In a musical environment that is either frustrating or constantly changing, any claims to permanence will ring hollow. Four new releases speak in support of humility. Just in case...
A series of downtempo, wonky, and bass recordings from Russian industrial cities look for superior values. Nature's flourishing networks offer more appeal than factories and smokestacks.
For some electroacoustic artists this week, the role of material experience is twofold. It is seen both as lumpen tedium and as the world of leaden instruments - playing a better tune.
Given the challenges facing young Russian musicians today, the theme of risk often arises. The unknown - be it financial or geographic - both unnerves and intrigues.
Various electronic recordings this week from Kiev, Ulan-Ude, Ekaterinburg, and Gomel speak less of free creation than of the search for verity. Local experience, however, does not always help.
A new garage and idm compilation from Moscow reemploys some motifs from classic science fiction. Both the music and its literary inspiration juxtapose private dreams and public reality.
A range of new industrial drone and harsh noise recordings from Riga, Moscow, Orel, and Togliatti are used in order to voice some ineffable aspects of modernity. Most of those truths are very disconcerting.
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.
