10 worthy Russian performers who are not on radio and TV. Part 3

2024 Author: Malcolm Clapton | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 03:44

The life hacker continues to talk about interesting artists that the Internet loves. In this issue: high-quality pop music, dark post-punk, guitar rock and a couple of interesting girl projects.

1. Tesla Boy

Already a middle-aged electropop group, periodically appearing in the rotation of not the most formatted radio stations and in the issues of "Evening Urgant". Despite appearances on the air, Tesla Boy is still much better known on the Internet: Motherland and Afisha Daily magazine, Native Sound and dozens of other publics, including quite underground ones, equally love her.

Tesla Boy's songs are popular with fans of light and high-quality pop music and fans of analog synthesizers. In the band's sound, you can hear the echoes of the favorite styles of frontman Anton Sevidov: disco of the 80s, soul, funk, jazz, pop music. All this, combined with the author's academic education, results in almost perfect compositions, every second of which is a potential hit.

The history of the group has been going on for almost 10 years, during this time the musicians managed to release several full-length and mini-albums, skate a lot of tours in Russia and far beyond its borders. Now work is underway on a new full-length release, and the Tesla Boy members brighten up the expectations of fans with excellent playlists in their VKontakte group.

Go to the Tesla Boy VK community →

2. WE

A duet of musicians Daniel and Eva, playing interesting and different music. Style can only be defined in abstract terms, so it's better to just listen.

The band hit the radar last December and has since had three releases that are part of one whole - Distances. The band members describe it as “a story about kilometers between two hearts, that distance doesn't exist, and how it kills from the inside,” whatever that means. I do not like love lyrics - try it anyway, there is still a lot of interesting things in the music of "WE".

The combination of voices sometimes resembles the music of The xx, but otherwise the group "WE" is a rather original phenomenon, at least on the domestic stage. Nice drum machine beats, interesting samples, relevant synthesizers and beautiful voices make great songs. So far there are 24 of them, but given the productivity of the team, the new ones, most likely, will not have to wait long.

Go to the "WE" community "VKontakte" →

3. Malbec

The project of clip makers Roman and Alexander "Malbec" is becoming more and more known to the wide audience (largely due to the recent performance at the "Evening Urgant") and by all indications has a great future in Russian pop music.

On the pages of music publications, the work of the group was quite accurately described as romantic urban-pop. Malbec is sensual songs, house and hip-hop beats, synthesizers, sometimes samples or live instruments.

The group's arsenal includes three full-length albums, joint tracks with BTsKh, Petar Martich from Pasos and Suzanne, the singer and wife of the band's vocalist Roman. The release of the fourth album "Crybaby" is scheduled for mid-October.

Go to the "Malbec" community "VKontakte" →

4. Ploho

Ploho is one of the most notable collectives of the so-called new Russian wave (the journalistic name for modern guitar groups singing in their native language).

Ploho plays cold post-punk with distant vocals - the one that is so much on the domestic underground scene of the last five years and which is so popular with those who do not see further Joy Division. However, this does not at all characterize the group negatively: Ploho flirts with classical post-punk, makes noise like real lo-fi shoegazers and respects the Soviet-Russian heritage, which is manifested in Russian-language texts close to the current twenty-year-olds.

“Wanting Warmth” is perhaps the most interesting video work by Ploho, where a song that is not bad in itself is supported by an expressive dance of a man on the stage of an empty hall of an unknown recreation center.

The group has released many singles, mini-albums and two full-length releases. Work is underway on the third, now Ploho is raising money to record it on one of the crowdfunding platforms. Details are in the VKontakte group.

Go to the Ploho "VKontakte" community →

5. Sharp-sighted

"Zorky" is not only a Soviet camera, but also a musical project led by Vasily Zorky. The group has existed since 2014, during this time some of its songs were included in the soundtracks for various TV shows on federal channels, and Vasily himself became the creative director of one of the country's main festivals, Afisha Picnic. Joint video works with famous actors, periodic appearances on the air and the influence of the frontman in concert circles allow Zorky to predict a noticeable stadium future.

