Quiet sounds emerge from four industrial locations: Krivoi Rog, Kiev, Bryansk, and Izhevsk. In all cases, an imposing context of steel and smoke produces a contrary reaction. Minimalism is fostered among the chimneys.
Four quiet publications from Vilnius, Kiev, Vitebsk, and St. Petersburg investigate the theme of loss. Somewhat unexpectedly, the possibility of failure or collapse is turned to great philosophical benefit.
Four releases this weekend, emerging from various cities around Russia, offer multiple ways to counter dull or disappointing actuality. They include sleep, recreational drugs, fatherhood, and a stubborn optimism.
A number of quiet, introspective recordings this week toy with the boundaries of chillwave and soft rock. As simultaneous releases ponder a greater degree of confidence, other poets and traditions are drawn upon. Such as funk-rock!
Plums Fest is a self-proclaimed "festival of audio-visual experimentation." This year it occurs on May 19th in the Moscow Artplay Center. We examine four Russian outfits - from Moscow and St. Petersburg - invited to play live.
A forthcoming show, hosted by Moscow's Hyperboloid Records, will bring together some luminaries of the bass music scene. They will arrive from Kiev, Melitopol, Tyumen, and - most notably - the streets of London.
Echotourist is a fine Siberian netlabel and blog, doing much for electronic music in Novosibirsk and beyond. A new Echotourist album gathers a wide range of musicians - in order both to evoke that landscape and counter its chill.
Two Russian web projects have combined resources to celebrate the (ongoing) career of Aquarium, arguably the nation's greatest rock band. The cover versions submitted thus far span a wide range of years and places.
Not surprisingly, some of the language used to praise US styles within Slavic music borrows from American slang. Talk of anything "cosmically" impressive, however, goes way beyond cliche. A wide range of related imagery opens up.
From Moscow, Vladivostok, Ufa, and Smolensk come four quiet publications. Between them lies a common interest in the benefits of solitude and silence - once noisy typicality has been left behind.
