Kriminaaliset Metsänhaltijat ‎– "Valkoinen Terrori" [2009]

Artist: Kriminaaliset Metsänhaltijat

Title: Valkoinen Terrori

Genre: Harsh Noise, Power Electronics

Country: Karelia

Release date: 2009

Track List:

1. Raja, 1918
2. Riitakysymys
3. Hukka
4. Kuolemaantuomitun Hyvästijättö
5. Valkoinen Terrori
6. Punainen Ja Valkoinen
7. Moment Of Silence

Kriminaaliset Metsänhaltijat are (were?) a very obscure harsh noise collective from Karelia (no idea if they're from the Russian or the Finnish part of that region). Almost everything is known about them (not too much, admittedly) is gathered on this page. If it's to be believed, they have 3 anonymous members and define their style as follows:

"Raw old-school industrial on the bones of SPK and THROBBING GRISTLE through the prism of Japanese harsh-noise and Finnish hardcore-punk. Nihilistic nightmare. Diffused synth hiss, pretentious harsh-noise arcades, crispy scurfy hateful power-electronics. Another spit into the face of rotten society and shitty system. There were a few closed gigs. Also, loads of recordings were made. Most of them have been destroyed. Some parts of tapes full of piss and vinegar have just been lost or erased during terrible hangovers. All that have been saved - works from 1997 and later. Those are sounds recorded on our 4-track. The sounds of sick buzz in our heads. Torn apart sheets of iron and stone walls of slaughterhouses spattered with blood. This is the shit rubbed in the silk white sheets of modern industrial. This is the true old-school noise! No modern bullshit and nazi crap!"

According to the same Discogs page, this particular cassette was recorded in 1999 but released only 10 years after (40 physical copies). Side B is said to be completely silent (hence the name "Moment Of Silence", but the only rip of "Valkoinen Terrori" I could find has it as a lengthy noise track. As a whole, it's easily one of the best underground noise releases I've heard so far, and the samples of old Finnish songs (the title track, for example) are nice too. Judging from the track names, the album is dedicated to the events of Finnish civil war of 1918. The band name means something like "Criminal Keepers of the Forest" (a reference to some partisans, maybe, but I don't know for sure). Expect much more obcure Finno-Urgic music to be reviewed on here in the near future, although it'll be nowhere near as noisy as KM.

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Second To Sun - "Three Fairy Tales" [2014]

Artist: Second To Sun

Title: Three Fairy Tales

Genre: Avant-Garde Metal, Blackened Deathcore, Post-Black Metal

Country: Russia

Release date: 2014

Track List:

1. The Trapper
2. Merämaa
3. Barmaley

Just like Thy Catafalque, Second To Sun is an avant-garde metal project whose genre can be loosely defined as "post-black metal". Both are basically one-man projects (with a revolving door of collaborators), and both were started by someone with Finno-Ugric roots. However, S2S is heavily influenced by modern progressive metalcore, which can't be said about TC. The first full-length release from S2S, "Based On A True Story", was more or less typical modern metalcore/deathcore, while the later releases (including this one) are more influenced by the avant-garde black metal scene. The mastermind of S2S, Vladimir Klimov-Lehtinen, also has an expiremental black metal/noise project called Voivotus, which I'll review a little later.

Just like other releases by S2S, "Three Fairy Tales" is influenced by Karelian folklore, and it essentially is a compilation of singles released by the band on Bandcamp. All three tracks are instrumental, if some spoken word samples don't count. You can listen to "Three Fairy Tales" here, and read a bit more elaborate review of it here.

Thy Catafalque - "Sgùrr" [2015]

Artist: Thy Catafalque

Title: Sgùrr

Genre: Avant-Garde Metal

Country: Hungary/UK

Release date: 2015

Track List:

1. Zúgó
2. Alföldi kozmosz
3. Oldódó formák a halál titokzatos birodalmában
4. A hajnal kék kapuja
5. Élő lény
6. Jura
7. Sgùrr eilde mòr
8. Keringő
9. Zúgó

Tamás Kátai is back with a new album of his most well-known project, Thy Catafalque. I don't think he needs to be introduced to any of my readers (as I've already reviewed a lot of his works), nor I think I'd be able to write a better review of "Sgùrr" than this excellent one on Metal Bandcamp. So I'll just leave the Bandcamp link here, and let the music to speak for itself.

