Russian Rock Star Max Pokrovsky ‘Shopping’ Around a Career in UK Pop

Photo from podst.ru

As we’ve established before, I do love me some Russian pop stars.  The next Russian import to try and take the UK by storm is Max Pokrovsky…leader of the Russian rock band Nogu Svelo!, one of Russia’s most successful rock outfits. The band’s popularity stretched all across Eastern Europe as well as amongst Eastern European communities throughout Europe and the rest of the world.

For his UK debut, singer/songwriter Pokrovsky collaborated with producers Martyn Ware (Heaven 17) and Stephen Hague (Pet Shop Boys, Erasure) and sites influences ranging from Daft Punk and Hot Chip to Pet Shop Boys and Madonna.  His first UK single, “Shopping” was recently released in Russia (see the Russian video above) where it went on to perform VERY well both on the charts and as far as airplay.  The song blends rock with electro and pop beats into an interesting fusion of sorts, which is apparently the sort of thing that we can expect on the album.  According to the press release, “the musical results range from electro to rock, from hard grooves to infectious dance.”  Sounds like my kind of music!  “Shopping” has a very retro feel to it which I quite like.  There’s definitely a Pet Shop Boys-like vibe going on here and I think it works…at least in Russian.  I know that once translated into English, some songs lose their original luster (take many of the English tracks found on Shakira’s Laundry Service album) so here’s hoping that the English version of “Shopping” is as fun as the Russian version.  During Pokrovsky’s UK recording sessions, the trio recorded “more than a dozen songs plus remixes.”  “Shopping” has been remixed by Ripper and StoneBridge.  Check out the promo tracklisting below:

Tracklisting:

**EDIT** I seem to have found the English version of the song. I don’t know if this is the studio version…it sure doesn’t sound like it. But you can at least hear how the song translates into English. Gotta admit…it sounds a bit hokey in English. Perhaps the finalized version sounds better.