The Industrial Twilight: July 2015

Monday, July 20, 2015

UNIA - "Крынiчанька" [2008]

Artist: UNIA

Title: Крынiчанька

Genre: Industrial Folk Metal, Alternative Rock, Folk-Rock

Country: Belarus
Year: 2008

Track List:

Крынiчанька
Ульяна
Крынiчанька (mix by Kemlivae sontsa)

UNIA are a folk rock/metal band formed in Minsk in late 2006. The initial lineup consisted of 9 (!) musicians, but the latest known lineup consists only of 7 - including a male vocalist and two female ones. They have recorded two full-length albums so far and gained a limited recognition in their home region (but unfortunately, not much outside it). I couldn't find any news from them past 2012, and their official site wasn't updated since the end of 2008 - but I still hope they haven't split up, because I really liked both of their albums and would be happy to hear more from them.

Here's their free internet single "Крынiчанька", released in 2008 shortly before their debut full-length album ("Долам"). The title track is probably the best song they've recorded so far - a very organic mix of traditional folk music and alternative/industrial rock, reminds me of Risha. The single also contains an alternate (electronic) version of that track, and a more traditional folk-sounding song. Live performances of these songs (the quality of sound is quite bad, I must admit):

Download

(also available from their official site)

About this blog

I created this blog mostly because I wanted to practise my English skills, and to showcase the industrial, gothic, punk, metal, neofolk and progressive rock scene of Russia/ex-USSR and Eastern Europe (especially Hungary) in the meanwhile.

As you can see, this blog doesn't take itself seriously enough, but I hope I'm doing good enough with my reviews even if my proficiency in English is limited. Along with the aforementioned stuff from Eastern Europe, I occasionally post some classic and rare albums that aren't to be missed, and generally whatever I want. Other categories of note:

* finno-ugric rarities - various music (including pop) in minor Finno-Ugric languages which I'm interested in because of my heritage. The music from Hungary, Finland and Estonia can be found under the respective categories;

* lo-fi - various poorly recorded demos from before 2000 that are of historical importance. Most of these demos come from the USSR era, so you might want to check out the USSR category as well.

As of now, I try to post only music that has already been made free by the artists themselves, or the rare old releases that are out of print. But if you're an artist and would like me to remove the download links of your work, just contact me using the form below.

Sorry, I don't do reviews by request, I don't have the time. Moreover, I think the bands that feel the need to advertise themselves by sending their demos to as many blogs as possible are usually just plain boring. If you want to contact me for any other reason, use the contact form below.

It should be obvious enough that reviewing anything on here doesn't equals endorsement of artists' personal views. This especially concerns neofolk and martial industrial. It'd be fair enough to say that I have the same approach to the political and religious topics in these genres as Laibach do.

Many of the female musicians featured on my blog are amateur models, and in many cases their modelling work is no less interesting than their music. Right now I'm working on giving it a separate section of the blog (just in case if anyone wants my review to be only about their music and not their looks). The work is in progress, check back later if you're interested.

The title of my blog comes from a song by The Kovenant (album "SETI", 2003).