"Sharp" plays with different styles, but the result is always quite smooth and pleasant to the average listener: sometimes it's close to Russian rock, sometimes to indie in the style of Arctic Monkeys, and sometimes it's rather simple and melodic songs with guitars and old synthesizers. Now "Zorky" has a couple of dozen songs, and in November the release of the full-length album "Volna" is being prepared.

Go to the Zorky community on VKontakte →

6. Ishome

“A kind family beat, minor electronics and ambient, bass and so on today” - this is how the Krasnodar girl Mira, better known as Ishome, describes her musical activity.

A similar ironic lightness comes through in all the interviews of this pretty girl, which causes a slight dissonance when listening to the music she writes. Awareness of compositions, passion for modular synthesizers (these are synthesizers-constructors without musical keys and with a bunch of wires) and awareness of electronic music gives a deep understanding of what it does. However, prejudice about our compatriots in the field of electronic music is a misunderstanding, as evidenced by the examples of Nina Kravitz and kedr livanskiy.

Ishome's activities are focused on live performances, Mira has successfully toured with techno and ambient sets. Her first album, Confession, was released in 2013, the second, as far as we know, is in the process of preparation: work on it has been going on for more than three years.

Go to the Ishome "VKontakte" community →

7. Pioneer camp Dusty Rainbow

Tver band playing uncompromising guitar rock. If you look around, then there are not so many such music of decent quality. The harshness and honesty of many rock bands often coexists with performance problems and primitive lyrics, and those who are more intellectual rarely express any protest moods with music. Therefore, PPR music is perhaps the best option when you want it with meaning and more aggressive.

The frontman of the group, Alexei Rumyantsev, in one of his interviews mentioned his love for Nirvana and Civil Defense. Somewhere at the junction of these two not particularly combined forces is the music of the Pioneer Camp. She was also appreciated by her colleagues in a completely different workshop: rapper Oxxxymiron has repeatedly expressed his love for PPR, and also took part in the performance of her version of "Degenerate Art" at one of the concerts.

Go to the community of PPR "VKontakte" →

8. Pasos

"Pasos" is a contemporary rock for young people. Melodic, moderately energetic, not as depressing as 90% of Russian guitar music, and as simple as three kopecks.

With the recent release of the album Every Time, the Most Important Time, the group has finally consolidated its position in the top ten most popular local rock bands - those who go on large tours around the country with zero radio and TV presence.

This music is understandable and close to every twenty-year-old. The group does not chase trends, does not try to be deliberately intellectual, and this recipe for success works: music (and even not very musical) publications write about it, and its VKontakte group has more than 40 thousand subscribers.

Go to the "Pasosha" community "VKontakte" →

9. Guerak

One of the main bands of Siberian post-punk and the aforementioned new Russian wave is Buerak from Novosibirsk. He has two full-length albums, performances at underground music festivals as a headliner and an army of fans aged 15 to 25.

The music of "Guerak" is canonical post-punk with a straight kick, energetic bass and unloaded guitars. Sentimental motives are reinforced by naive and absurd, and sometimes serious and thoughtful texts.

The distant voice of Artyom Cherepanov and the naivety of the lyrics can scare away an unprepared listener, so the value of "Buerak", like any other group, is a subjective question, but the significance of the collective in the context of musical trends of recent years is difficult to deny.

Go to the "Guerak" community "VKontakte" →

10. Lucidvox

A girlish band playing dark music at the intersection of psychedelic, kraut-rock, shoegaze, folk, and in the latest release "Smoke" also stoner. If these terrible words do not say anything, then it is useless to explain - you have to listen. If they say, it's still worth listening to.

The ethnic component of the music is especially interesting: Russian melos is combined here with Yakut motives (the influence of the bassist Anya is felt) and is supported by unusual instruments - tabla, jew's harp, duduk.

Lucidvox has close creative ties with the "Thank you" group: in November, both groups, together with Harajiev Smokes Virginia and "Knights Knights", are going on a big tour of the cities of Russia.

Go to the Lucidvox VKontakte community →