It’s murder on the dancefloor.
In the propulsive opening track to exiled electronic duo AIGEL’s new album, vocalist Aigel Gaisina inhabits the role of a DJ whose beats kill a “fool old man” on the dancefloor for “drinking my people’s blood.”
“Dirty job, dirty cash, dirty stuff / Though my soul is pure,” she intones.
AIGEL’s first album in five years, “Killer Qız” is as much an account of living in exile after being forced out by an oppressive regime as it is an exploration of life, death, human nature and rebirth.
Gaisina, a poet from the republic of Tatarstan, and Ilya Baramiia, an electronic musician from St. Petersburg, rose to fame with AIGEL’s dark, hypnotic fusion of electronic and hip-hop. Songs like “Tatarin,” “You're Born” and “Piyala” racked up millions of streams, and the band headlined festivals and appeared on major Russian late-night shows.
After the full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, the duo continued to perform in Russia and speak out against the war. But even that became impossible after they were placed on a government blacklist, and they left the country with their families later that year.
What followed was ...
[Short citation of 8% of the original article]