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Despotin Fam (Vilnius): "Odiseija 49" (2011)
The term Despotin Fam sounds rather ominous; in actuality it refers to a number of good-natured Lithuanian beatmakers, poets, and rappers who collaborate - on equally genial terms! - for studio and live work. The second Despotin Fam album appeared late last year and we now have a related, generous collection of instrumentals thanks to the concerted effort of founding member Vaiper Despotin, together with both local and distant colleagues: Serumas, Seize Beats, fLako, and Format None.
These lineups and team-sheets, however, are very flexible, as we've explained on several occasions: perhaps the best way to contextualize such open-ended enterprise is through the umbrella organization known as Renegades of Bump. That wide-reaching configuration is used to showcase a lot of Lithuanian hip-hop and rap, specifically through some compilation albums discussed here on FFM.
It's all about the new age... it's all about the new way of bumping
Drawing directly on their American influences, the organizers of R.o.B use a Bambaataa line as their rallying call: "No matter how hard you try, you can't stop this now." It's unclear to whom those confrontational words are directed at home in Lithuania, but a sense of purpose is obvious: "It's all about the new age... it's all about the new way of bumping." This, too, is the worldview of Despotin Fam, albeit on a smaller scale, as we hear in these instrumentals, offered for free download: together they're known as "Odiseija 49."
As we can already see, Lithuanian hip-hop/bump culture is so active, structurally wayward, and deliberately contrary that nonchalant passers-by will find little to entertain them; material needs to be sought - and that takes some effort. Following countless web-based performers from afar (none of whom appear to be signed) is not easy. What's needed, at least initially, is a well-informed starting point or entrance into the general activity of R.o.B or Despotin Fam... followed by leaps of faith from site to site. We therefore recommend "Odiseija 49" highly.
That relationship between spiraling output and editorial requirements is clearer still with a new album from the homeless collective known as Metropolitan Poets: "Random Tunes." This is another downtempo endeavor - both arranged and compiled in various towns across Russia.
The tunes on display here represent six months of joint effort by a group of kindred spirits - but never face-to-face. A little digging around Russian social networks will reveal some well-hidden context for "Random Tunes"; we learn that samples, beats, and semi-polished drafts have been exchanged online - for a very good reason. The Metropolitan Poets are four young Russians artists: a beatmaker/producer, a saxophonist, bass player, and guitarist. They live very far from one another.
These sounds have wandered far and wide.
Kirdos Glebov (Magadan), "Metropolitan Poets"
The craftsmen at work here are Kirdos Glebov, the beatmaker Dafu, an illustrator known as '88', and sax player Stanislav Gorodov. These and related connections help us to locate the creative network of Metropolitan Poets in Magadan, Donetsk, and Moscow - plus other towns!
The result, we're told, "has something of an experimental character, since the participants had some serious differences in their musical tastes! In weaving this collective musical fabric, each of the people involved [regularly] reinterpreted the contributions of the other three artists. That process [continually] altered the mood or emotional hue of the final output. This creative network [once active] chose for itself the name Metropolitan Poets as a sign that all involved view their music as 'poetry.' Or, on other occasions, as a kind of instrumental apertif set to a 'poetic' strain."
A mix of trip-hop, instrumental hip-hop, all kinds of chillout, and - of course - some jazz
In other words, the makers of "Random Tunes" have referred to the final product as a "mix of trip-hop, instrumental hip-hop, all kinds of chillout, and - of course - some jazz. In fact, a lot of jazz! We invested 100% effort in the recording and what resulted was not so much 'new jazz' as a kind of 'neo jazz.'" Slavic traditions of improvisation between physically co-present band members have now been transferred to laptops several thousands of miles apart. The sun goes down in one town near Europe - and rises in another near Asia; the music is composed almost endlessly, 24/7.
Dafu (Moscow): "Metropolitan Poets"
The romantic notion of digital, long-distance workshops has met with much enthusiasm in the world's biggest country. One fan just said of the Metropolitan Poets' album: "Wow! Thanks! These online collaborations are an incredibly interesting idea."
