In Praise of a Healthy Elitism: Koloah, 813, Malefique, and Depto-3

Koloah (Kiev): "Bulletproof" (2012)

A very promising release appeared yesterday in Moscow from Hyperboloid Records, a discerning label run by electronic heavyweights Dmitry Garin and Alexey Devyanin (aka Pixelord). The recordings themselves come from much further south, specifically from Kiev and Dmitry Avksentiev, who himself performs under a couple of stage-names. He tends to author dub-heavy compositions in the guise of Crim, whereas the works closer to juke or dubstep are published under the name of Koloah.

The newest Koloah tracks are entitled "Bulletproof," which for a dancefloor publication may seem a rather confrontational title. The reason for that pugnacious stance, however, is quickly made clear in a number of interviews or observations scattered across both Russian and Ukrainian sites.

Music nowadays is increasingly likely to be nothing more than background noise...

Mr. Avksentiev often passes judgment on today's bass- or post-dubstep music at home, and the results are not pretty. He feels that contemporary producers should defend themselves against a flood of low-quality output. The web has been wonderful for democratic self-expression, he admits, but finding genuinely important or adventurous work amid that onslaught can be hard. "Music nowadays is increasingly likely to be nothing more than background noise... If we're talking about material that genuinely offers people something special, then there's not much around. And that's sad..."

Koloah (left) and Pixelord

And so Avksentiev moves in a variety of directions, looking for the opportunity to experiment - and the increased likelihood of originality. He tags his current efforts as future bass or house, juke, crunk, and so forth. A large number of styles are employed against the danger of mere "background noise."

In a recent article for the Musicserf magazine, Avksentiev outlined these efforts in more detail. He explained that he started composing in 2004, shifting slowly from hip-hop beats into the noisier realm of dubstep. After a while, though, the growing popularity of dubstep simply instigated a competition between its DIY practitioners that became extremist, hardcore one-upmanship. The louder and harder one played, the better. Skill became synonymous with mere volume or crudity. And that, too, was sad.

We are trying to create more intellectual bass music

"A lot of dubstep spun off to become widespread hardcore... We, on the other hand [in Kiev], are trying to create more intellectual bass music. It doesn't just get people going. It also helps to 'cultivate' the audience." Precisely because these issues have been so pressing at home, Avksentiev is happy to collaborate with Hyperboloid. He has particular respect for Pixelord: "I'm glad these tracks aren't coming out on some super-duper foreign label." Troubles at home or in neighboring lands require local attention. 

813 (Alexander Goryachev, Moscow)

If we were looking for a figure who represents this salvationary(!) viewpoint well, it might be hard to think of somebody more suitable than Alexander Goryachev. He performs under the stage-name 813 - when not working as a Moscow fireman. Just as with Koloah, so Goryachev also feels the need to support music production as local, authorial effort built from scratch. In other words, both men are worried about the degree to which lazy composers simply rely on samples or "the kind of cr*p that's lying around the internet."

In the same "pre-digital" spirit of craftwork, Goryachev has always spoken of his music as a "hands-on" affair. One of his earliest manifestos expressed the desire to "publish collections of music, poetry, short stories and a magazine, too." Print-runs would ideally be designed for no more than twenty copies. In other words, this music - full of '80s tape flutter, muffled Dolby effects, chiptunes, the occasional hoarseness of a ripped speaker cone, and so forth - hopes to freeze a moment in time. It looks back sentimentally at an era of sudden media freedom in Russia - yet before the faceless, weightless workings of the web.

A time when building blocks were still tangible entities.

813: "Spectrum Riff" (2012)

This positive elitism now takes the form of a new release via Brighton's Donky Pitch label, "Spectrum Riff." The label gleefully advertises Goryachev's "juicy synth lines, retro drum-machines, and waves of thick sub-bass. It all culminates in a sound that's one part boogie, one part hip-hop, one part electro... and[!] three parts forward-thinking bass music." The need for a "progressive" aesthetic is underscored again. The public needs to be saved from mass inadequacies. A fireman might be just the right person...

Juicy synth lines, retro drum-machines, and waves of thick sub-bass

Heroic loners might imagine themselves in another guise - for example as an astronaut, if real-world challenges are not available among the burning structures of Moscow! Precisely that interpretation of pioneering, "trail-blazing" sound emerges this week from the industrial powerhouse of Togliatti, home to the mysterious figure known as Depto-3. He has just released a new album, "e2212rmx." 

Should we seek his real identity, we'd only bump up against a second moniker: this same figure sometimes goes by the nickname of “Man of Ideas” (Chelovek Idey). His cherished evocations of various astral spheres - taken from both science and fiction - are full of homespun references to Gagarin, fourth dimensions, “meta-universes,” and lost astronauts. Within a musical framework, the same effort is tagged as “mental hip-hop.”

Depto-3, author of "e2212rmx" (2012) 

Movement across the dancefloor - from one place to another - is replaced by an alleged mental ability to transcend actuality, perhaps, and slip the bonds of physical drudgery. That escape, however, is not without risks. Depto-3 in the past has employed a very muffled sample by Hungarian “space tourist” Charles Simonyi, in which he answers questions from the public about cosmic travel. Specifically, the phrases used come from a brief monolog in which Simonyi explains how bone loss, radiation or other (major!) problems face those who spend too long beyond the Earth’s atmosphere.

And now, when asked to define his modus operandi with a pithy quote on a social networking site, Depto-3 replies in a similar, doubting tone: "I don't know, really. Maybe something that says your decisions are the right decision." That's hardly a guidebook for future success.

And so our noble representative of groundbreaking beats feels himself to be operating in an isolated, yet simultaneously challenging context. Metaphors of intrepid space travel appear relevant for his music, artwork, mental dexterity - and judging by the local snapshot above - his domestic context. Outside the city limits of Togliatti, a little further from the assembly lines and smoke stacks, the Russian landscape soon reveals its unforgiving scale, as we see. The imagery of a lunar wilderness looks fitting indeed. 

Malefique (Moscow): "Flashlights" (2012)

For that reason, it's heartening to see a release from Moscow's (Serezha) Malefique also appearing this week on the New Haven label, Grappa Frisbee: "Flashlights." This overseas success begs the question: what career plan or work ethic helped Serezha to attract the attention of a US enterprise - and write material of interest to audiences both at home and abroad? Grappa Frisbee, after all, define Malefique's new output as "a simply amazing sonic experience."

If we turn to Malefique's private account on Formspring, all manner of questions come his way... Some of the answers help to show the basic DNA of professional survival, in a world where solo musicians liken their efforts to a death-defying interplanetary voyage!

Malefique: 'A simply amazing sonic experience'

Malefique is first asked how's he doing and, on a more mundane level, how he got home today: "By car," he answers. He is then asked, turning to professional matters, whether he minds other producers sampling his work, as long as his name is credited. "Quite the opposite," he replies. "I don't want my name to be mentioned. Better not to know anything - and then be surprised with a good laugh!"

The queries come thick and fast: What did you eat for dinner last night? "Pringles." Are you married? "My kids are already shaving!" Whatever the question posed, Malefique responds with humor, tales of daily humdrum, and other forms of understatement. Based upon his downtempo, jazzy compositions and their related worldview, what's required in order to fashion a "simply amazing sonic experience" is not super-human strength, but endurance. Determination persists in a modest, yet unrelenting manner - come what may. As the Russian proverb has it: "Travel quietly and you'll go further."

Surrounded by brash and tasteless enterprise, that melange of understated craft and commitment makes a lot of sense. All in the hope, as we hear from Kiev, of "cultivating" one's audience. 

Malefique (Moscow)