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.
A number of producers from suburban Moscow and Krasnodar strive to bridge the gap between daydreams and actuality. As everyday experience refuses to play along, the scale of romantic wistfulness only grows...
A quick overview of rappers from southern Russia suggests the existence of some regional traits. Joking about their distance from primetime swagger, these young musicians adopt a special tone for quiet towns.
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.
A well-respected culture magazine in St. Petersburg has just published a list of the city's most promising electronic projects. We look at four dance-oriented artists on that list and consider their common outlook.
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.
Fresh hip-hop collaborations have appeared this week, all the way from Vilnius to Magadan. What connects them, oddly enough, is a desire to escape the grand scale of their enterprise. Lyricism and gratitude come to the fore.
New dancefloor material from Moscow, St. Petersburg, and Sochi expresses doubts about the social sphere it hopes to charm. At least two new hip-hop and house publications refer directly to anxiety and mental illness.
Downtempo recordings from across Russia ponder the pros and cons of solitude. Together they concur that the best way to foster a more objective worldview is to employ the scope of Russia's physical geography.
For all the musical inspiration that Russian rap takes from a US heritage, things are very different when it comes to lyrics. We offer three examples of new recordings from Moscow and St. Petersburg.
