As well as a very talented musician, “DIY nobody of the internet void” Alexei Shishkin is also very good at self-deprecation. A prolific creator of music with, “a total disinterest in playing live”, Alexei has described himself as, “a label’s worst nightmare”, a challenge that the ever intriguing Rue Defense were bold enough to take on. We last featured Alexei on this site almost a year ago, when he took us on a track-by-track journey through Open Door Policy, a record as eclectic as it was excellent. He managed to fit another EP, Greenwich Mean, in November and has already finished his next long-player, which will arrive in September. Ahead of the release today he’s sharing the football inspired second single, Tiki Taka (2006).

A song Alexei describes as, “inspired by FC Barcelona, but not by my own choosing“, Tiki Taka (2006) was written in a style Alexei developed with collaborator Bradford Krieger, across the four days of recording that brought about Good Times. As Alexei explains, “Brad and I wrote all the music first and then filled in the gaps with mostly improvised lyrics. I went into the vocal booth, and Brad put on some random soccer highlights for me to watch while singing. It just so happened that he pulled up some supercut of Barca moments“. The irony being that despite writing a song inspired by them, Alexei isn’t a fan. “It pains me because I normally cheer against Barcelona, but I would be a fool to deny their greatness“.

Musically, Tiki Taka (2006) walks a similar path to BC Camplight’s more downbeat moments, as the early flourishes of piano balladeering get lost into something altogether weirder, courtesy of a looping slow-motion guitar solo. The whole thing ends up in a delightfully hazy whirl, Alexei’s repeated lyric, “move it around and around and around”, a peon to the relentless passing and possession retention of Barcelona. To the listener, it becomes a vortex dragging the listener down to the level of a Sevilla defender, their head left in a spin by the brilliance of their opponents, their weaknesses probed and exposed for the world to see.

Songs about football might bring to mind John Barnes rapping about pass-and-move, Baddiel and Skinner counting years of hurt, or, for completely unfathomable reasons, Sweet Caroline, but here Alexei shows it can also be something interesting. Sure, it might not ring out from the terraces of the Nou Camp or even City Stadium, home to his local team, the Richmond Kickers, but with Tiki Taka (2006), Alexei has at least come up with a football song that you might actually want to listen to.

Good Times is out September 5th via Rue Defense. For more information on Alexei Shishkin visit https://linktr.ee/alexeishishkin.