruments and various equipment to play rock professionally, so they had to make some money. The duo started emceeing at local clubs and liked it. During college years, the duo was involved with another short lived band called "Interview". Also, Timofeev and Ryzhov were invited to a local radio station to make their own radioshow. During that period of time, the duo started putting sketches in some songs: whenever a famous song had a part void of lyrics, they put some of their own rap into it. This was later to become their trademark in their early songs. Meanwhile, the band was asked to perform in a local club called "Электрон" ("Electron"). Noticing the bad state of their club, they dubbed it "Disaster Disco". After a few fixing, the rating of their club went uphill as it became more and more famous.

From two to four

A childhood acquaintance of Timofeev and Ryzhov, Oleg Zhukov, was amongst the biggest and most loyal fans of "Disco 'Crash'", and soon joined the duo's closest circle of friends. One night, they took him with them to a soirée organized by a company called "Kranek", and all Zhukov did was repeating the company's name during one song. As Timofeev recalls: "And during one of our song, Zhukov repeated the company's name, Kranek, with such a voice, that the audience and us fell for his charm, and since then, he joined us for good". This happened in 1991. Around that time, the band was invited to Moscow for a trial studio record, resulting in their first album "Танцуй со мной" (Tantsuy so mnoy", Dance with me), but it wasn't what the band expected. Some of its songs were later reused in their first official album. Towards 1997, the trio noticed their club was losing their popularity. They found out that a rival disco opened in town, and people there were charged half as much. They discovered that disco had only one MC, young and motivated, close in style to Timofeev. They decided that it was the best to join forces with him. That's how Alexey Serov joined the band. His first contribution to the band was recording a skit where he asked to turn the music off using lots of expletives (used later in the song "Заколебал Ты!" but with expletives covered by radio parasite sounds), and his second contribution was recording vocals for the second and final version of the song "Двигай-двигай" ("Dvigay-dvigay", Move it-move it).

First success

In 1998, while Russia was in crisis, the band decided to record their second album (considered by many to be their first). They lacked the cash to pay for studio time, so they made a deal with the studio "Soyuz". At that time, the studio was working on a remix album for the Belorussian band Lyapis Trubetskoy called "Lyapis-Dance", and Diskoteka "Avariya" was asked to make four remixes for the album. They made three pure remixes, while the last one became a comic rap song using Lyapis Trubetskoy's chorus. The song, called "Ты кинула" ("Ty kinula", You dumped) became their first single and later, their first music video. The band then had enough money to record their first official album "Песня про тебя и меня" ("Pesnya pro tebya i menya", Song about you and me). It was composed of three of the Lyapis Trubetskoy remixes (one of them was remade for this album as an instrumental track), some songs from "Танцуй со мной", and some brand new material. Soon other albums were released and the band became one of the most popular Russian bands. Alexey Serov's law education has allowed the band to stay producer-free. Their one stint with a producer, Peter Volkov, was short-lived.

Back to three

After their album "Маньяки"("Manyaki", Maniacs) was released in 2001, Oleg Zhukov fell ill, and the band had to perform without him. 9 February 2002, Zhukov died of brain cancer. After Zhukov's death and a period of pause, the band decided to go on as a trio. They released their first music videos without Zhukov: "ХХХиРНР" (acronym for "Hip-Hop, House and Rock'N'Roll") and "Небо" ("Nebo", Sky), the latter featuring international model Katia Elizarova. These videos featured new versions of songs from the album "Маньяки", with different music, and Zhukov's lyrics either sang by Ryzhov, or dropped out. After releases of some famous singles, the band released in 2006 a new album called "Четверо Парней" ("Chetvero Parney", Four guys). It featured the song of the same name (although listed in the song list as an acronym of its title) which was recorded prior to the release of "Маньяки", but the band lacked time to put it in the album. This song was the last new song released to feature Oleg Zhukov's vocals.[1][2][3][4]

Changes in style and lineup

In 2011, the band released a new album "Недетское время" ("Nedetskoe vremya", A Time not for Kids), featuring a more electropop-sounding style, and for the first time the autotune was used. The album itself was released online for free.[5]

In July 2012, Timofeev left the band[6] to start his own solo career. The main reason cited by both sides was a continuous strain in the relationship between Nikolay and the rest of the band. In November, the band announced on their website the arrival of a female vocalist, Anna Hohlova.[7]

The band is currently active.

Honors

Discography

Singles

Videos

(directors in parenthesis)

References

  1. ↑ http://avariya.ru/?p=biography (in Russian, the history of the band from their official website)
  2. ↑ http://avariya.ru/?p=74 (in Russian, history of the band as seen by Alexey Serov)
  3. ↑ http://avariya.ru/?p=77 (in Russian, history of the band, as seen by Alexey Ryzhov)
  4. ↑ http://avariya.ru/?p=71 (in Russian, history of the band, as seen by Nikolay Timofeev)
  5. ↑ http://www.avariya.ru/media.aspx
  6. ↑ http://www.avariya.ru/news/2012/07/diskoteka-auaria-teper-bez-nikolaya-timofeeva.aspx
  7. ↑ http://liveweb.archive.org/http://avariya.ru/news/2012/11/v-diskoteke-auarii-popolnenie.aspx

External links