Russian Mosh & Gloom, Spanish Psych, Brazilian Black Metal
In 2020, I fell down the rabbit hole of Russian Bandcamp.
It started innocently, as one does, with a throwback ’90s vegan straight-edge metalcore band. Turns out that Russia is lousy with neanderthal breakdowns and China cymbals. Sick.
Once you start to follow these bands and labels, especially on Insta, it consumes your vodka-soaked soul. So here are three labels to get started with Russian hardcore, post-punk and synth-pop.
Did I mention that took Russian in college? That was a mistake. — Lars Gotrich
Young Hearts (Moscow)
These hardcore bands would absolutely wreck Damaged City Fest if we ever get to have shows again. Stranglehold‘s kinda got that Turnstile-aping-Jane’s-Addiction swagger, while яснаяХцель speeds through youth crew madness. Fuze is the real standout, though, with a little caustic Quicksand melody to break up burly mid-tempo ragers.
HИИ (Yekaterinburg)
From where I’m standing as the authority on the Russian underground (as far as you know), HИИ has locked down the doom and gloom. (See also: the St. Petersburg-based Sierpien; the two labels seem to have a co-release relationship going.) Basically, if you’re a mopey goth looking for post-punk, darkwave and synth-pop from one of the bleakest countries on earth, they’ve got you covered. Джуна makes oh-so-pretty shoegaze Cure worship, Little Fantastic Partner is basically a Sacred Bones band, ночная игротека‘s drum-machine post-punk is ridiculously charming. But my eureka find has to be Стереополина (roughly translated as Stereopoly): her synth-pop is stark, distant and cold, but buzzing with a bedroom urgency that’s infectious.
Perfect Aesthetics (Moscow)
I’ve featured one release from this label on Viking’s Choice before, but its wide scope is worth noting. (The digital discography features a Nice Price, too.) Not everything here is Russian — there’s some stuff from Georgia (the country), America and Australia — but of the albums that are, I really like the layered post-black metal of HVØSCH and the despondent coldwave of Пожар, but most of all, Sobranie 8 18, a witchy synth-pop duo from St. Petersburg.
Bandcamp 6-Pack
(Note: Some of these albums can only be found on Bandcamp, so click the links to explore!)
Sanlsidro, a lo pesau, a lo bajo y a lo llano (Slovenly): If you’ve ever bought a shady Shadoks reissue because there was just no other way to own a psych obscurity outside ridiculously expensive eBay auctions, I feel your pain. There’s now a whole new generation grown up on rare ’60s and ’70s psych; some filter that nostalgia for the masses, some tangle with the deep roots of this music. Isidro Rubio, from the Spanish garage-punk band Wau y los Arrrghs!!! (admittedly unknown to me), inhabits a psychedelic-folk haze that feels neither vintage or modern. There are traces of spaghetti western, flamenco and exotica — not to mention Rubio’s punk remnants — but the whole is as complex and warm as a whisky smoked in pecan wood and hit with a splash of citrus.
Tcheser Holmes, … the T is silent (Black Science Fiction): You know him as the drummer from the tri-city free-jazz crew Irreversible Entanglements; some of his homies show up on this EP (Aquiles Navarro on trumpet, Moor Mother on spoken word). Shades of Madlib-ian beat science, Don Cherry’s sexy funk-fusion record Brown Rice and Sun Ra’s freak-gnosis (I see you, Tablibam!’s Matt Mottel) make for a wide-ranging, but delicious debut.
Kaatayra, Só Quem Viu o Relâmpago à Sua Direita Sabe (self-released): When so much black metal has fueled my rage this year, Brazil’s Kaatayra offers acoustic-driven black metal that is hypnotic, beautiful and mystic. I’ve seen comparisons to Panopticon and Agalloch — Ulver’s Kveldssanger works, too. But sole member Caio Lemos roots Kaatayra in Brazilian folk music, a dense forest canopy of spirited rhythms and ayahuasca-induced fever dreams. I adore this album.
Insane, Demo‘20 (self-released): This Indonesian band somehow combines the pit-clearing hardcore of Snapcase with the careening post-punk melody of Hüsker Dü or Mission of Burma. When my friend Stevie lived in Indonesia, she said the hardcore scene is really poppin’, so I gotta keep my eyes open for more of this stuff!
Tetuzi Akiyama, Thaumaturgy (Besom Presse): Truly unlike anything in the Japanese guitarist’s incredible catalog. Akiyama’s electric avant-boogie and free-jazz histrionics are beloved and well documented, less so his quieter acoustic work. Thaumaturgy keeps a limited palette, as fingers find strings before dawn; melodies form monochromatic spheres, dissipate and return with a mournful curiosity, as if to revisit old loves or ideas. An unexpectedly touching experience, one that remains in the air after the needle’s lifted.
Zao, Preface: Early Recordings 1995-1996 (Steadfast): I could write pages about Zao’s nascent origins in spirit-filled hardcore and its evolution beyond faith into an undeniable metal force. It tickles me, too, that so many who grew up outside the ’90s Christian music scene show interest in this era of Zao, with a completely different lineup and purpose. That all said, what an artifact: not just the rare splits and demos, but the completely unreleased tracks that take up the bulk of the album are a total time capsule (thin guitar tone, popping snare, nearly absent bass, dramatic spoken word)… I feel like a teenager moshing in baggy jeans again.
The Playlist
33 tracks. Стереополина opens with a lo-fi synth-pop banger. (In fact, many of the Russian artists featured above are sprinkled throughout the playlist, if they’re on streaming services.) Meant to tour on its 10-year anniversary, Deafheaven returns with a ferocious version of “Daedelus,” the first song the band wrote, recorded live in the studio. I understand protest music needs to be direct, but I tend to respond to protest songs that circle, question and capture our current desperation; Beauty Pill’s “Instant Night” is that. Squadda B (of Main Attractionz) never left, but I haven’t heard the hallucinogenic rapper this strong in years. Boris & Merzbow got the band back together. The Weather Station conjures a spectral Talk Talk disco I really was not expecting. Kelly Moran taps into something resembling a John Carpenter tweeness (is that a thing?). RIP to Toshinori Kondo with one of his spacey downtempo trumpet dubs. Natasha Kmeto’s “nothing forever” is devastating, but also slowly enthralling. Andee Connors leads the synth-doom project My Heart, an Inverted Flame, and it’s pretty much what you’d hope from the former aQuarius Records co-owner. Throwbacks to KMD, Grouper, Talk Talk and Life’s Blood.
Stream the playlist via Spotify. Did you miss a previous playlist? Get thee to the archives.
RIYL Wakanda forever
What: Chadwick Boseman tribute
Why: Ta-Nehisi Coates’ run on Black Panther was revolutionary in comics, and his current take on Captain America is a revelatory study not only in white nationalism, but the manipulations and mechanisms in which that so readily occurs by those seeking power (sounds terribly familiar). In Captain America #24, the most recent issue, he remembers the late Chadwick Boseman, who not only played Black Panther, but was a friend. It’s short, but crafted with exceeding care. In it, Coates writes of ancestry, “that when someone wields their weapons as fiercely as he once did, they are remembered.”