A scene from Peaches Does Herself.
Toronto-born electronic musician and rapper Peaches (née Merrill Nisker), created this filmed document of her burlesque rock opera in her adopted city of Berlin.
The songwriter, whose admirers and collaborators over the past couple of decades have included R.E.M., Joan Jett, Iggy Pop and Pink, uses her sex-themed songs to tell the story of a young woman, her drum machine, and her search for erotic and musical expression.
Mixing humour and pro-sex didacticism in a way that's more like performance art than pop product, Peaches Does Herself is constantly inventive, from the Road Warrior/Rocky Horror fantasy costumes, to the hump-happy choreography and to such collaborators as New York stripper-comic Sandy Kane and transsexual porn-star Danni Daniels.
On the downside, the music, which defaults to skronky and repetitious, begins to feel like sandpaper on your eardrums. Redemption is provided by the goofy absurdity of her lyrics: "Sounds like menorah. My labia majora. Dancin' the whora. Soft as angora. You can't ignor-a-it." She's right – you can't ignore-a-it at all.
Liam Lacey