Nearly everyone I’ve shown this video has said they wished they understood the lyrics. I haven’t been able to find the article for some time, but I remember years ago reading an interview in which the artist said that the video was supposed to be about people’s tendency to shape their identities according to their profession, trying to make themselves more closely resemble some kind of ideal prototype of a master of this occupation. If there are any Russian-speakers out there, maybe you can confirm or refute this?
Regardless of the meaning, there is something I find oh so visually satisfying in the marching sequence and the clay homunculus that accompanies each profession. The rap might be a bit abrasive, but now that this one’s a staple of my collection, I always find myself trying to mumble along despite not speaking a word of Russian.
And if you dig the featured artist, maybe search our archives for Lyapis Trubetskoy…
(Thank you, Warren, for showing me this years ago.)
