Quad Throw Salchow Primitive (2008)
In figure skating, the “Throw Quad Salchow” belongs to one of the sport’s most challenging moves. Executed in pair skating, it requires the male partner to launch his partner into the air, allowing her to complete four full rotations before landing on the ice. The jump is entered from a backward inside edge, and timing is crucial: the male partner must coordinate the throw with the female partner’s takeoff to generate the correct height and rotation. Every detail—from approach to takeoff, from rotational speed to the exact placement of the landing blade—must be executed with absolute precision. The landing is especially demanding, requiring the skater to absorb the impact on one foot while maintaining balance and flow into the next element. But most of all: The jump requires complete trust between partners. For the spectator, those few seconds of explosive motion can only be watched in awe, probably holding one's breath.
The name “Salchow” originates from Swedish figure skater Ulrich Salchow, who first landed this jump in a competition in 1909. At that time, the Salchow was a single rotation jump, back then a significant innovation in figure skating. Salchow's invention involved taking off from a back inside edge and landing on the back outside edge of the opposite foot, a technique that has become a fundamental element in the sport.
Anyway, “Quad Throw Salchow” is, of all things, also the name of a London-based, post-punk band. Like the jump itself, the group maintains an air of mystery: very little is known about its members and online glimpses suggest a trio made up of a bassist, a synth player and a vocalist known only as “O.” Even their record label claims limited knowledge of the band’s inner workings, letting the music take center stage instead.
Today’s song, “Primitive”, immediately sucks you in: sharp, hypnotic and a bit creepy. Pulsing basslines collide with layered synths, edging and building for over two minutes until O’s guttural vocals cut through the mix, leaving you captivated long after the song ends. Quad Throw Salchow demands attention rather than explanation—and “Primitive” delivers exactly that: landing harder than a Quad Salchow gone right.
Dig Deeper
A playful, fictionalized “docufantasy” by video artist and director Charles Atlas about Scottish dancer and choreographer Michael Clark. Shot in Atlas’s signature mix of stylized documentary and staged performance, the film follows a single day in Clark’s life—though “life” here is a constructed spectacle, blending rehearsal footage, surreal domestic scenes and exuberant dance sequences. Featuring music from The Fall and Leigh Bowery’s flamboyant costumes, it captures the anarchic spirit of London’s 1980s post-punk art scene, collapsing boundaries between performance, fashion and everyday life. The result is part portrait, part performance, part fever dream.
If you happen to be in Miami the next months, you can watch it here.
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