I don’t have the slightest goddamned clue how I found this or even what it’s about. I threw it away and like a cursed monkey paw it found its way back to me and I haven’t been able to put it down ever sense. Kofe was apparently a part of the burgeoning not-ready-for-Perestroika Soviet Underground in the mid-1980s, remembered chiefly from live shows and “an episode in the cult Soviet movie The Burglar.” Both of the tracks on Zero were demos and apparently this is the sum total of their recordings. Neither were ever released “officially,” if such a thing even makes sense in the context of the Soviet music industry in 1985.
The title track is unintelligible to me but has a speedy bounce and loverboy vocals familiar to fans of New Wave. The vocals probably could have used another take, but plenty of New Wave bands had their songs ruined by the vacuous cokehead production techniques of the day and there’s something charmingly intimate about how compressed and less-than-Amiga-computer-perfect this sounds. (And side note, but also a huge fan of the FT Marinetti-inspired cover.)
Kofe: Zero (Other Voices Records)
1. Kofe: Zero (04:31)
2. Kofe: Принцесса (04:04)
First published in 5 Magazine #152 featuring Superjane at 20, Jean-Michel Jarre, Sir LSG, Secret Studio & more. Become a member of 5 Magazine for First & Full Access to Real House Music for only $2 per month!
