A handful of recordings this week from northern towns ponder the role of dancefloor melancholy. Various sonic and textual kinds of dolor merge to create an original view of sadness - within entertainment.
Three instrumental ensembles from Moscow and St. Petersburg ponder the benefits of avoiding language. A balancing act ensues between (potentially) wide appeal and the pressing need to advertise one's existence.
Some fragile releases this week share a common interest in ailing forms of social enterprise. These sounds of breakdown and demise also hope, paradoxically, to prompt thoughts of civic improvement.
Four slow releases from Moscow, St. Petersburg, and Ulan-Ude turn their decelerated tempo into a consideration of weighty issues. Slowness becomes a vehicle for some musings on destiny in particular.
Music Kollektiv is a Moscow-based organization, often dedicated to minimal and deep/dub techno. We look at some of the St. Petersburg members in MK and their search for grand significance within spartan structures.
Two labels - from Moscow and Omsk - announce a handful of new releases this week. They all concern some vague, enduring lacuna in modern society and whether Russia's endless expanse offers an alternative.
We look at the remaining attendees of Sochi's Red Bull "Bass Camp." Although these young men operate within the very public domain of sonic performance art, the role of introspection and imagination is uppermost.
Three beatmakers from St. Petersburg, Omsk, and Odessa all look to their soundscapes as a way of creating an audible sense of "home." As those compositions develop, they take on a social life of their own, we're told.
Four projects from Moscow, Novosibirsk, and Tartu use a lofty register when speaking of their work. All manner of cosmic metaphors are employed, simply in order to capture the precious experience of songwriting.
Several new darkwave and glitch-hop recordings share some related concerns. They ponder the decline and demise inherent in material existence. Fatalism and decadence go head-to-head in response.
