Anton Kubikov / DJ Кубиков

New instrumental releases linked to Moscow, Penza, Kimry, and Kiev all view themselves through the prism of cinema. The reference points involved become less romantic over time. Comfort turns into anxiety.

These performers come from two locations: Moscow and the banks of the Volga. They're connected not so much by parallel or local scenes as by the sense of landscape. A single - enormous - country links isolated efforts.

These house DJs and producers have either worked or published together. What separates them, though, are the ways in which they view their workplace - either as a realm of competition or as a happier sphere of collaboration.

New tech-house recordings from Zaporozhye and Krasnodar lead to some questions regarding "provincial" dance music. Offering one of the most pleasant and optimistic outlooks is Mike Spirit, owner of Moscow's Highway Records.

The Moscow techno and house label Pro-Tez is busy with several new releases, despite the appearance of summer. Here we pay attention to three publications - and the minimalist outlook that unifies them all. What, in other words, is the appeal of restraint and understatement?

Niekto (Maxim Kiritchenko) and Polar Lights (Kirill Pavliashik) have produced simultaneous works for the FUSELab project in Krasnodar. They both look closely and quietly at themes of passage, such as childhood

Yesterday a debut EP entitled "Platforma" appeared from Kaliningrad, the result of recent labors by three young locals.  More specifically, we have music by Kirill Pavlyashik (below), production by Sasha Khiznyakov, and some appealing artwork (above) by Andrei Kvasov.  The sounds presented on...