Extended short history of Horadnia punk

Evolution of hardcore, anarcho-punk, and pop-punk in the city that became Belarus' unassuming punk capital.

28.12.2000

feature

In the summer of 2015, the small reconnaissance team of a Belarusian youth magazine 34mag headed to Horadnia^1 on a mission to write a gig report and accidentally came back with a historic document – the most comprehensive overview of the city's punk scene that we had ever encountered. The original text, seemingly lost forever somewhere in cyberspace, has been retrieved with the help of the all-mighty Internet Archive by Alik Khamiak a.k.a. Schmoltz, who greatly supplemented it with insider knowledge of the scene's history and compiled a three-part playlist for maximum immersion into the good old times when punk rock reigned supreme.

Punk rock is all about freedom and defiance against those who try to take it away. In the late '90s, when Belarusians, disillusioned with their chosen political path, were just settling into the social apathy and widespread internal emigration, rebellious misfits with guitars were already shouting their heads off about totalitarianism and living in a police state. Horadnia, the western-most outpost of the country became a stronghold of the political, protest-driven anarcho-punk movement in the country, and arguably in the region, since the 90’s. While fame has never been a currency in the punk movement, bands like Deviation and Contra La Contra finally get widespread recognition in Belarus for their anti-authoritarian messages in 2020 once all of their warnings come true with unprecedented violence and persecution of the civic society by the authorities. This article revisits the lesser-known but fascinating chapters of a local underground music scene and counter-culture movement while compiling nearly all the pertinent music links in one place for your listening pleasure.

The following text expands on the original article "Short history of punk on the banks of river Nioman" from 2015 article with extensive additions. That article, in turn, was based on extensive conversation with L. – at the time a local musician, recording engineer and scene historian. In 2012 he created the "Grodno Music" group on social networking platform vk.com that published rare recordings of Horadnia musicians, often ripped from extremely hard to find cassettes. He was also a member of a disco-trash-punk outfit Ultra Pultra, sang in a hardcore crust band Huščar and ran Ultra Pultra Records – a d.i.y. recording studio that lent a hand in recording many of the local scene's seminal albums. We're using his color commentary from the old article in this text as well.

<h2>Hippies, rock bands and first flashes on punk</h2>

Horadnia, a border town, has had a strong western musical influence since the times of the Iron Curtain. The documented history of the local counterculture begins back in 1971, when a group of local hippies organized a protest march to the city center. The alternative youth in Horadnia were fed up with constantly being harassed by cops, having their hair forcibly cut short, their flared trousers torn, and other forms of humuliation. They were joined by their like-minded friends from Tallinn, Vilnius, Leningrad and Masty for a downtown march towards Savieckaya Square with banners saying "Hands off our hair", "Stop the terror", "Freedom to rock'n'roll" and "All you need is love". At the front of the march, a hippie from Tallinn named Viru led a real fighting rooster, which his sailor father had brought back from an overseas voyage. The protest ended in failure: everyone was shoved into police vans, some were expelled from their institutes, and the newspapers wrote them off as delinquents. In short, a familiar story.

During the perestroika era, an alternative music scene began to take shape in Horadnia, just like in other Belarusian cities. Rock bands were forming in nearly every neighborhood, and in 1987, the first rock festival was held at the "Khimik" tourist base. The grand prize was won by the band "Teatr" – young musicians who worked at the Drama Theater, creating art-rock pieces for theatre plays while also organizing their own concerts. At the same time, the band "Kontur" was making waves with their hard rock sound. The band's founder, Yuri Hryhier, will later open the locally-famed music store Showtime on Horkaha Street in the 90s. The store remained in business until 2016, even though sales of cassettes and CDs had long been overtaken by digital formats on the internet by then.

In the early 90s, metal and post-punk bands like Green Dance, The Post, Wake Up started organizing concerts at the Puppet Theater. Back then, the audiences had to be seated, although timid displays of youth rebellion started manifesting themselves little by little through headbanging and moshing. Even back then, there was a number of local metal bands like 4Dramers 4Dramers, Decapitator, Bestial Inc, but many of them didn't leave behind any recordings. At that time there were three main rock sound engineers, who both organized the live shows and recorded bands – Siarhiej Finski and the Hałodny brothers. They were good at their jobs because they also played in bands themselves. One of the Hałodny twins was a drummer, while Finski played in the metal band B.E.S.T. It's their efforts that we owe the first recordings of The Post and Deviation to.