A related process - and geographic sweep - is evident in the creative zeal of St Petersburg's Morning Records, who have just published a fine compilation, showcasing some of their best-known and newest names. This inclusive approach to PR, they hope, will increase the likelihood of live performances. One of the Morning Recs sites directly asks readers: "Would you like to hear our music in your city? Help us find a cozy venue with good sound - and any of our artists will come and play in your town!"
Help us find a cozy venue with good sound - and any of our artists will come and play!
Those performers, however, are once again spread all over Russia - and Ukraine, too. We could start with the Dnipropetrovsk producer known as Gloom Tem (aka Ptitsami and Di. Skaveri). On one of his websites he describes - in a semi-serious register - a recent event that helped to free his work of any pathos or posturing: "On Saturday morning I got really drunk and headed off towards the railway. I lay down on the tracks in expectation of the 11 o'clock train: I even put two heavy chunks of cement on my chest and legs. The train started coming closer and closer - but it suddenly switched to a parallel set of lines right beside me... instead of cutting me in half."
Gloom Tem (aka Ptitsami), Dnipropetrovsk
This bitter-sweet tone of hard-won happiness is evident throughout the compilation, entitled "Morning Records: Your Morning." Sixteen compositions over forty-five minutes ponder various facets of a new day, full of hope and (vague) optimism. Once again, Gloom Tem sketches the general atmosphere: "Today I was strolling along the main street of my hometown. I suddenly came to the conclusion that I'm an incredibly lucky guy. I looked at the trees growing tall along both sides of the road: they seemed really vibrant. And I thought that amid all this surrounding grayness they even appeared to be some kind of fireflies. I just realized how lucky I am to see all that beauty."
He goes on, in rather touching terms, to express considerable gratitude for the mere ability to see... "And other folks are just as happy as me, too. They just don't understand it."
Other folks are just as happy as me. They just don't understand it
What, in other words, connects these young musicians - all across Russia and Ukraine - is a gratitude for things local. For simple pleasures. They all celebrate the present moment in tiny locations, even if we turn to the apparent bluster of a Lipetsk collective known as Celebrity Muzic. The four members of this ensemble have published a few words online about the pros and cons of today's hip-hop in Russia. They make fun of young producers who hope to win respect by listing their collaborations with other "kingpins" of dance music, who are in fact complete nobodies (and often from the same zipcode).
Four such imaginary charlatans mocked by Celebrity Muzic are "MC Machine-Gun and MC Vasya (from next door), together with King of the Streets, and Ghetto Children." All those stage-names, although perhaps striking, are laughably distant from the modest scale of most Russian lives.
Radik Gareev, proud member of Celebrity Muzic (Lipetsk)
Celebrity Muzic then cast equal scorn upon lazy Slavic "beatmakers" who pepper their profiles with images of expensive equipment (which they don't actually own), or lean heavily upon audio samples that contain virtually all the instrumentation needed for a final, published track. "There you have it: 'Russian Production'!" Showiness, sloth, and patent falsehood.
Those curmudgeonly quips bring us to the figure of 4Dust (4Пыль), known to friends as Pasha Bezmenya and raised in the city of Saratov. He showcases his own music and texts as "100% lyricism, without preservatives or artificial colors." In outlining his credo further, he turns to some lines from William Blake: "Every night and every morn/ Some to misery are born./ Every morn and every night,/ Some are born to sweet delight./ Some are born to sweet delight,/ Some are born to endless night."
100% lyricism, without preservatives or artificial colors
Matters are, apparently, in the hands of Fate, which clearly has no patience for self-aggrandizement or related, loud claims of self-determination. Consequently, the Morning Records producers again express gratitude for minor experiences and simple pleasures - within someone else's master plan.
One of 4Dust's poems, published elsewhere, begins: "We speak in various tongues, even though we're born on one planet." What connects these disparate figures, kept physically apart by dialect and/or distance, is simple indeed: a combination of empathy and gratitude. The kind of virtues that grow from trusting teamwork. And so these various collectives, all the way from Vilnius to Dnipropetrovsk and Magadan, turn to minor sensations in order (one day...) to fuel some major dreams. 4Dust's t-shirt shows the affordable tools needed to fashion that 24-carat philosophy: paper, a pencil, and some cheap speakers. Nothing more and nothing less.
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