ALBUM OF THE MONTH - ZII - DVAR (2008)

Russian band Dvar’s album Zii is one for the fairies to get down to.

The band has been around since 1995, but no one knows who they really are. Popular rumours have speculated that Dvar was Michael Jackson's secret project, and that the members are patients in a mental institution.

According to limited information about the band, the members’ names are General Bee, Bee Warrior, Bee Girl, Bee Jag and Bee Svizzl. They claim to have heard music in their dreams, presented to them by a being named Dvar. Bees are a recurring theme in the album art, and it kind of sounds like a bee singing, so it’s thought that the Dvar being is a giant bee. The vocals use an unknown language, with a sound pattern similar to ancient Semitic languages, which people have speculated to be the occult Enochian language of the angels.

Zii uses hip hop synths and beats, and silly exclamations spat in rapid fire. Combined with upbeat bitpop and marimba tones, it comes together to create a honey dripping gangster rap. A Russian ethnopop influence is also obvious in the some of songs, such as the jolting synths on Greih, or the drum loops on Miaahu piaahu.

It’s a stark contrast to their earlier darkwave releases (which were still somewhat cutesy because of the high pitched vocals and chiptune electronica, reminiscent of platformer dungeon music), however they had been on a more uplifting tragectory since their 2005 album Hor Hor (which featured the hauntingly bittersweet song Hishmaliin, popular in memes in the 2010s). The band has often been referred to as lightwave, or fantasy pop, because of this.

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