|
Kostroma is an ancient Russian town first mentioned in chronicles in 1213; some historians, in fact, will even date the founding of Kostroma hundreds of years earlier. Today it is home to just under 300,000 people, all of whom are surrounded by a rich architectural and spiritual heritage - as we see above. One of those residents is young Sasha Drozdov, performing under the unlikely name of Voodooheadz.
The amount of information available from this callow performer is close to zero. Were it not for the obligatory biographical data required by most social networks, there would be even less. We can at least report that Drozdov has just published a very attractive eight-track EP, entitled "2010 Soundworks." Despite that timeline, though, the instrumentals under consideration only appeared a few weeks ago. There is clearly no promotional haste at work - or, if our artist does want to distribute his material with speed, it's seemingly not possible. For reasons either chosen or endured, Mr. Drozdov's output therefore comes to us slowly from the storied streets of Kostroma.
On another well-hidden venue, he credits his main influences as "King Crimson, Weather Report, Portishead" and other cerebral music-makers. That list, however, which also includes the more hedonistic figures of DJs Krush, Vadim, and Food, ends on a touching note. His final word of thanks is saved for his father. Unhurried life is also kept close to home by family bonds.
Since these sounds are unlikely to leave the Kostroma zip code with speed, we should perhaps not be surprised by the self-deprecating way in which Drozdov comments upon his "provinicial" output. His chosen logo, shown above, undoubtedly hints at some related and unresolved tensions within self-representation. By way of example, various 2011 instrumentals have been tagged as "something at least resembling music" or dismissed (unfairly) as an unimpressive investigation of novelty: "I can produce stuff like this sometimes..."
These newest compositions, we're informed, were put together "on a really feeble computer, over the course of some cold and lonely nights." Attempts at collaboration with nearby artists have not been happy: "After the last [creative] partnership fell apart, I finally lost all hope. Nowadays I rarely go online."
I finally lost all hope. Nowadays I rarely go online
These are melancholy musings from a young performer who on one social network admits to "loving everybody" yet "hating stupidity." Actuality is unimpressive and soon turns optimism into grumpiness. There's a thin line, therefore, between productive solitude and unattractive, even detrimental isolation. That same grey area is well mapped by new output from Moscow's Danila Plee (who asks that his moniker be written in capitals and followed by an exclamation mark). Increasingly demanding noises come from quite places.
As we noted a prior occasion, PLEE! used to offer the following warning in his own, rather truncated English on a Soundcloud page: "BTW, plz don't send me tracks u r about to 'privately' share with other thousands of users. It annoys me really much, thank you!"
Danila Plee (Moscow)
Any signs of reconciliation with (or acquiescence to) the world will come only after a brief rant. It is offered to the accompaniment of some "heavyweight beats and bass." The depth and insistence of these sounds are designed to make up for an absence in the real world. PLEE! has now released a debut EP that can be downloaded gratis, yet it comes to us with no textual support. What, one might ask, is the raison d'etre of these latest rumbling baselines and post-dubstep statements?
A little help can be found at Ritmo Sportivo, who published a PLEE! mix two months ago. The staff at Ritmo promised nothing less than grand, "synthetic sounds, extra-low basslines and abstract rhythms that'll have you stumbling on both feet. It can all be shocking... but sometimes love flows along the wires - and not through the flowers." The same wobbling resonance has recently led one listener to post an impressive comment: "Man, my face is melting as I type this!" The call of a lonely dreamer grows louder as the world turns away; it also finds sympathy.
Synthetic sounds, extra-low basslines and abstract rhythyms
Issues of isolation - from more distant places - also come to us via Daskmathic, who lives in the Kurgan region of southern Siberia. One of Daskmathic's recent recordings was framed with the following text, in keeping with that leafy address: "Autumn's golden leaves cover the parks and streets. Deep in thought, I stroll aimlessly through the sun's rays that have yet to grow warm. Life is like an ocean, through which I float, nudged onwards by a warm current. The music, like a gentle breeze, blows through my hair - carrying me off to a fairytale world of fantasies." And away from the faded tones of domesticity.
Daskmathic (Kurgan, Southern Siberia)
These happier views of distance are underscored in an EP from Shufflebrain Records, called "The Heap Is Small." Now in his fourth year of downtempo and/or trip-hop compositions, this musician (known to family members as Ilya Potapov) publishes his newest material with a three-stanza lyric poem. It describes Daskmathic sitting at home and comparing the hustle and bustle of local life with the slow, yet attractive passage of clouds. He ponders a quiet, consoling alternative to the rat race: "We just need to relax... to smile, let things go, and melt away."
These themes of merger and erasure are cast in the form of a dual metaphor. The surrounding landscape invites related thoughts of various experiential peaks and troughs: "The mountain of our problems stands high; love, however, is but a tiny hill [or 'heap']." That imbalance needs to be addressed - with the help of a broader vista.
We just need to relax... to smile, let things go, and melt away
The folks at Shufflebrain say that Daskmathic hopes to "open the beauty of the [nearby] Ural Mountains to his listeners," in which case solitude is now revealing some additional benefits. Once the value system of urban life is jettisoned, things look a lot rosier. Evocations therefore commence of the "wide-open steppe, full of multicolored and aromatic flowers. We also sense [within this music] the green coniferous forests that hide a wealth of lakes." That rapid switch from urgent, urban basslines to rural relief comes through a recognition of "nature's harmony." Once more, the size and scope of Russia's landscape helps to foster some mental notions of freedom, too.
Thiam: "La Moitié De L’Ame" (2011)
Should the 2,004km from Moscow to Kurgan be insufficient (and no guarantee of visual or mental "harmony"), one could consider the new work from Nizhnii Novgorod's Dima Tiam, aka Thiam. These sounds, appearing courtesy of Novosibirsk's Rainy Treehouse label, are entitled "La Moitié De L’Ame" (Half of One's Soul). Thiam himself is tied closely to the Siberian project SpaceCave, which claims to move beyond the limitations of ostensible experience - and even dreamy trip-hop - into "space hop."
Celebrated already on the Big Echo blog, "La Moitié De L’Ame" has found admirers outside of Siberia, while Thiam himself works in semi-serious celebration of "sonic journeys to amazing depths." On most occasions - as with Daskmathic - aspects of physical geography are turned to metaphysical benefit. In fact Thiam speaks of a hopeful passage from "the double valleys of unconsciousness to the hilltops of duality." A balance is sought between physical and immaterial experience; that balance, in turn, is best discovered by those individuals who can - quite literally - see beyond the stunted vistas of urban life. Time to by a train ticket and head eastwards.
From the double valleys of unconsciousness to the hilltops of duality
Put simply, these musicians suggest together that a "broader" purview, across a wider landscape, offers a sense of measure. Physical concerns and conflicts lessen in scale when a skyline or distant horizon becomes visible; the sight of an opposing brick wall from one's living room does little to encourage a sense of calm.
PLEE's EP comes to us with a request of almost childish simplicity, again in a text-friendly format with multiple letters missing: "I shall give this [recording] to u. Let's be friends. I jus' wnna knw u..." The simplest of social bonds are frustrated for the first two musicians under consideration here (Sasha Drozdov and Danila Plee): the latter names in our list are more hopeful. That optimism comes not from human contact in a claustrophobic setting, but from a sense of broader membership, as Daskmathic suggests, with nature itself. Human experience apparently benefits from a lack of humans: the ineffable grandeur of Russia's landscape makes that goal more than attainable.
A 2011 profile image from Thiam (Nizhnii Novgorod)
Comments
Login / Register