SOVIET SUPREM

Pinning these likely lads down in the form of a biography is no mean task. It's like the puppet show: they're right behind you, then they're not, except who's Punch?  Well to start with, there's two of them, and they've both knocked around a bit. You could even call them repeat offenders. 

On the left, there's R-Wan (pronounced Air-One) who came to the forefront fronting the Paris-based Java-le-groupe (motto: sex, accordion and alcohol!), on extended leave to fulfil solo projects (and even if he's on the left, he hasn't actually left).

On the other left side (that's right, or rather it's not wrong, since they're both on the left!), Toma Feterman, famed in France as the lead for La Caravane Passe, 6 records in 10 years, who'll have a crack at any instrument, the master and chief of gypsy jazz mischief.

OK if we're on the left, let's see what's left of the left! First, they sounded each other out. R-wan featured in the Caravane and hung out with Toma (now Feetermix) was cooking up his Balkan electro efforts along with DJ TaGaDa. It promised to be explosive. By dint of hanging out, they teamed up. Came up with a name, Soviet Suprem, so be it supreme, with a constructive programme: light punk, to a Bolshoi gypsy beat, with cumbia and hip hop for diversion, even strains of sirtaki. All that on a red-hot dance floor.

On my left, Sylvester Stalin, also to my left, (that's right!) John Lenin. And DJ Krust Chef as the heavyweight in the background giving the beat (and marching orders). Any resemblance to former contributors to the might of Moscow is fully fortuitous (and would warrant a stint in the gulag).

Soviet Suprem's colours are of course, in shades of deepest red, merrily mingling the iron curtain with Pavlov (of reflex fame), Bolshoi (ballet) and Tito (Yugoslavia). Gulag meets jetlag, smirnoff meets popopopof, so long as it rhymes, making sense is not a requirement Keeping up the banter is their mantra.

A far cry from collectivisation and flag-raising ceremonies: our two heroes readily call themselves "Bolshies", in fact they're Pavlov punks producing brass band music for weddings, funerals, christenings and revolution; in short, it's frantic anti-dialectic russo-tzigano-balkanico-rom, as the French put it.

Soviet Suprem, an elite commando with a libertarian twist, more black than red, exiting through the conventional gift shop. With John Lenin and Sylvester Stalin, it's power to the party people. Something the Soviets didn't put on their programme.