10 Russian and Ukrainian performers who are not on radio and TV

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

Romantic music with saxophone, pop punk for rebellious teenagers and a few one-man-project artists you may not have heard of.

1. Juna

Juna is straight out of the nineties! - this is how laconically the participants described their group in the VKontakte community. Juna draws inspiration from the guitar music of the late Soviet and post-Soviet period and offers new Russian rock - topical, fresh and inventive - such as the ear of a domestic listener is not spoiled for.

In such rock, there are no heavy riffs: in terms of expression, it is closer to shoegaze and dream-pop. This impression is complemented by the characteristic female vocals and an abundance of guitar parts. Since the spring of last year, "Juna" has released two mini-albums - 10 songs that are easy to listen to in one gulp.

Listen on Apple Music →

Listen on Google Play →

Go to the VKontakte community →

2. My rockets up

And this band with a rich history is familiar, perhaps, to everyone who was interested in alternative or indie music in the last 15 years. Rockets is a project by Kostya Chalykh, also known for his participation in the Seventh Race and SunSay groups.

The discography of the collective has a dozen releases, each of which is worthy of attention. It is rather difficult to designate the music of "rockets" by a specific genre: they really have their own style, which was once based on the Seattle rock of the 90s, but after years the conditional framework has become so blurred that nothing but the universal "alternative" or "indie", does not bother the group.

Now the group "My Rocket Up" is in a semi-active state: musicians rarely perform, new songs, it seems, are not expected either. Despite this, fans know that the group can surprise with a release after a long silence (as in 2016 with the Littoral album) and play a couple of cool concerts at any time. If only for this reason, the "missiles" should not be left out of sight for a long time.

Listen on Apple Music →

Listen on Google Play →

Go to the VKontakte community →

3. Naughty Molly

If you want to better understand irresponsible adolescents, or at least for a short while feel like one of them, the music of "Naughty Molly" is more suitable than any time machine. Deliberately raw guitars, reminiscent of MIDI parts in the Guitar Pro program, acid synthesizers, boring pop melodies and frantic dance energy - all this can make even the most serious and grown-ups dance.

The main thing to do before listening to Molly's songs is to turn off your inner snob. Well, get ready for obscene language: there is a lot of it here, just like in the vocabulary of a rebellious teenager.

Listen on Apple Music →

Listen on Google Play →

Go to the VKontakte community →

4. Uvula

Dreamy, melancholic and romantic music with pleasant pop melodies and a slightly rough sound. It seems easy to name a dozen performers that fit this description, but using the phrase "one more" in relation to "Uvula" does not work at all.

Firstly, "Uvulu" is distinguished by a serious approach to arrangements and melody, which is so lacking in home projects with sincere and beautiful, but made on the knee music. Secondly, she has a saxophone! It seems that this is a trifle, but a couple of songs with appropriate parts of a wind instrument are enough to understand how much modern guitar music lacks something like that.

Listen on Apple Music →

Listen on Google Play →

Go to the VKontakte community →

5. Buckwheat

The seventeen-year-old performer Nastya Ivanova has already been nicknamed the new Zemfira and the girlish counterpart of the aforementioned "Voyeur Molly". These statements may seem an exaggeration, but Grechka's debut album caused a serious resonance in musical circles, 20 people at concerts turned into hundreds, and music (and not only) media began to write about a young girl with a guitar. And the reason for the success is still the same - uncomplicated melody, pleasant voice and honest, unbroken lyrics that evoke a response from adolescents.

In terms of sound, the album "Stars Only at Night" is not inventive: these are songs composed by a young girl with an acoustic guitar, which were "built" into a minimalistic rhythm section. There is nothing super-deep in the lyrics of "Grechka" and there is nothing that a modern teenager has not encountered. To write songs that will be chanted at concerts, this is enough.

Listen on Apple Music →

Listen on Google Play →

Go to the VKontakte community →

6. Daniel Shake

Lifehacker has written more than once about the duet "WE" - one of the most important musical discoveries of the past year. "WE" burned brightly, but not for long: after the scandalous events associated with the student of "Baumanka", the group announced its breakup. Group member and music author Daniil Shaikhinurov immediately released a solo album "Parting" with material that did not become a logical continuation of the "Distance" trilogy from the "WE" project.

Without Eva Krause's voice, Daniel's songs have lost some of their charm, but it's definitely the same music, romantic, touching and inventive. If you like Parting, then try Daniel Shake's previous releases: the Zodiac Signs album and the English-language Loosen Me Up.

Listen on Apple Music →

Listen on Yandex. Music →

Listen on Google Play →

Go to the VKontakte community →

7. Moon

"Sad Dance" - the title of this song by the Kiev singer Kristina Bardash can be described as her music. This is a melancholic electropop with references to the 90s - a decade marked by strange experiments and an abundance of electronic instruments in Russian popular music.

Arising at the junction of Western attitudes towards pop music and the domestic trash heritage, Luna is to some extent a unique and, despite its commercial nature, a high-quality project. Recommended for lovers of good pop and fans of sad music who miss the mood of school discos.

Listen on Apple Music →

Listen on Google Play →

Go to the VKontakte community →

8. Talnik

This group does everything in an unusual way: writes music, arranges compositions, gives performances and promotes releases. It is not in streaming services, and even the VKontakte public page looks strange. "Talnik" is a Moscow duet of Sasha and Sveta, who came to the capital from Seversk and Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk. This is the little that can be found about them on the Internet.

In 2014, Afisha journalists called Talnik's music meek electronics. Perhaps the main feature of the collective is meekness, delicacy, the ability to evoke emotions with the help of beautiful melodies and an interesting sound, rather than loudness and expression.

Go to the VKontakte community →

9. Synecdoche Montauk

"Sinekdokha Montauk" is a one-man-project of Savva Rozanov, an intelligent young man from Moscow. If you love sensual and fragile music and have nothing against high male vocals, a valuable discovery awaits you in the music of Sinekdokhi. Beautiful complex and non-trivial melodies, experiments in sampling and an inventive approach to sound, capacious and powerful lyrics - all this is here.

Now the musician is working on the triptych "MMXVII", two parts of which have already been released. As the author admitted in an interview, this work is a kind of diary, the chapters of which differ in appeals to different people and eras.

Listen on Apple Music →

Listen on Google Play →

Go to the VKontakte community →

10. Black River

"Black River" is a Kirov band playing a slightly weighted, uncomplicated post-punk with a set of stylistic techniques typical of the genre: straight kick, aggressive bass and minor progressions.

The trend for domestic post-punk, which began with the success of the "Morning" group, has spawned many such groups, but something that favorably distinguishes "Black River" from them. Firstly, the vocalist really sings here, not trying to squeeze out of himself an unnatural nasal tone, hiding the inability to hit the notes. And secondly, the group is not trying to follow a simple path: to shock or provoke a reaction from adolescents in the texts. All songs here, according to the musicians, are about love and friendship.

Listen on Apple Music →

Listen on Google Play →

Go to the VKontakte community →