We Sent a Pair of Plane Mad Russian Disco Producers to an Aviation Museum for the Day

Life can be so simple sometimes, can't it? A good meal with friends; an ice cream at the beach; managing to get to the swimming pool at just the right time to make sure you're not stuck doggy-paddling behind Ethel and Fred for half an hour. Simple pleasures are about as much as we can ever really ask for.

Another simple pleasure: getting a group who've just released an EP called Plane Goes East to spend the day at an aviation museum in eastern Europe! That's the power us journalists have these days! The group in question are Russian duo Simple Symmetry, whose star-spangled latest EP for the esteemed Disco Halal imprint is even more fun that flying business class to Las Vegas.

We sent the boys out to Monino Aviation Museum, near Moscow, just so they could spend the day gawping at planes. It looks a bit like Duxford, but y'know, in Russia, so obviously cooler. Check out the EP in full below, along with a quick chat with the lads about all things aviation.

THUMP: How often have you visited the museum in question?
Simple Symmetry: Actually that was our first time there. This spot is located in a place called Monino, which is 60 km (37 miles) from Moscow. But it was really worth a trip, the time stood still there. The museum was founded in 1958 and back in the day you had to order a special pass to enter, because it was located on the military city's territory, but now its much easier. You just buy the ticket, and you're inside.

Would you recommend it to anyone who finds themselves in Moscow for the first time?
We'll recommend it only to the guys obsessed with aviation. There's a lot of stuff to see in Moscow for the first time and it would be quite freaky to go so far outside of Moscow to see the old planes and explanation desks in Cyrillic.

Musicians love to moan about how boring and tiring constant air travel is…do you feel the same? Or is every plane journey a treat to be savoured?
The annoying thing about air travel is that it's just so difficult to sleep in planes. And if you finally fall asleep your body feels awful when you wake up. We're missing beds in the planes! But we try to stay positive about it and always remember Louis CK's amazing speech about flying (check it right now if you haven't seen yet!). So like him we consider all this shit a miracle.

Any hairy air-encounters you want to regale us with?
Nothing exceptional on that front, just the usual snoring neighbour stories.

Finally…design wise…what's the best plane EVER made?
Concorde and THE Boeing 307 Stratoliner. Pure beauty!

Now you've enjoyed the music and the interview, why not soak up all these fantastic photos—it's nearly as good as being at the museum itself!