Хамерман Знищує Віруси і Олександра Морозова — Ctrl+Alt+Del (2020)

The latest album by Hammerman Destroys Viruses showed the band in a somewhat unusual way to those who did not follow the band's live performances very actively. We tell you what makes the acoustic "Ctrl + Alt + Del" special and how the perception of the band's well-known lyrics was influenced by the play of pianist Oleksandra Morozova.

There is no arguing that 2020 caused many difficulties for the most of us – wars, epidemics, economic crises and global conflicts were especially hard on mankind for the last 11 months. In such moments you begin to reconsider your own values ​​and revise what is the most important to you and what is that you want to save from the relentless chaos of life. At the same time, you want to distract yourself from everyday burdens for a moment and see life as a colorful absurd carnival, just to make fun of what made you frown yesterday. Well, no one in our region can combine funny and serious, subtle and profane so easily as the most adequate band of Ukraine – Хаммерман Знищує Віруси (Hammerman Destroys Viruses).

For those who have never heard of Хаммерман Знищує Віруси, alson known as HZV, their live performances will be the best first shot to introduce them. For each show, the duo prepares special stage costumes, the most innocent of which were outfits of mermaids or gorgeous red lingerie, and the brightest ones were the outfits of chicken with buckwheat, Freemasons, traditional values, Ukrainian playboy model Dasha Astafyeva or even real cow stomachs used as clothes. However, usual socks that Volodymyr Pakholyuk and Albert Tsukrenko weared on their genitals as their only piece of clothing at a performance in Ivano-Frankivsk were the most controversial, you could see it at the Porto Franko festival in 2018. Although the mayor of Ivano-Frankivsk, Ruslan Martsinkiv, did not see this performance, he was so inspired by it that he ordered to consecrate the Potocki Palace, where the concert took place, in an attempt to remove the curse left by the HZV’s presence.

However, stage costumes isn`t their only strength. From the very beginning of band`s existence in 1997, Хаммерман Знищує Віруси sings in Russian about the most painful issues of our existence with the aid of punky electronic music. Well, not quite "Russian", - in fact, it is rather the ironic argot language of the Ukrainian playwright Les` Podervianskyi which is very suitable for Ukrainian tragicomic stories specifically. The plot of each of their songs is a little drama with strong elements of travesty. The listener always has a choice here - either to bang their head to ingenious hit choruses like "I`ll fuck life in the ass and be a boxer like Klitschko" ("Жизнь поімєть в очко і стать боксьором як Клічко") and "In this life, you`ll be a winner if you have a longer weiner" ("В жизни тот сильнее, у кого писюн длиннее") or make a based on lyrics reflection on the meaning of life.

Considering the general theatricality of their performances and the nature of their songs, we could even say that Хаммерман Знищує Віруси is, in some way, a neo-cabaret band. The duo decided to confirm this point with a new album, recorded together with the pianist Oleksandra Morozova, which was released on the 2nd of August and is called "Ctrl + Alt + Del". This is band's first album, where all electronic effects have been replaced by a single instrument – the piano. It seems like an unexpected move of the project that has not changed the format of its music for more than 20 years. However, listeners have also heard this version of HZV – the band sometimes undertakes acoustic experiments during the live performances. For example, in 2014 they performed with the help of a string quartet at the festival named "16+", and in the live show "The Year of Hammerman in Chinese calendar" performed with live rhythm section and Chinese choir. Their collaboration with Oleksandra Morozova specifically has been lasting for about 4 years already and also includes numerous live performances.

If we talk about Morozova's piano style, it doesn't really resemble a typical harsh and loud cabaret attitude – she has, on the contrary, she follows a very classic, soft and somewhat strict manner, which you would rather expect from Genesis, Van Der Graaf Generator or David Bowie on their 70’s albums. This is a felicitous decision: due to the general ironic and grotesque nature of the lyrics and singing of Albert and Volodymyr, such soft and classy framing only highlights their lewdness. The same idea is suggested to us by the album cover, where the elegant Oleksandra, sitting turned back, looks at the two naked butts of our heroes, which, moreover, refers us to the work of Salvador Dali.

The songs offered by this album are the long-known hits already: "Элитарное искусство" ("Elitist Art"), "Фрейд" ("Freud"), "Ебацца хочется як волку" ("I Wanna fuck like a wolf") and others, almost all of which could be heard on the previous albums or singles of HZV. Due to the lack of electronic beats and overall concept of this record, there are no usual dance bangers here, but instead of it we got more drama and lyricism than ever. If the first 7 songs are in one way or another fun or dramatic numbers, the closing songs "Кипяток" ("Boiling water") and "Ctrl + Alt + Del" on the contrary, both surprise us with a subtle lyricism. Although, let's be honest, this division is quite formal – almost all songs of HZV easily combine black humor about death, shit and sex with subtle and heartbreaking troubles of our lyrical hero.

So, the iconic duo Хаммерман Знищує Віруси sing us their good old songs and tell us about even older things in their album "Ctrl + Alt + Del": sex, death, show business, sex, art and more sex. But we all like it, because it's good old HZV. I`d say, it`s even better: HZV of a minimalistic format! So hurry to take a listen of them until Mayor Martsinkiv has consecrated whole Ukraine, and while Vova and Albert are still ready to wear superhero lace panties and show us life the way only they can show.

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Хамерман Знищує Віруси is a Ukrainian band formed in 1997 in Sumy. The basis of the band consists of Volodymyr Pakholyuk (vocals, lyrics) and Albert Tsukrenko (vocals, music). In addition, the band has a concert lineup that can be heard and seen live.

HZV has several albums, mini-albums, and singles. As for their work, it is a mixture on the verge: surzhyk, obscene language, postmodernism, irony, and many other strange components in one bottle.

Хамерман Знищує Віруси in social networks:

https://www.facebook.com/HZVBAND/
https://h-z-v.bandcamp.com/
https://www.youtube.com/user/alikzubr