More love than protest

The previous album of Porn films, released back in 2017, was called "in the range between despair and hope." Today, in 2020, it is clear that the leader of the PF Volodya Kotlyarov chose is not despair.

The title song of the new album “It will pass” was written in the summer, in the midst of protests. There was something to desperate: hard accelerations, mass detentions, “new greatness”, “network” (the organization was recognized as terrorist and prohibited in the Russian Federation. - Ed. ), “Moscow business”, a feeling of complete helplessness before the security forces. Gloom, darkness, darkness ... And these days he sat in front of the camera, picked up an acoustic guitar and sang: “What a black century we had! And it seems to me in the distance of a living hope for a forgotten light ... "What hope, Volodya? You sing yourself: “With a wet bag on my head, with electric shutters on the arm, my Russia is in prison ...” But if you do not believe that it will pass, you can go crazy with grief and hatred.

Kotlyarov - Punk from Dubna near Moscow. Age - barely over thirty. More recently, he and his group rehearsed in garages and basements, performed in tiny clubs and recorded albums with a budget of 10 thousand rubles. Three years ago, a whole pool of such groups formed - “PF”, “Jorsh”, “Plasticine operation”. They rode endlessly around the country, gathered small halls at first, then more and more. All this is with hypers-dependent management, without the support of the radio (remember the famous boycott of the “invasion” ), television (Urgant in this story appeared much later) and whales of show business. They were canceled concerts, they were intimidated, but they still played.

After one of these cancellations, I met Kotlyarov. In the glorious city of Murom, he was called an extremist, accused that the group "promotes an asocial lifestyle, instilled distrust and hatred of state authorities and law enforcement agencies." What was not at all. It was exactly the opposite. Kotlyarov said amazing things. For example:

- If you now arrange a revolution, other greeders will be replaced by other greedy. A coup in your head, then barricades will not be needed. Time will pass, you yourself will become a deputy, you will become a police officer. And if you are an honest person, then life in the country will be honest.

"Become a police officer to change the system!" - A striking slogan for punk. And he excitedly promoted a healthy lifestyle, told how Akhmatov and Mandelstam loves. I was surprised. A little later, Dima "Jorsh" explained to me what the origins of this ideology are:

- We grew up in depressed cities near Moscow, where everyone around us drunk, pricked, and I don’t want to talk about crime, he is at every step. We had a company, thirty people. Of these, only five are all right. The rest are either sitting or dead. Our natural desire is to live differently.

"Become a police officer to change the system!" - A striking slogan for punk.

And in this, oddly enough, the reason for their popularity. It has long been clear that “denilovo”, naked protest - the path to nowhere. The one who offers a certain construct, a positive program will win. That is, roughly speaking, it motivates the audience. This is exactly what the "porn films" did.

This is already audible by music. On each of their album, at least three or four motivating gymnosa tracks. On the new album, I counted them six out of seven: “It will pass”, “Love will catch up with us”, “Asterisk”, “Alien Woe”, “Good Heart”, “Love Lessons”. That is, almost everything, with the exception of the sketch "Uncle Volodya." All chanting, with powerful hooks, about one rhythm. We can say that this is a self -reproach, but we can say - stylistics. Kotlyarov is a passionate fan of “civil defense”. Of course, his work does not reach the masterpieces of Letov, but I am sure that in his soul he would like this-to write something “I see-my homeland rises from the knees”. About the future, and not about the fact that we will all die soon.

You can argue about who PF is musically focusing on, but if you delve into the history of the issue, then, of course, these are Americans, not the British. Not Sex Pistols or The Exploited , but an American stadium pop-punk. But in addition to Western analogues, something native, Russian-Rock is heard there. Yard battle, courtyard melody. Something like Shevchuk. It is in the lips of Shevchuk that it is easy to imagine all these songs. It was his place that Kotlyarov took in the new hierarchy in new times. However, in the mouth of Kotlyarov, “we will fill the sky with kindness” would sound quite organic. After all, he sings, only in other words: "Maybe you will become a little kinder!"

This, in fact, is the main theme of the album and two single, released on its anteriority - “system” and “rituals”. Kotlyarov is not lamented at all about the loss of freedoms, but about the loss of love: “You and I replaced faith, hope, love - rituals!” About the same in the “system”: “They will never understand how you can love someone except themselves. How can you live for the sake of others ... ”This almost verbatim coincides with what Dima beekeepers from the Penza“ network ”said to me in an interview with the Penza, for which Kotlyarov wrote in 2018 one of the first:“ When the hour of h comes, only those who have learned to love. ” And this is the main reproach to those who plant - they have forgotten how to love.

Pchelintsev is in prison, like all of the Russia, about which Kotlyarov recently sang in the ice palace and at other sites of the country . It looks absurd, but it is in this that a chance. Hope, not despair.