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Music and Sound

Giallo - Filth (2022): indietronica with female vocals

Antonina Gorbenko30/10/22 19:13963

Giallo started out as a trip-hop band. At that time, in St. Petersburg — as in Russia in general — there was not much music with a similar sound. In those years, Rekevin, Gillia, and Half Dub Theory were quite famous.

Giallo existed as a band for quite a long time. They recorded several albums and released a couple of remix collections. The collective was actively performing and rotating the list of its members from time to time.

In 2022, the founder and composer of Giallo Aliya Sagitova moved from Russia to Georgia due to the geopolitical situation, and now it is her production studio project. According to her own words, she is going to continue her creative activity and record new tracks with guest musicians.

The single “Filth” was released twice. For the first time, due to the sanctions of an American distributor, it was considered Russian music and got removed from all music platforms. In October 2022, the single was re-released, and let’s hope that this time it will have a long life and many listens, because the single really deserves it. But let’s put politics aside.

Giallo nowadays is quite far from trip-hop standards, it is more of an indie with a specific gloomy electronic sound. Intertwining voices with synth pads and strict beats, soft melodic vocal line plunges into a viscous web of sensations. A stylish soundtrack for this autumn. Deep electronic sound, beautifully charming female vocals, lyrics filled with vivid images — all this merges into an absolutely enchanting final picture, which makes you want to become a part of this very autumn.

The vocal part is performed by Arina Zorokhova, who will appear in most of the songs of the upcoming album “Crystal” scheduled for release this year, as Aliya promises. There will be other collaborations on the album, but the exact details are hidden so far — to become a surprise for the listener.

The song has a mesmerizing minimalist visual representation, with references to the great paintings of David Hockney and the video works of Death in Vegas. This music video has already won several prizes in “The best music video” category of international festivals. The video tells about the relationship of a married couple and shows how far apart could be the people who spent many years together. But additional meanings are in the details — for instance, the appearance of a Lynchian white rabbit from the single cover and a look at the reality through mirrors.


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