Producer Tyurin explained the secret of the longevity of the Reflex group: they were always ahead of their time

On the occasion of its 20th anniversary, the Reflex group released a double anniversary edition – a collection of the best songs from 12 albums of different years plus five new songs, including the rather fresh single “Avatar”, which is only two months old. “ZD”, not without nostalgia, examines the dark cover of the disc with a portrait of lead singer Irina Nelson and recalls its turbulent disco past to the music of not far away years.

The collection was released on double CD and vinyl, and all songs were specially remastered for release on records. People whose ears are tuned to vinyl usually have high-quality speakers and other equipment through which they want to hear all the subtleties and nuances. You also have to match the sound quality. By the way, vinyl is now loved not only by music lovers. Fashionable high school girls and young college girls also love to throw parties with real records, although this is rather formal.

From the very beginning, the first disc sets you up for a frantic dance speed, starting with the track “High Beam”. You press play and are instantly transported to the beginning of the 2000s with their discos and raves until dawn. In this sense, the release “Reflex 20 years” is a real time machine. All hits – from “Meet the New Day” (from the first album in 2001), through Non stop, “Go crazy”, “Stars fell”, “First time” – retained the historical sound of the 2000s, cold, atmospheric electronics and the appropriate voice in then fashionable processing. Electronic engineers liked to weave naturalistic sounds into all this – nature, rain, road noise. This can also be heard in the “historical” Reflex tracks. The frantic dance gave the feeling of the wind in your hair and the desire to rush along the track at the maximum permissible speed…

Along with the high-speed flight with Reflex, memories emerge of what pop music in general looked like back then. At that time, few people succeeded in solo careers in pop; at the beginning of the 2000s there was a real boom in girl groups. Star “solitude” on stage was the lot of already honored pop figures, and the half-naked crowd in stockings and cleavage testified to something new, fresh, and relevant. In addition, in groups it was possible to rotate soloists, and few people noticed this. Remember the crowds of endless “Brilliant”, “Tutsi”, “VIA Gra”, “Factory”, “Serebro”, which ultimately culminated in the meme group “Singing Cowards”? As a cultural phenomenon it was very beautiful. But it was so easy to get confused among all the beauties filling this phenomenon!

Reflex was also originally a group with two soloists and a DJ on stage, then it became a group with three soloists, and now finally, to be honest, there is only one real soloist left. Since 2014, there is no more “escort”. But Reflex has always stood out from the crowd primarily due to the internal orientation of the entire team towards Irina Nelson. Her persona, charisma, voice, manner of movement, lifestyle were the main components of the project. No matter how offensive it may have been to the other soloists, the public perceived them as an entourage. But in fairness, it should be noted that this retinue was worthy of the queen around whom they danced.

Irina not only wrote the lyrics to some of the tracks herself, she was the main inspirer of the project and would not perform anything she did not like. Surprisingly for these times, not a single song of the seemingly pop group Reflex (and pop music is now forgiven for all kinds of vulgarity, swear words and incorrect accents in words) has any problems with the meanings, rhymes and rhythm of the poems. The lyrical component and essence of the “grand lady” as a soloist is revealed to the maximum in the block of slow songs on the second, more “calm” disc: “I broke the sky”, “Talk to me”, “Grown up girls”, “I will be your sky”. All the promised new items are also located here. The second part of the anniversary collection seems to have been selected for gatherings of grown-up girls – to remember, to cry, and to move around.

The international hit Only You with the group Savage is also included here, which sounds even more interesting than in the original. Roberto Zanetti, the author of the famous project from the 80s, himself came out on Reflex.

“We recorded a duet with Savage several years ago,” recalls producer and composer Vyacheslav Tyurin. — Roberto often came here to discos in the 80s. He was looking for a voice in Russia to record this song and enter the Russian market. We kept the sounds of the 80’s but made it sound modern. This is completely our arrangement, and we are happy with how it turned out in the end…

Over time, Reflex, like a chameleon, adapted to fashion trends, rather than going against them. Although, according to Mr. Tyurin, they always went one step ahead and played EDM (electronic dance music – a combination of different genres of a wide range of electronic music) back then, and now everyone plays it. Indeed, at the moment EDM is the most popular style in world pop music.

From year to year, Tyurin’s production fervor at Reflex only flared up. It is difficult to meet such a passionate fan of his music: for him, Reflex is not just a matter of life, but also an opportunity for full creative realization. Over the entire 23 years of the group’s existence, Vyacheslav has revealed his composing talent as a melodist from almost all sides. Perhaps the track “Grown Up Girls” has become one of the most revealing in this sense.

A reasonable question is why are they celebrating their 20th anniversary now, when almost three years have passed since this calendar event? As always, global cataclysms intervened: the release of the album and all related events were planned in advance, but the pandemic disrupted all plans and the celebration had to be postponed.

“These songs were written from the bottom of my heart,” comments the producer and composer. — Today I talked to the audience during the concert, admitted that when I write songs, I can cry and laugh with you. This is probably the secret of our songs. The secret of any unbiased project, and Reflex has never been biased, is sincerity. For sincerity, people have loved for decades…

As for sincerity, after listening to the album, one comes to the realization that in 23 years Reflex has not recorded a single aggressive or angry song that would contain cruelty or even barbs towards the offender, who, as a rule, are men in women’s songs. Sheer love, tenderness and dizziness from a hormonal cocktail.

Published in the newspaper “Moskovsky Komsomolets” No. 29128 dated October 4, 2023

Newspaper headline:
Dizziness from hormonal cocktail