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Moscow's cultural scene is famously enormous and varied - but where to start? Our arts-savvy editorial team trawl what's on offer, to bring you our selection of Culture Picks for your leisure time. Current and upcoming recommendations are:
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| 03.09.10 20:00 |
Tori Amos (USA) | |
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Tori Amos (born Myra Ellen Amos) was one of several female singer/songwriters who combined the stark lyrical attack of alternative rock with a distinctly '70s musical approach, creating music that fell between the orchestrated meditations of Kate Bush and the stripped-down poetics of Joni Mitchell. In addition, she revived the singer/songwriter traditions of the '70s while reestablishing the piano as a rock & roll instrument. With her 1992 album "Little Earthquakes", Amos built a dedicated following that expanded with her second album "Under the Pink", before giving way to a decade-spanning legacy. Read more
Crocus City Hall  |
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| 03.09.10 20:00 |
Brainstorm (Latvia) | |
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Although Latvian rockers Brainstorm never won the Eurovision Song Contest - they finished third in 2000 - they are nevertheless one of the handful of competing acts to have established a credible international presence in the aftermath of their appearance. Jonathan King, the English pop impresario, described them as "the cream of the contest. They enjoy themselves, they smile on-stage, and the lead singer has such charisma, such star quality." Other highly publicized admirers include Bob Dylan, Anton Corbijn, and Michael Stipe, while the band has toured Europe behind Depeche Mode, R.E.M., the Rolling Stones, and the Cranberries, among others. Read more
Milk |
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| 10.09.10 19:00 |
Roxette (Sweden) | |
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Roxette is Marie Fredriksson and Per Gessle, and their game is pop. With 31 chart-busting pop-singles, we feel assured enough to say that few play it better. They entered the cosmic consciousness with "The Look" in 1989, followed up with the multiple-platinum album "Joyride" in 1991, and have been on top of the charts somewhere in the world ever since. The constant flow of hit singles and albums have resulted in staggering record sales (55 million albums and 20 million singles) and world tours too big to mention. Read more
Sport Complex "Megasport" |
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| 10.09.10 21:00 |
Groove Armada (UK) | |
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Grammy-nominated UK-based trend-setters of the house scene Groove Armada is to perform their new album "Black Light" at Arena Moscow. Groove Armada is famous for being always on the run, always different, adding all sorts of new elements into tracks. And their new album is not an exception - inspired by David Bowie, Fleetwood Mac and Roxy Music. But it is more than just about influence - maestro Brian Ferry himself was invited to contribute to the record. He performed a vocal part on the track "Shameless". Besides Ferry, Nick Littlemore, Will Young and other vocalists contributed to the album. Read more
Arena Moscow |
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| 11.09.10 20:00 |
Sum 41 (Canada) | |
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Sum 41 hit worldwide radar in 1996 after tiny Ajax, Ontario, proved unable to fully contain the foursome's blathering mixture of punk-pop riffing, hip-hop poses, and toilet-bowl humor. Led by guitarist/vocalist Deryck Whibley, who looked like a mash-up of the Prodigy's Keith Flint and cartoon land's Calvin, the band also included guitarist/vocalist Dave Baksh, bassist Cone McCaslin, and drummer Steve Jocz. Wooed by the boys' goofy antics and incendiary live show (and excited about the prospect of promoting their very own blink-182), Island put Sum 41 on the payroll in 1999. "The Half Hour of Power" EP followed, and Warped Tour dates got the word out. They returned in 2000 with the fun-filled full-length "All Killer No Filler", and the singles "In Too Deep" and "Fat Lip" became staples of both modern rock radio and Total Request Live. Read more
Arena Moscow |
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| 12.09.10 20:00 |
port-royal (Italy) | |
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Italian four-piece port-royal, formed in the year 2000 by Attilio Bruzzone and Ettore Di Roberto, are based in Genoa, Italy. Though a traditional post-rock guitar shimmer permeates the majority of their songs, their overall sound is focused around ambient keyboard soundscapes, spoken voice recordings and glitch/dance electronica. Their layered songs are often long and dense, and are arranged in something of a classical style. port-royal has released three albums including one of remixes on the UK label Resonant Recordings, and many EPs on various labels. The band also appeared on a dozen of compilations and remixed Ladytron, Felix Da Housecat or Millimetrik. Since his first EP in March 2002, port-royal has toured in Europe and Russia. Meeting point of the two last decades of music, the music of port-royal is a journey between post-rock, ambient techno, electronica and shoegaze. Read more
Sixteen Tons |
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| 13.09.10 19:00 |
Ozzy Osbourne (UK) | |
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Though many bands have succeeded in earning the hatred of parents and media worldwide throughout the past few decades, arguably only such acts as Alice Cooper, Judas Priest, and Marilyn Manson have tied the controversial record of Ozzy Osbourne. The former Black Sabbath frontman has been ridiculed over his career, mostly due to rumors denouncing him as a psychopath and Satanist. Despite his outlandish reputation, however, one cannot deny that Osbourne has had an immeasurable effect on heavy metal. While he doesn't possess a great voice, he makes up for it with his good ear and dramatic flair. As a showman, his instincts are nearly as impeccable; his live shows have been overwrought spectacles of gore and glitz that have endeared him to adolescents around the world. Indeed, Osbourne has managed to establish himself as an international superstar, capable of selling millions of records with each album and packing arenas across the globe, capturing new fans with each record. Read more
