With love: Philipp Gorbachev

Late Monday afternoon and Mixmag is waiting for Philipp Gorbachev in front of one of the looming Seven Sisters, the Gotham City-esque Soviet buildings that punctuate Moscow’s major ring road. Muscovites – a smart and cosmopolitan bunch – are streaming by in the afternoon sunshine, dwarfed by the Stalin-era building yet blithely unaware of it, just as they’re oblivious to the elderly lady in a babushka begging for money on the steps of an adjacent subway station.

Clad in a bright orange jumpsuit and shades, a series of severe lines etched into his tightly-cropped hair, Philipp is pretty easy to spot even amid the rush-hour chaos. He strides forwards confidently and points at the vertiginous building behind us. “This is the Ministry of Foreign Affairs,” he smiles. “I would have been working here if I hadn’t become an artist.”

Turns out he’s not joking. Raised in a fairly affluent family in the Moscow suburbs (his father was a famous racing car driver), Philipp attended Moscow State University to train as an ambassador and diplomat. Something along the way, though, derailed his civil career and led him to become this orange-clad outlier instead.

On a stroll through his native city, Philipp guides us to what looks like a high street a few minutes from the Ministry building, not seeming to notice the double-takes his outfit provokes. “This was one of the main punk streets during the 90s,” he says. We look at the colourful bunting, rows of international stores and ice-cream slurping families doubtfully: it looks about as punk as Ronald McDonald. But then we turn a corner and find a dilapidated, heavily-tagged wall bearing three large Russian letters: Ц-О-Й.

“This is pretty much all that’s left of that era here,” says Philipp wistfully. “The letters here spell ‘Tsoi’ in English, as in Viktor Tsoi, an exceptional poet and one of the leaders of the post-punk scene. He was the leader of a band called Kino and one of the main counter-culture figures during the Perestroika era until he died in a car crash in 1990.”

It was Kino, Philipp explains as we walk and talk, along with another band from the early 90s, Zvuki Mu, who became his main musical inspirations as a rebellious teenager (he’s 28 now). Zvuki Mu’s drummer was a painter who built a custom drum kit – something that Philipp also now has – and was inspired by acid house way back in 1987. Bass player Sasha let Philiip and his friends use their studio. “These guys were great, they would come in while we played and say things like ‘Hey you’re playing like assholes, you need to do it like this’. We were only 15, just kids, but already watching films and documentaries like Stop Making Sense and Woodstock.”

Zvuki Mu’s singer, Petr Mamonov, also gave Philipp’s father pirated music CDs, which were more often than not passed onto his son, and supplemented with Philipp’s own purchases – early techno by the likes of Kompakt, Green Velvet and Underground Resistance – paid for with his school lunch money.

We stop again halfway down another street, where a white circular building with distinctive diamond-shaped windows stands in a garden. The gate is open, so we go inside. “This was the house and atelier of Konstantin Melnikov, one of Russia’s great Constructivist artists,” says Philipp. The avant-garde is a fitting milieu for an individual as apparently restless as Gorbachev: regarded as one of the Russia’s first international dance artists, he doesn’t DJ, is as comfortable around musicians as he is in a studio and his short but considered oeuvre, as well as his live shows, are heavy on surprises and showcase a tendency to improvise and innovate.

These days Philipp is based in Berlin, where he first moved with his family in the 80s before the Wall fell and they returned to Moscow again. In 2010 he returned to the German capital and teamed up with Matias Aguayo, whose Cómeme label released his early tracks. The ‘In The Delta’ EP (2011), ‘Isaac Johan’ EP (2012) and ‘Hero Of Tomorrow’ 12” (2013) audibly fuse his early post-punk influences with dancefloor house and techno, with additional deft and quirky touches supplied
by Aguayo.“I moved to Schöneberg in Berlin and became good friends with Matias,” says Philipp, who also met the Kompakt crew around this time, “and worked with him at the District Union studios, which were very special: no mixing board, no chairs, no internet, no sofas, just hand-picked analogue equipment and other fun machines.”

This live studio set-up appealed immensely to Phillip’s sensibilities, and it was here that he recorded his debut, the ‘Silver Album’, an upbeat riot of dance music and post-punk that incorporates acid house grooves, intense drumming and exuberantly delivered PiL-style vocals in Russian and English. Featuring John Stanier from Battles, Tobias Freund from Berlin’s Ostgut Ton label and Daniel Maloso, the record was recorded with live instruments and was mixed and mastered in Hollywood by Brian ‘Big Bass’ Gardner (known for his work with Snoop and Dre) and Paul Leary of Butthole Surfers fame.