Технология - "Это война" [1996]

Artist: Технология

Title: Это война

Genre: Synthpop

Country: Russia

Release date: 1996

Track List:

1. Телефон Небес
2. Королева Дорог
3. Яд
4. Скорая Помощь
5. Экран (Ненужный Тормоз)
6. Не Последний Танец
7. Это Война...
8. Хранитель Тишины
9. Тайга
10. Вспоминай
11. Ветер

After I published my previous entry, one of my readers rightfully pointed out that Технология's debut album isn't the only their release that worths attention. Their 1996 album (3rd in their discography) deserves to be checked out too, even if it doesn't contain such obvious hits as "Нажми на кнопку" or "Странные танцы".

During the mid-90s, the band has undergone serious line-up changes. Most importantly, Roman Ryabtsev (their original vocalist and songwriter) has quit the band in order to pursue a solo career in France. Despite that, the band managed to keep their "trademark" sound of their first two albums on this one (which can't be said about their 2009 reunion album, sadly). In the times when almost all the underground music in USSR has largely died due to a dire economical situation, and only the most mainstream commercial pop music has thrived, they've released possibly the most "dark" and depressive album in their discography. And just like their 1991 debut, it reflects the atmosphere of these times quite well. Even the title track, "This Is War", can be seen as a reference to the events of the 1st Chechen war (although the lyrics doesn't explicitly tell that...)

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Технология - "Все, что ты хочешь" [1991]

Artist: Технология

Title: Все, что ты хочешь

Genre: Synthpop

Country: USSR

Release date: 1991

Track List:

1. Нажми на кнопку
2. Все, что ты хочешь
3. Странные танцы
4. Холодный след
5. Cm-112
6. Один
7. Set Me Free
8. Песни ни о чем
9. Шутник
10. Полчаса

While the first synthpop projects appeared in USSR as early as in 1983, the genre gained mainstream levels of popularity only in late 80s and very early 90s, largely because of the most successful Depeche Mode albums that were released that time. Of course there was a wave of local projects trying to imitate DM, and Технология (Technology) was the most successful among them.

The band was formed in 1990 by former members of a earlier Moscow-based synthpop band called "Bioconstructor". While the band members themselves have denied any "plagiarism" from Depeche Mode, their style was (and still is) largely viewed by critics as straight up imitation of DM. While it's hard to argue with that, I have to say that I never really liked Depeche Mode. The only their work I actually like a lot is Mike Shinoda's remix of "Enjoy The Silence", everything else just sounds 2boring4me. On the other hand, I really love this album, despite its obvious flaws (weak vocals, cheap production by modern standards, etc.), mostly because it very accurately reflects the overall atmosphere and mood of that era, similarly to the best Hungarian synthpop albums of the same time ("1984" by Bonanza Banzai and "Júlia Nem Akar A Földön Járni" by Napoleon Boulevard, to name a few). I was only 5 y.o. when it was released, and I remember these times as permanent late autumn (just like what I see out of my window right now) and the overall mood of uncertain changes finally coming after the years of 70s' "stagnation". The changes did came, but these weren't the changes we wanted, to put it very mildly...

The tape rip can be found here in MP3 and FLAC, along with the scans. Some of the photos remind me of Kraftwerk, which isn't surprising (the whole 80s' synthpop scene was influenced by Kraftwerk). The band is still active nowadays, although with a different line-up, and released 3 more albums since then (none of which is as good as their debut one, though).

