Um, what is so cool or unique about a British label and middle-aged "production team" trotting out yet another manufactured "teen sensation". (/sarcasm) Oh, they're Russian! Wow, that is so incredibly cool! If only I was a confused teenager. (/sarcasm).
They have had "underground" dance club hits for months (the surest sign of a mainstream manufactured sensation). The dance songs are moderately catchy and the song about them falling for "gay boychik" is hilarious for all kinds of unintentional reasons (as is their "sisterly lesbianism shtick"). This works a bit because it is so hackneyed its retro (given the natural Russia=Retro formula). The music is pretty bad.
For retro that works try FischerSpooner.
Jim
Quoting "ChrisD(RJ)" <chrisd at russiajournal.com>:
> Los Angeles Times
> February 5, 2003
> The Russians are coming; Techno-pop t.A.T.u. and pop-country (yes, as in
> Nashville)
> Bering Strait are making moves in the U.S. Is it the beginning of an
> invasion?
> By Dean Kuipers, Special to The Times
>
> In Russia's post-Soviet thaw, the red of the Communist era is being
> replaced by the prospects of green. At least that's what's caught the eye
> of the U.S. record industry as the onetime Siberia of world pop culture
> starts to turn out its first generation of international pop-music
> contenders.
>
> "All the Things She Said" by t.A.T.u., a pair of saucy, dance-pop Lolitas
> from Moscow, is the fastest-rising single in the United States, ranking No.
> 5 on the most recent Billboard sales chart. Driven by that video's
> aggressive sexuality, the group's debut album, "200 Km/H in the Wrong
> Lane," jumped 57 spots in the latest album chart to No. 53.Meanwhile,
> pop-country band Bering Strait earned a Grammy nomination for its
> bluegrass-inflected instrumental "Bearing Straight." Expatriates from
> Obninsk, about 60 miles southwest of Moscow, the seven musicians have been
> in Nashville for almost five years struggling to break into the
> born-in-the-U.S.A. country idiom. The two acts have very little in common,
> other than strict classical music training and mid-'80s upbringings with
> easy access to "decadent" Western pop culture.
>