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.
"Vovne" is a wide-ranging musical collaborative, centered in the Siberian cities of Tomsk and Kemerovo. Across considerable distances, a shared philosophy comes slowly into view, born of late Soviet experimentation.
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.
Three Belarusian friends and colleagues have new releases on display. Their enthusiasm for techno or a related strictness emerges against the backdrop of some awful unpredictability in local history.
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.
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.
We look at two new compilations from Mad-Hop and Dystopiaq. Both involve Russian beatmakers, yet are international in design. Those growing spaces lead to some popular sci-fi references - and talk of distant planets...
A snapshot of new electronic work from St. Petersburg and Chelyabinsk shows some enduring problems. Artists move from one city to another, only to encounter indifference or haughtiness en route.
56 Stuff and Subwise are St. Petersburg netlabels. They share a common outlook in that both projects use irony and unpredictability in order to counter the goal-driven pragmatism of commercial music.