Sport Complex "Megasport" |
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| 15.09.10 19:30 |
Sting (UK) | |
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After disbanding the Police at the peak of their popularity in 1984, Sting quickly established himself as a viable solo artist, one obsessed with expanding the boundaries of pop music. Sting incorporated heavy elements of jazz, classical, and worldbeat into his music, writing lyrics that were literate and self-consciously meaningful, and he was never afraid to emphasize this fact in the press. For such unabashed ambition, he was equally loved and reviled, with supporters believing that he was at the forefront of literate, intelligent rock and his critics finding his entire body of work pompous. Either way, Sting remained one of pop's biggest superstars for the first ten years of his solo career, before his record sales began to slip. Read more
Crocus City Hall |
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| 17.09.10 20:00 |
Peter Kruder (Austria) | |
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When Peter Kruder plays, everybody listens! As one exact half of Kruder and Dorfmeister, one very impressible third of Voom Voom, and one solid whole as Peace Orchestra, he is universally praised for being responsible for some of the finest electronic music in the last thirteen years. This is a DJ, producer and musician that refuses to look left or right, and certainly will never look back. Peter Kruder is all about forward vision and imagination to what the future may bring. His DJ sets are legendary and noted for surprises far beyond what is expected of him. In the recently revamped and fully authentic vintage analogue G-Stone studio 1, Peter Kruder is happy making new and exciting music for the future, but with an attitude of old music longevity and duration of service that is missing from so many other half hearted producers and productions. Kruder records come with an unmistakable ‘freshness’ every time. Read more
Shanti |
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After the release of “PMML” (Russian abbreviation for "Forgive Me My Love") in March of 2000, “Zemfiromania” swept the country. "Iskala" (“Searched”) and "Sozrela" (“Ripe”) received heavy airplay from nearly all radio stations, propelling the then tyro to greater popularity. The band was invited to headline the Maxidrom festival and since Zemfira has been the hottest ticket at any venue. Her songs shaped the whole generation's outlook. The debut self-titled album and “PMML” were the “reference books” for boys and girls aged 16-20. Now these ex-pupils have grown up but they keep this pure freedom in their hearts, the freedom Zemfira taught them to feel. Read more
Crocus City Hall |
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| 20.09.10-21.09.10 21:00 |
Placebo (UK) | |
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Placebo's vocalist, composer and songwriter Brian Molko gives a joking explanation of the band's name - he says that many bands choose the names of drugs as the band names and they chose the one that doesn't work. Though Placebo is accepted as the British band, none of the band members are actually British. Each albums adds something new to Placebo's sound, each album goes sonically further and their latest "Battle for the Sun" is not an exception. The album is full of new fascinating ideas and rhythms basically connected with the new drummer Steve Forrest who joint the band in August 2008. Read more
Arena Moscow |
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| 24.09.10 19:00 |
Massive Attack (UK) | |
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The pioneering force behind the rise of trip-hop, Massive Attack were among the most innovative and influential groups of their generation; their hypnotic sound - a darkly sensual and cinematic fusion of hip-hop rhythms, soulful melodies, dub grooves, and choice samples - set the pace for much of the dance music to emerge throughout the 1990s, paving the way for such acclaimed artists as Portishead, Sneaker Pimps, Beth Orton, and Tricky, himself a Massive Attack alumnus. Read more
Sport Complex "Megasport" |
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| 25.09.10 19:00 |
Joe Cocker (UK) | |
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British white-soul singer Joe Cocker parlayed Ray Charles Pish vocals and an eccentric stage presence into a string of late-'60s hits only to suffer from his excesses in drugs and alcohol by the mid-'70s. In the '80s and '90s, however, he went from tragic figure to well-respected interpreter, and his gritty, powerful voice remains one of the most distinctive in rock & roll. He hit number one in the U.K. in November 1968 with his version of the Beatles' "A Little Help from My Friends." His career really took off after he sang that song at the Woodstock festival in August 1969. A second British hit came with a version of Leon Russell's "Delta Lady" in the fall of 1969 and both of his albums "With a Little Help from My Friends" (April 1969) and "Joe Cocker!" (November 1969), went gold in America. He has survived, still charting into the '90s, albeit with less frequency than he did in the '70s and '80s. He also continued to work throughout the new millennium. Read more
The State Kremlin Palace |
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| 03.10.10 20:00 |
Limp Bizkit (USA) | |
