Fotomoto

Guestpost! Martijn on Fotomoto:

Starting a synth pop band in the Ukrainian town of Zaporozhye (nine hours by train from Kiev) does not seem like the best possible start of a career, but despite that Anton Singurov and Serge Sergyeev founded their bedroom project Fotomoto there in 1999. With the recruitment of Alex Ivanov and Olya Volodina not much later, Fotomoto became a four-piece and, most importantly, female vocals and French lyrics were added to the hitherto instrumental songs. The songs, which sound like Stereolab has gone for real communism and moved into a Soviet style blocks of flats, caught the attention of few people outside their native Ukraine, among them a friendly, bearded man from Suffolk. Luckily for Fotomoto, this man hosted a BBC radio show under the moniker of John Peel, where he played their songs as early as 2001. The band eventually came over to the UK for a Peel session a few months before Peel's sudden death in 2004 and came back to Western Europe to play some shows in 2005. To date, they have released four albums, including the 2005 compilation Model, which is probably the best introduction to the band. Alternatively, a number of songs can be listened to via their MySpace, including covers of Joe Le Taxi and Voyage,Voyage.

Fotomoto - Le Sport, La Musique
Fotomoto - Le Passage
Fotomoto - Edmund