[Edit 7 September 23: Welcome, readers of Dave Moore's Substack! I am a little abashed, like I haven't swept the floors correctly before inviting you in, since the below was written with an audience already familiar with Ninety One in mind. Ninety One is a four-member pop group based in Almaty, Kazakhstan, and active since 2015, and I have been following them fervently for several years now, largely because they make excellent-but-also-thought-provoking pop music. If you would like a more detailed introduction (and reviews of their songs), go here, and if you like what you read below, check out the essay series on idol pop I wrote featuring them back in 2020. And if the term "Bloody January" doesn't mean anything to you, see this reblogged post or this series on The Diplomat for context.]
I'm still having them. The work ain't that deep, I can imagine you saying; there's an argument that by spending so much more time thinking about this album than any of the thousands of other albums it's theoretically competing with, I'm going to IKEA-effect my way into arguing that Gap is a better album than it is. But it's just as well that I waited this long, since we now have information we didn't have access to back in early July, namely: the album seems to have tanked enough that Ninety One is presently planning to take a poorly-defined, all-encompassing, possibly-multi-year hiatus after their planned concerts in Astana on 25 August and Almaty on 1 September (which will be the eighth anniversary of their debut and the release of "Aiyptama").
I honestly don't know exactly what's going on; I've been feeding fansite Instagram Stories into machine-translation engines for a couple days now in hopes of getting more information, without much success. Apparently ZaQ was complaining on TikTok that Eaglez weren't streaming or generally appreciating the songs enough. (Keep in mind that, since there's no physical copy of Gap that we know of, the bulk of the album's contribution to Ninety One's revenue will be via streams.) The hiatus threat may simply be a poorly-thought-out, short-term PR strategy to goose Eaglez into action. I hope not; I'd like to think these guys are above blackmailing their fans. There are two other possibilities, to my mind:
Things actually aren't that bad. They pinned a lot of hopes on Gap, and cooked and recooked it; they've said several times that this album means a lot to them personally. @qforqazaq mentioned in a reply here that they've been losing ground to newer artists such as Shiza and Yenlik. They may be taking the lower-than-expected streaming numbers more to heart than they should, and acting in unexpected frustration. If that's the case, then we'll get a walking back from the "hiatus, no activities, no solo albums" stance they apparently took on TikTok fairly soon. (One argument in favor of this: I find it hard to believe that Alem would agree to commit to no solo releases. I find it even harder to believe that Veronika would stand idly by while Alem committed to no solo releases.)
Things are actually worse than they indicated, and "multi-year hiatus" should be understood to mean "we're breaking up but don't want to say so too bluntly." In this scenario, they're burnt the hell out and possibly losing money. Managing a music group post-COVID is proving overwhelming; they're losing that audience that extends them sympathy, and the opposition that has plagued them since "Aiyptama" has not gone away, in fact possibly hardened—that might explain why they haven't booked tour dates anywhere but Almaty and Astana. Disbanding-without-disbanding allows Bala to study in the United States (all I've heard is "Bala is thinking about going to the United States to study," no further indications of when, what, or where), Alem to continue the TV work he seems to enjoy, ZaQ to focus exclusively on rap, and Ace to try out acting again. If that's the case, then no amount of frantic streaming-party arrangements will dissuade them.
So now Gap has some baggage it didn't initially have, as The Album That Might Have Undone Ninety One. And if we're losing the group—I sure as hell hope not, though Scenario #2 above feels more plausible the more I think about it—then what did we get in return?
Gap didn't do what I expected it to do. Go back and look at my predictions: I'm almost 100% wrong. (Bala did cutely speak some Korean in the "Biz" behind-the-scenes video, though.) There's almost no English. There's not even a song called "Gap"! (Or, for that matter, any sign of the song that closed out ZaQ's "Angst" trailer.) One of the things it didn't do, that I was expecting it to do, was disappoint me. Almost nothing misfires. I found "Aperem Ai" fairly bland on first listen, and still am not sure what they were trying to accomplish with "Dunie," but generally the songs range from good to really good. I'll review them all one by one in upcoming weeks, but suffice to say I'd put "Blue," "Ego," and "Zulym" up there among their best works.
It could just be that my taste and the taste of the average Almaty teenager don't match up. But I have an idea about what's going on with Gap that may have made it less of an easy sell. Granted, this is an idea based on much ignorance, and if you know I'm wrong, you should absolutely pop into the notes or my (unreliable) Ask box and say so. Or reblog. Or email me. Or post to /r/stupidamericans. (It exists!) As soon as better-informed people shoot my theory down I'll update. That said, here goes:
One of my wrong predictions was that we wouldn't get English subs for most of the album. As it turned out, every song got official English subs with its YouTube upload. Hooray! So I pulled all nine SRT files and compiled them into a Google Document, because after my first listen or two of "Zulym," especially, I started to wonder if there was a theme poking out.
I shouldn't make too much of this, translation difficulties being what they are, but it hasn't been all that clear what the album is about. In the Esquire podcast ZaQ claimed that the Gap era stretches back before the album and will continue after the album (not for much longer if y'all break up, she mutters bitterly). I think @bbcblackjack said they said it was mostly about things in their personal lives, but a lot of this album reads unhappily, and their lead lyric-writer is, as best we know, happily married. Ace said at one point that it was a transformation of their grief. But grief over what?
Let's go to the English lyrics:
Bad habits are quickly transmitted, and who did you adopt yours from?