V/A - "New Eden Logs" [2014]

Artist: (various)

Title: New Eden Logs

Genre: Ambient, Downtempo, Industrial Electronic, VGM

Country: Russia

Release date: 2014

Track List:

Peace Logs

1. RealX - Pieces Of Shrapnel
2. Niraia - Outer Ring Excavations
3. Egri Lorenz - The Story Begin
4. Sergrunt - The Paths They Chose
5. Emika Neosignal - Digital Wormhole
6. Emika Neosignal - Salute Hallur
7. Aegis Systems - Temporal Flux
8. Timshishkin - Long Ride to HZFJ-M
9. Soundtch - Вoundless Sphere
10. Soundtch - ATMO
11. Timshishkin - Centermass
12. Midnight Caretakers - Guiding Light the Cyno
13. Midnight Caretakers - Thrust

War Logs

1. Darkelina Sia - Intro for the War Side
2. Aegis Systems - Contaminated
3. ...Und Null Sekunden - Firefield (feat. Sergrunt)
4. Darkelina Sia - Fight Is Our Destiny
5. Darkelina Sia - Capital Fleet Is Approaching
6. Lord Lacrima - Ice
7. Lord Lacrima - Ore
8. Radio Envy - Warp To Null
9. Dante deLio - Now or Never
10. Dante deLio - Demolition
11. Andro & Jumper - Sansha
12. Sergrunt - Armada Shards
13. Dante deLio - Pursuit
14. Sergrunt - Downblast
15. Alex Rasher - Eternity
16. Amoebacrew - Wind Rises 

Dead Logs

1. Flesh to Stone - Krittika
2. Flesh to Stone - Punarvasu
3. ...Und Null Sekunden - Drones Drift
4. ...Und Null Sekunden - W-Space & Time Dilation
5. Lightwarrior - Glare Crust
6. Andro & Jumper - Mekhios Graveyard
7. Sergrunt - State of Industry
8. Sergrunt - First Empress Kiss
9. Darkelina Sia - New Eden Passion
10. Desolo Sub Humus - New Order and Old Ice
11. Alex Rasher - So There Is Morning
12. Quizybuck - Space Is Too Bright
13. Sergrunt - Tribal End 

New Eden Logs is a 3-part compilation of electronic music made by EVE Online players from the EVE-RU forum, released roughly an year ago by the rem.fever label of Nazar M. (Sergrunt, A Drama Radio) in close collaboration with the Mental Excitement net label (Cracked Core, ...Und Null Sekunden). It was authorized by EVE Online developers, and it includes one track from the composer of the official EVE Online OST (Jón Hallur aka RealX). I personally have never played EVE Online, but from the description it surely looks interesting, as it's the only popular PC game developed in Iceland as well as one of the very few popular MMORPGs with a sci-fi setting.

The compilation is more than 3 hours long, consisting of 3 parts: "Peace Logs", "War Logs" and "Dead Logs". "Peace Logs" feature mostly traditional space ambient/electronica, while "War Logs" are more dynamic (going even in the dubstep territory), and "Dead Logs" are more influenced by post-industrial and drone. Mastered and mixed by Amoebacrew, cover art by MarkArt, 3D graphics by fyr. Enjoy!

FLAC:
Peace Logs:
Dropbox
Archive.org

War Logs:
Dropbox
Archive.org

Dead Logs:
Dropbox
Archive.org
 

MP3:
Peace Logs:
Dropbox
Archive.org

War Logs:
Dropbox
Archive.org

Dead Logs:
Dropbox
Archive.org

V/A - "Oktyabrinovich" [2015]

Artist: (various)

Title: Oktyabrinovich

Genre: Noise, Dark Ambient

Country: Russia

Release date: 2015

Track List:

1. Dust 60 - Look At Me Now
2. Trauerspiel - Dedication 1
3. Eug.Sk - Scientific Atheism
4. Karatau - City Of The Sun II
5. Dust 60 - Gruz200
6. Negative Attitude - Soviet Walls
7. Trauerspiel - Dedication 2
8. SoldOut! - Watcher
9. Li++ - Abandonment
10. Negative Attitude - Repair
11. Shine Lethargy - The Groom Arrived
12. Karatau - City Of The Sun
13. Dust 60 - Morphine
14. Serg PS - The End

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...)

Download

A brief update

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).