Which brings us neatly to his second album, ‘Unlock The Box’. Philipp removes his orange overcoat to reveal an equally orange vest. “You have to photograph the back,” he says, turning to reveal four more Russian letters and the number 17.
“The letters stand for Ivan, the fictional protagonist of the new record. The 17 is for Arma17, the creative club community I evolved with here in Moscow.”

The orange outfit was created for the live debut of ‘Unlock The Box’ at the weekend’s Outline Festival, the Arma17 event which, in the last couple of years, has put electronic music on the map in Moscow and beyond. This third instalment was to take place in a Moscow industrial site and feature DJ sets from Ricardo Villalobos, Palms Trax, JD Twitch and Nastia alongside Philipp’s show. However, the authorities closed down the event just a few hours before kick-off, citing security and licensing concerns which the organisers, Arma17 , vehemently countered.

“My first ever show in Moscow was with Arma17,” reminisces Philipp. “They are a professional community on every level, from the drivers to the sound guys. I really love them as people and they operate at a whole differen level of production here. And they’re pretty much alone these days as there is no real industry here – no music PR service or booking agency. I’m thankful to my parents that I can speak English, but many of my friends can’t. They also can’t compete with the records coming in from the West; things like getting a decent mix or mastering is very hard, and thinking about making money is even harder. Only pop and mainstream get any investment. This is why I wanted to come back here to launch the record – to try and help.”

We wander into a traditional Georgian restaurant and Philipp orders a feast of salads, hummus-style dips, breads filled with eggs and cheese, and dumplings the size of footballs filled with different kinds of meat. “These are khinkali,” says Philipp, finally removing his glasses to reveal dark, sharp eyes. “You have to slurp the hot juice out as you eat them.”

As Mixmag struggles like an infant with this supposedly simple procedure, Philipp tells us about ‘Unlock The Box’ – a slick, streamlined techno record initially announced via an edit of one of the tracks (“Ivan, Come On, Unlock The Box”) on a compilation for Nina Kraviz’s label – that seems to have little in common with its predecessor. The title, he explains between slurps, is based on a Russian joke – “something you say to someone when they’re not focused, a bit like a motivational nudge. I chose it because for me this music is not about getting fucked up and losing yourself. For me it’s about getting focused and having your shit together.”

Released on Philipp’s own PG TUNE label and mixed by Phil Moffa in NYC, it was created at District Union in Berlin, but apparently has nothing to do with that city’s own minimal scene – or any other for that matter. “For me it’s a celebration of my personal influences within the dance scene, including the illegal parties and small communities that I was involved with in the 00s and while touring with Cómeme. By necessity these were always about functionality. It’s the same when you are touring around the world: your equipment and sound tends to be minimal. It’s easy to turn into a studio musician if you buy too much, and then you become more isolated. So for me this album and functional kind of sound represents the idea that it’s better to be out there creating music and maintaining communities.”

The sound might be minimal, but Philipp’s performances are increasingly maximal, involving anything from a Tempest and Octatrack to hand-picked synths and custom drumming pads, which allow him to prepare sequences and make live modifications. “I really don’t think people my age want to have more DJs, as there is so much technology around,” he says. “Even as a kid I was dressing up and making performances. I would come down at my parent’s parties wearing three pairs of glasses and a scuba outfit. For me it’s about the relationship with the audience.”

We ask Philipp if these things – technology, the audience – are his biggest motivations. His answer is a complete surprise. “I would say Christianity. I know that for many Western minds the word means horrible things, but for me it is about a dance of the soul and the spirit. If I didn’t pray every day I wouldn’t be doing what I do now. As an artist you have to be in uncomfortable situations, and God has helped me through these. He keeps me humble and understanding that the only way forward is connecting with love to other people.”

As the waiter clears the tables and we slump heavily into our seats, he talks about the current Russian scene, which has dipped over recent years with the closure of several clubs and now the cancellation of Outline. Philipp remains unswervingly positive. “Obviously the cancellation of my live premiere is hard to swallow, but it’s much harder for the organisers who put it all together,” he says. “But at one level, the lack of media or industry gives things a certain purity in that it’s just the artists and the people dancing – a bit like Chicago or Detroit at the beginning. And I’m at the beginning of my career too. I have many more plans still to realise, and I’m looking forward to whatever comes my way.”

‘Unlock The Box’ is out now on PG TUNE