This compilation is a tribute to the legend of contemporary Russian "hard-boiled" cinema - Alexey Balabanov (25 February 1959 – 18 May 2013). It was compiled a few days ago at 2ch.hk's /mu/ by several bedroom industrial/noise/ambient musicians. While it isn't easy listening by any means, and it probably won't gather much interest outside of /mu/, I do think this sort of music suits Balabanov's movies better than the more mainstream Russian rock that he typically used in OSTs (although I should mention that I was a big fan of Balabanov's "Brother 2" OST when I was a teenager...)
For those who wonder why there weren't any updates for last two months: I've lost ~300 Gb of music (including some quite rare stuff) due to a hard drive failure. After several unsuccessful attempts to repair it by myself, I decided to find a specialist, which turned out to be easier said than done (almost no local repair shops work with HDDs).
When I finally managed to find one, he said it's going to be quite expensive, and the success isn't guaranteed at all. Not the most pleasant situation, to put it mildly. And even if the music would be recovered, I'll probably continue blogging mostly on review-only basis, without unauthorized download links (maybe with some exceptions for really rare and obscure stuff).
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):
Senmuth - Guitars, bass, drums, keyboards, programming, album cover art
Naakhum - Vocals, lyrics, didgeridoo, ethnic instruments, tapping solo
Finally, it happened - those two very similar artists made a collaboration single! Those who read my blog on a regular basis most likely know what to expect from both Naakhm and Senmuth - exactly what is featured on this single named "Змајевски Језик" ("The Draconian Tongue", if I understood the title correctly). However it was a surprise for me to find out that Naakhum has relocated from Igualada (somewhere near Barcelona) to Belgrade...
Until last Saturday, it was hard for me to remember when I've been to a concert last time. Even if I'm living in a city with over 1.2 million inhabitants, really interesting gigs are pretty rare here. They aren't that rare in Moscow, but I can't afford travelling there too often (in fact, I went there to see Ayria live in 2006 and L'ame Immortelle - in 2008, but it was long ago). Two years ago I had a chance to see Fear Factory in Prem!o Centre here in NN, but unfortunately I didn't go. This time, though, I didn't miss the chance to see Нейромонах Феофан live in the same venue (Prem!o), and it was awesome.
Before I discovered НФ, I never thought I'd ever attend a drum & bass event, let alone enjoying it. However, НФ has his own brand of "drum & folk" which is aesthetically closer to folk metal than to any commercial electronic music. I'd say the atmosphere at his performance was comparable to that of Arkona's gig which I attended roughly 7 years ago :) The public mostly looked pretty casual, though (me including). There weren't many interesting costumes, although I definitely liked the looks of this couple:
The show itself was great too, with a dancing "bear" on stage (just like the one in the video):
And, finally, a fan-made video:
The lyrics of this song start with: "My life is ascetic...", which is pretty applicable for me too. However, despite my rather reclusive lifestyle and distaste of being in large groups of people, I enjoyed НФ's gig a lot. Hope for more new songs from him in the near future.
"Coatlicue..." is not the only collaborative release in Senmuth's vast discography. This one, titled "Semrük-Bürküt" and released in 2012, is even better. The idea of this recording was brought up by Serkan "Ordog" Falay, an Istanbul-based musician which is primarily known for his band Aegnor. On "Semrük-Bürküt" he plays oud and some other exotic instruments, while Senmuth, as always, is responsible for the guitars & programming.
"Semrük-Bürküt" is freely available on archive.org under the terms of Creative Commons BY-NC-ND 3.0 license, along with a detailed review which is certainly better than my one:
Here's one of two singles which are the result of a recent collaboration between Senmuth and Lyuba Kolesnik, the vocalist of Nakka. It also contains the instrumental version of the title track, and intro/outro (both are instrumental too). The music generally reminds me of Tenochtitlan rather than of Senmuth's solo works. Like in case with "Tezcatl" by Tenochtitlan, "Coatlicue..." is a concept work inspired by the Aztec mythology.
Like Deflowering Brain, Nakka falls into the category of "comedy grind", yet they're far more talented and creative than the majority of bands which work in this niche. The key distinguishing feature of Nakka is their extensive use of industrial aesthetics, while their music itself is more or less straightforward death/grind of the Czechoslovak school. The only thing "industrial" about their sound is the extensive use of voice samples from various sources (mainly from the old soviet movies); that said, it's very well played and recorded. The vocals are female, although it doesn't make them sounding any less brutal :3
Their lyrics and imagery are a different matter though. The lyrics are mostly about the everyday life of industrial workers and the blurring of lines between humanity and machinery - both metaphorically (as in "working hard all your life, like a cog in a machine") and literally (as in Shinya Tsukamoto's cult movie "Tetsuo: The Iron Man"). Nakka's approach to these matters is entirely humorous, though, as opposed to the early industrial death metal bands such as Dead World.
I'd translate the title of this album (which is Nakka's first full-length release) as "Human Factory". You can listen to it on Bandcamp, or even buy it for a symbolic price of 1$. Be sure to also check their music videos, which are pure insanity created with a very limited budget:
