As new recordings appear for dance floors across Russia and Ukraine, one would expect hedonism and jollity to predominate. The challenges of a touring musician quickly change the mood.
Fantasy and the imagination are key aspects of these new recordings from Russia, Ukraine, and Belarus. Their joint celebration of oddity simply highlights an ongoing disappointment with normality.
Faced by examples of heartless social "progress," these musicians from three Slavic nations embrace a slower, wiser credo. Downtempo styles are used to endorse a calmer worldview.
Some musicians from Russia and Ukraine speak of how they have formed new ensembles. Easy-going collaborations become an appealing alternative to various social pressures.
Aesthetically, there might seem little in common between these recordings. Geographically, they are also far apart. yet when it comes to considerations of urban and rural existence, we find a considerable overlap.
These four new net-singles from Moscow, Rostov-na-Donu, Dnipropetrovsk, and Komsomolsk-na-Amure differ greatly in style. When it comes any audible worldview, however, a large overlap is evident.
Three bands from Moscow, Perm, and Dnipropetrovsk mark three different stages of a musical career. They represent an unbridled romance, early struggles with audience affection, and a return to life away from the limelight
Triple Low Pass are a fundamentally instrumental trip-hop outfit from the Ukrainian industrial center of Dnipropetrovsk. The band's name, as we're quickly informed, refers to a complicated flying maneuver, attempted only by the most qualified stunt pilots. "What would the equivalent of that expe...
The gentleman whose surname is displayed on the artwork of this mini-album is Dmytro Nikolaienko. Born in 1984, he works not only as a musician, but - in more public contexts - as a DJ and graphic designer, too. Residing in the Ukrainian city of Dnepropetrovsk, Nikolaienko has, in previous years,...
Today marks the third occasion that we've written about Ukrainian funk-rockers I drug moi gruzovik ("My Friend Truck & I"). The reason for doing so is a happy one: the release of an album, entitled Zhivot (tr. "Stomach" or "Gut"). It first appeared not long after the New Year and is therefor...