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Limp Bizkit's long-awaited new album "Gold Cobra" was recorded by the original line-up - with the "prodigal son" guitarist Wesley Borland coming back to the band in 2009. The release is scheduled on August and it will be the first full-fledged studio album of the "golden line-up" of Limp Bizkit for 10 years! Multi-platinum internationally acclaimed "Chocolate Starfish and the Hot Dog Flavored Water" (arguably the best band's disc) was released exactly 10 years ago. Wel, in 2003 "Result May Vary" came out, but with a different guitarist Mike Smith$ and 2005 saw "The Unquestionable Truth (Part 1)" recorded with Borland, but it was a mini album that just stirred fans' apatite and could not satisfy it as Part 2 never saw life. Read more
Olimpiisky Sports Complex |
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| 07.10.10 19:00 |
Leonard Cohen (Canada) | |
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One of the most fascinating and enigmatic - if not the most successful - singer/songwriters of the late '60s, Leonard Cohen has retained an audience across four decades of music-making interrupted by various digressions into personal and creative exploration, all of which have only added to the mystique surrounding him. Second only to Bob Dylan (and perhaps Paul Simon), he commands the attention of critics and younger musicians more firmly than any other musical figure from the 1960s who is still working at the outset of the 21st century, which is even more remarkable achievement for someone who didn't even aspire to a musical career until he was in his thirties. Read more
The State Kremlin Palace |
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| 10.10.10 22:00 |
B2 Birthday Party: Yoav (UK) | |
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B2 Club celebrates its 9th birthday and invites you to join the party headlined by Yoav who, besides being an honoured guest, is going to present his new album "A Foolproof Escape Plan". Using the acoustic guitar only Yoav creates rhythms, makes piles of samples, lay them over one another again and again achieving an astonishing sound. Listening Yoav's smashing hit "Club Thing" on the radio, few people guess that his famous club, "electronic" sounding is attained by live percussion. That's why his style is hardly possible to put in a labelled box. It is somewhere and somehow around Radiohead, Depeche Mode, Tricky, The Cure, U2. Yoav himself played with words calling his style The Beast ("beat" plus "beast"). Read more
B2 Club |
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| 17.10.10 21:00 |
Emir Kusturica & The No Smoking Orchestra (Serbia) | |
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Zabranjeno Pusenje (meaning "No Smoking") was a Yugoslavian garage rock band from Sarajevo, closely associated with the New primitivism cultural movement and the radio and television satire show 'Top Lista Nadrealista'. They were one of the most popular musical acts of the 1980s in Yugoslavia, selling hundreds of thousands of records. The band's debut album 'Das ist Walter' (1984), sold surprisingly well, and spawned the hit "Zenica Blues," which boasted sales of 100,000. But the ruling forces weren't about to let Zabranjeno Pusenje repeat that success, hence a crackdown prevented widespread album sales and concerts appearances from taking place. At that time, filmmaker and punker Emir Kusturica joined the band as their bass player and stayed long enough to record "Pozdrav iz Zemlje Safari” in 1987. Read more
Milk |
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| 23.10.10 21:00 |
Faithless (UK) | |
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A prime house-pop group and consistent club act, Faithless is at its core a duo of producers Rollo and Sister Bliss. Before the group officially came together in 1995, Rollo had produced a previous club hit ("Don't You Want Me" as Felix in 1992), plus an album for Kristine W. and remixes for the Pet Shop Boys, Bjork and Simply Red. Sister Bliss, a piano and violin prodigy from the age of five, converted to acid house in 1987, and quickly became one of the UK's best house DJs, also recording several singles as herself. Though the two had begun producing together as early as 1993, Faithless became a stable quartet two years later with the addition of vocalists Jamie Catto (previously in the Big Truth Band) and Maxi Jazz (from the Soul Food Cafe Band). Read more
Arena Moscow |
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| 26.10.10 21:00 |
Public Enemy (USA) | |
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Public Enemy rewrote the rules of hip-hop, becoming the most influential and controversial rap group of the late 1980s and, for many, the definitive rap group of all time. Building from Run-D.M.C.'s street-oriented beats and Boogie Down Productions' proto-gangsta rhyming, Public Enemy pioneered a variation of hardcore rap that was musically and politically revolutionary. With his powerful, authoritative baritone, lead rapper Chuck D rhymed about all kinds of social problems, particularly those plaguing the black community, often condoning revolutionary tactics and social activism. Read more
Milk |
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| 10.10.10-31.10.10 |
Cirque du Soleil: Corteo | |
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From a group of 20 street performers at its beginnings in 1984, Cirque du Soleil is now a major Quebec-based organization providing high-quality artistic entertainment. The company has more than 4,000 employees from over 40 different countries, including 1,000 artists. Cirque du Soleil has brought wonder and delight to almost 90 million spectators in over 200 cities on five continents. The company has received such prestigious awards as the Emmy, Drama Desk, Bambi, ACE, Gemeaux, Felix, and Rose d’Or de Montreux. Cirque du Soleil International Headquarters are in Montreal, Canada. Cirque du Soleil’s mission is to invoke the imagination, provoke the senses and evoke the emotions of people around the world. Read more
Luzhniki Area |
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The virtual community for English-speaking expats and Russians
