Track Of The Day XENIA BELIAYEVA
Being mostly a blog for little-known and up-and-coming bands/solo projects, for once we make an exception with the intriguing Moscow-born, Hamburg-based electronic artist Xenia Beliayeva.
Taking a look at the long creative journey through record production, live performances, radio host and DJ sets, driven by an uncompromising passion for music that brought the Russian native from Moscow to Germany from a young age, I was particularly struck by her early A&R work for renowned labels such as Playhouse, Klang Elektronik, Mute, and Ladomat, above all the first 2 sister labels based in Frankfurt with their refined and minimal brand of techno and house, which in the late 90s-early 00s, I used to constantly follow, together with Perlon, and whose vinyls I still own; I’m talking about acts such as Isolée, Farben, Alter Ego, Bergheim34 and the better known Villalobos.
Xania became particularly renowned through a string of singles for Anthony Rother‘s label Datapunk, the Offenbach electro finest that I had the pleasure to dance with at the infamous truly ‘underground techno club, in the center of Frankfurt, U60311, as well as a 12″ in collaboration with Fixmer/McCarthy and opening for the legendary Kraftwerk and French techno pioneer and F Communications label co-founder Laurent Garnier, my Parisian memories with this latter’s live show in 1999 are not so unforgettable, to be honest.
With three studio albums under her belt, the latest “Riss” in 2018, Xenia Beliayeva has ceaselessly explored both retro and futuristic multifaceted shades of dark-clad electronic music, with a neon-lit dancefloor edge, haunted by her magnetic and seductive vocalizations.
Following a fair amount of singles throughout 2022, she ushers in the new year with the latest shadowy, nocturnal, and throbbing Synthpop number “Words”.
Thought-provoking lyrics contemplate the universal nature of “Words” and the multi-layered role they play in each of our heads.
Teetering between sweeping coldness and enveloping warm passion, the track unrolls snappy crisp drum kicks and velvety bouncing bassline oscillations, relentlessly marching and pulsing in entrancing unison, whilst icy bright ripples of emotionally poignant synths swirl atop sensual, aloof female vocals and distorted robotic layers, building reflective, off-kilter auras of love and desire.
Keep up with Xenia Beliayeva:
