A handful of recordings this week from northern towns ponder the role of dancefloor melancholy. Various sonic and textual kinds of dolor merge to create an original view of sadness - within entertainment.
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.
Four slow releases from Moscow, St. Petersburg, and Ulan-Ude turn their decelerated tempo into a consideration of weighty issues. Slowness becomes a vehicle for some musings on destiny in particular.
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...
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.
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.
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...
