Some lyrical publications from Moscow, St. Petersburg, and Penza are full this week of boyish memories. All these performers hope to preserve pre-adult enthusiasm and naivety from subsequent disappointment.
The St. Petersburg netlabel Subwise has announced four new releases from around Russia. Taken together, they are a snapshot of material difficulty - and suggest how collaborative enterprise might offer solutions.
Some recent instrumental recordings have invested much energy in a certain form of modesty. By toying with irony and even anonymity, four introspective performers magnify the object of their attention.
Four young jazz/R&B artistes, based in Moscow, consider both their biography and chosen styles. In a realm where hard work and hope often guarantee little, this music is seen in terms of precious consolation.
Various publications from Russia and Ukraine today stress the significance of desire as a constant process. Spatial and temporal metaphors are used to describe an activity that never finds closure.
We take a look at some domestic lo-fi recordings from the cities of Tartu and Moscow. Within them is a proud and happy enthusiasm that fuels other, much more serious endeavors this week in Belarus.
Four singers from Moscow embody a particular attitude towards their catalog. In the spirit of a time-honored tradition, they view the performance or "stagecraft" of lyricism as a counterweight to grey actuality.
A host of excellent glitch-hop recordings has appeared this week: all the way from the Pacific Coast to rural Lithuania. Many of them share an enthusiasm for metaphors of flight, fantasy, and family.
The theme of nostalgia emerges in new recordings from Kiev, Vilnius, and Babruysk (Belarus). Although they initially display a love for UK culture, these musings on the past begin to adopt a locally specific resonance.
New big-beat and abstract hip-hop recordings from three artists ponder the benefits of anonymity. Only through loss or absence can new meanings come into being. One of these musicians likens that process to alchemy.