If you are looking for energy at the bottom of darkness, you must know that it will absorb you
The power of today is the brain
Only a fool doesn't know it
Because he's just an unloved child in a ruined house
He is seeking the debt he gave to love in the crowd and devouring others
It's like a cycle of depression, get out of it, love yourself! ("Jur Mapelep")
It's like I'm disappearing, even if you hug me ("Tartty")
The looted soul is in the same state,
Looking for own heart at the bottom of the wine
In this city there are only zombies
There is no sense in them! Just like in you!
The soul locked in your body is howling...
Don’t look in the mirror at night
Don’t look in the mirror at night
Otherwise you’ll see who’s inside there
Otherwise you’ll see who’s inside there
There’s sadness there, there’s the night there
Your smile won’t return there now ("Blue")
To retreat without fighting
Together from the same fate
Is pure defeat
Such an end
Is mutual trauma
That does not pity anyone -
What kind of weapon is this? ("Ottegi"; that's the chorus)
What happened to this world
It is filled with anger and pain
Who will heal the heart
That hurts so much?
What happened to this world
When will we change it?
Love is the last fortress
For humanity
I'll run away from the city, I'll run away from home
I’m running away from myself, when will I start to believe in myself?
I’m running away from everyone, I’m running away from the world
I’m running away from you, when will I come to myself?
I’m hiding once again, and coming out, I’m suffocating
An evil, destroyed world
I’m running away from my own guise, I remain alone
How many people like me are there? ("Dunie")
They say there are only ashes and burns left after us...
Your external point of view on me
Is wrong, because the screen is blue, but not because of us
but not because of us
They say about us we had sold our souls, their lives
Are like a sweet biscuit
And I just worked tirelessly,
Yo, if you move like me,
You'll catch fire on the first day ("Ego")
It's definitely the end of the world...
Like a villain in love
Leaving nothing of this world
I’ll ruthlessly burn everything to ashes...
It is necessary to go through various difficulties,
work hard, to burn everything!...
I can do it for the sake of love,
and they can just do it.
Who's the real villain? Huh?
Who's the real villain? ("Zulym")
So there's a great many invocations of "the city," and a desire to get away from a city full of zombies; a lot of references to fire, smoke, ashes, and the destruction of burning everything down; a number of references to the "villain"; a desire to be the villain; an idea that "the villain" actually gets things done, even if the actions are destructive. Otherwise it's just running, hiding, retreating without fighting, and a subsequent self-contempt.
Y'all, if there's an obvious candidate for "the city" in Ninety One's work, it's Almaty. And, for those of us who weren't there, a reminder: this is what Almaty looked like a year and a half ago.
Another reminder: as best we know the guys weren't able to do anything. "Batyr and I were going to go to the rally," Ace told Elle last year, "but when we heard explosions outside the window we changed our minds." (I've since heard that one of those explosions was near enough to Alem and Veronika's home that they had to flee.) Their city was burning around them, and they couldn't stop it, and they couldn't get online, and whatever hopes they had for a better-governed Kazakhstan melted away minute by minute, and a year and a half later they still haven't been able to do anything. In short: I think Gap is Ninety One's reaction to Bloody January.
Now, again, they haven't said this. So it could be that I'm totally off the mark. And I really have no idea what conversations about Bloody January look like in Kazakhstan right now. It could be that there's lots of room to talk about the protests and the destruction and the general awfulness openly, and Ninety One's restraint makes them look weak-kneed. It could be that there's no room to talk about the protests and the destruction et cetera, and Gap is an unwelcome downer. If you're going to make pop songs, the Kazakhstani populace may be saying to Ninety One, then make, you know, pop songs. Entertain us. Leave your grief out of it.
And Ninety One did in fact try to make pop songs. "Aperem Ai" aims to be a sweet little love ditty; I'm not surprised they've marked it as the next single and plastered it all over their TikTok. "Tartty" is a very pretty gift for your lo-fi playlist. "Blue" is Ninety One's equivalent of "Midnight Sky." "Ego" is a relatively straightforward assert-our-virtues-destroy-our-enemies-and-provoke-the-lamentations-of-their-women track. But Gap begins with "Who is real here? Who is real now?" and ends with "Who's the real villain?" As if the guys can't get away from the possibility that they're the villains, even though they didn't burn anything. They sure don't seem to think they're the heroes. Which may be why "Biz," as an introductory volley, sounds less convincing than "Bata" and "Men Emes" did.
I think it's a better album for including the grief, for what it's worth. But then, I would. One of the things I've loved about them all along—emphasis on "long," it'll be seven years come November—is that they always seemed to want to do more than just make pretty pop songs, and do more with their pretty pop songs than is usual. It makes them a richer and more interesting group. You think I could have written essay after essay about just any group? But it's possible their ambition, combined with Kazakhstan's current ambiguously ominous political situation, ended up coming back to bite them.
I really hope not. Obviously. I'd rather have them separate and fulfilled than together and frustrated, but more than either of those I'd rather they be able to accomplish what they want to accomplish as Ninety One, and not walk away feeling battered and impotent. Greedily; I'll miss them, if they go. It'll feel like a meaner, less interesting world without them.
But y'all tell me if I'm way off base. And I will be doing individual song reviews: Spotify has credits available (albeit not separated into music and lyrics). Look for those coming up, though I may not be able to get to them right away; I had to put off some chores to get this written.
