nuts4chic: Uh… Smatka… do you guys have some time to sit down for a couple minutes like we planned?

SMATKA: Yeah, No worries. I lost my shoes on stage, hopefully our tour manager gets them.

nuts4chic: OK. Does that happen a lot?

SMATKA: Pretty much every gig – but we’ve got some really great people helping us. Our live show is as much a part of our concerts as the music, with an emphasis on fashion (holds up dress), visuals and getting the crowd involved.

They certainly do get the crowd involved. Where the likes of Selfish Cunt’s Martin Tomlinson may go all out on the aggressive punk routine, Smatka seemingly switches between personalities – outdoing the aforementioned shit-stirrer in the theatrical steaks. At times crying in toddler like persona, then sticking a stiletto through the ear of the nearest punter a moment later.

The stage becomes a melting pot of sex, violence and … er… shaving cream. Skutnik, the rather well dressed decadent playboy looking bass player, seems to keep things grounded. The only other member of the Smatka Molot band, he stands as a pillar – keeping things under control while everybody else is sprayed with shaving cream.

nuts4chic: Why the shaving cream?

SKUTNIK: It goes together with the song (starts singing) Let’s shave together come one, come on! For us, the notion of shaving is also political – not just sexual. During the initial stages of the wars in the Middle East, we were looking at all the pictures of the supposed enemies. They were all bearded men, and the notion of shaving the beard, and almost demasculating these men was an interesting political algorithm to toy with. On the one hand you had the crew cut, shaven Americans versus the hairy Middle Eastern rebels. The melody is very similar to (starts singing) Let’s Come Together…. Right Now. It’s a hit for the new century! Ever notice how Che Guevara looks like Bin Laden….. he just doesn’t sell so many shirts. Not here anyway.

nuts4chic: What are your political points then? SMATKA: Well we don’t align ourselves with a political party or notion, we believe in independent thinking, but are decidedly left wing in our thoughts. We’re anti-homogenisation of culture, because it is

more like American imperialism isn’t it? You look at a high street in London, and it’s almost the same as anywhere else in Europe. It’s decked out in McDonalds, Starbucks, Burger King, just in repetition.

All originally residents of Berlin, they moved to London some months ago, and have been causing waves of approval amongst London’s gig goers. A mix of hardcore opera, bizarre rock, and sexual political theatrical epilations, the troupe have been expanding the “London scene” away from the wankery of brit rock bands emulating the former glories of the Clash. nuts4chic: Coming from Germany, and writing songs about Nazis is a bit taboo isn’t it? SMATKA: Not really

SKUTNIK: Look, we’re clearly anti-Nazis, but being German, we can’t just hide away from the past. It’s a shit thing, and is often addressed, but we have focused on a minor aspect of the war. Our song 721 is about the German Boxer – Troellman. He was a gypsy, and was one of, if not the best boxers in Germany at the time. He was a sex symbol, flirting with the women by the arena during a match, but he wasn’t Aryan. The Nazis couldn’t have him, a Roma, beating their blonde-haired-blue-eyed bullshit poster boys. He was told to take a dive, but instead turned up at the match with bleached hair and skin chalked white. He was taken off to a concentration camp and killed.

It’s this combination of political awareness, sexuality and weirdness that makes Smatka Molot such an interesting find in the over-hyped monotonous London scene. The music is wry, spurting, spitting, ejaculating political and sexual algorithms over the listeners face in a manner that can only be described as sadistically pleasing. It’s almost as if you’re seduced to come closer, you are drawn in by the sheer sexiness of the music and image, only to punched out by the object of your lust. Smatka Molot are currently unsigned, but with interest already heating up between a couple of the majors, they’re on the tip of the cliff which is going to snap- sending them to the alternative acclaim they thoroughly deserve. Lets just see how many A&R boys they manage to shave on the way!