A number of house and chillout projects from Russia and Ukraine this week address the issue of hard work. In an unpredictable environment, what makes more sense: diligence or spontaneity?
As the Sochi Winter Music Conference prepares to advertise itself for 2014, a tone of fiscal confidence informs the PR materials. That same hope and optimism is infectious among participants.
From Kaunas in Lithuania, a couple of young producers use music as a form of immaterial, even ideal experience. Sound grants a sense of location and membership far from the material hassles of DIY enterprise.
Energun Records is a label from the Belarusian capital of Minsk, specializing in techno. Little by little, the dramatic stereotypes surrounding that style are cast aside in favor of a surprising optimism.
The Belarusian techno collective "Force Carriers" has published a new compilation album. Many of the performers involved look back with fondness to the stargazing romance of socialist industry.
As a young musician from Krasnodar does much to hide his/her gender and location online, some other electronic artists find equal appeal in vague, distant realms. "Somewhere else" looks better than home.
Over the course of several electronic recordings from Perm, Krasnodar, Tula, and St. Petersburg, a fondness emerges for the lo-fi technology of the 1990s. Bad machinery recalls happy times.
Moscow's Datenbits label is announcing fresh material from Russian and Latvian electronic musicians. Working on both sides of a political divide, they champion an erasure of stylistic boundaries.
Moscow's DAR Label is publishing some showcase albums of Slavic progressive- and tech-house. Despite the bold drama of those styles, they're tied to a melancholy reality.
Saint Petersburg's Electro Music Coalition has announced a compilation of young electro composers. The sci-fi romance behind their work soon gives way to the greater drama of actuality.