Chronologically, it is The Post that can be considered the start of the punk rock sound at local concerts, which in the 90s were held at such venues as the Puppet Theater, the Kosmos cinema, the Grodno cinema, and presented diverse lineups of bands from the entire span of the rock spectrum: from art rock to punk to death metal. The first eponymous album by Evgeny Nikitin and his bandmates was released in 1993 and has a classic punk rock sound. With each subsequent album, The Post's style keeps evolving into something less and less punk, culminating with a "rokapops"^2 sound popular at the turn of the 90s combined with Russian-language semi-nonsensical lyrics. However, a different band is commonly regarded as the pioneer of the punk revolution in Horadnia, not least due to their extremely daring and sincere lyrics and messages, which The Post could hardly boast of.

Deviation marks the beginning of the Horadnia punk canon. The band was created in 1993 by Pačobut brothers, Stas and Andrej, from Vialikaja Bierastavica, a small town in the Horadnia region. Fall of 1993 they played their first live show there, which got them arrested for 10 and 15 days respectively. In 1996 they put out their debut album "Lukaschenko uber alles" where they strongly criticized the then-new president and police brutality while touching on other subversive topics. The following year they recorded their second album "Huj vam, abo Tatalitaryzm nia projdzie!" (“Fuck you or Totalitarianism Won’t Pass!”), then played the Basovišča 1998 festival and warmed up for the stars of the Belarusian rock from Miensk N.R.M. That concert was probably Deviation's only full-length (not-unplugged) live show in Horadnia throughout their career. The band had become notorious for getting interrupted mid-set by either the authorities or the shocked event organizers because of their strongly political lyrics and in-between-song speeches. That time though, the band did get through their set list succesfully, with the authorities catching up too late and powering down the whole city block including the cinema the concert took place in only when N.R.M. – the headliners – took to the stage. Deviation went on to win the first prize at Basovišča the next year, as well as the title of "The Belarusian rock band of the year" by Muzykalnaja Gazeta, a popular nationwide music news publication. After that, they released two more albums “Guerrilla Urbana“ (2001) and "Charhovy dzień pad akupacyjaj" (“Another day under occupation”) (2009) before disbanding. Since then Stas plays accoustic shows and has released two accoustic albums "Akustyka" (2011) and "TunyayazDZec" (2015), while Andrej focused on human rights advocacy and independent journalism, which he is currently imprisoned for.

Kalian, the other notable punk band of the first wave, represents a more melodic side of punk. Flowing folk melodies of the accordion and the spirited passages of the violin supplement the classic punk guitar chords. Meanwhile, the slightly trembling voice of Aleś Dzianisaŭ, the band's leader, reveals how deeply he feels about the themes he sings about. The band has gone through a long, fifteen-year history: recorded the first album "U Kraine Cudaŭ" (“In the Wonderland”) in 1997, became the winner of Basovišča" in 1998, recorded six more albums, the last of them being "Antypazityŭ" in 2011. After that, Dzianisaŭ started the acoustic folk project Ludzi Na Balocie, which poignantly explores various aspects of the Belarusian anti-Bolshevik uprisings of the past. Additionally, along with Paša Trublin and Dzianis Žyhaviec, he formed the Belarusian-language band Dzieciuki, another patriotic take on street punk with heavy folk influences.

"In the late 90s, on Karl Marx Street near Sovetskaya, two flags were hung on the facade of the same building: the red 'hammer and sickle' and, just a few meters away, the white-red-white," L. recalls. _"You would go up to the second floor: on the right was the Communist Party, and on the left was the BPF. Why did punks go to the BPF? Certainly not to join the nationalist party^3. But because they had a distro there. There was a guy that worked there that everyone knew as Michielson. If it weren't for him, we wouldn't have heard half of the music we did. You go to the BPF office, and right near the entry you see a huge table with cassettes, patches, zines etc. Los Fastidios, Deviation, Contra La Contra. Michielson simply kept us nourished with music. Punk kids used to just go hang out there. They checked out the patches, listened to new cassettes, sometimes bought something. There you could also find zines, some were about anarchy, capitalism and communism, others about the new albums by Rancid or NoFX".

The Last Kusto released their first album "Gomeopatiya I Zdorov'e" ("Homeopathy and Health") in 1998, followed by "Baby Semachki Garmoshka" ("Chicks, seeds, accordion") (1999). With none of the first-wavers' earnest rebel zeal, they instead dish out harsh satire of reality, self-mockery and stylistic diversity – all of which seem to restore punk's original essence and immediacy.

In 2001, the newly formed band Contra La Contra released the "Vyjdi Na Ulicu" ("Go outside") demo, and "Ni Slova O Politike" ("Not a word about politics") album in 2002. The Masalski twins, of The Last Kusto, are on guitar and bass. The sound is aggressive anarcho-crust with energetic screaming vocals hurling messages of resistance to police brutality, social apathy, capitalism etc – more starightforward and literal than the first wave bands Deviation and Kalian. The band blows up quickly. They tour Europe in 2002 doing 35 shows in 38 days across Lithuania, Poland, Austria, Germany, Denmark and Sweden, put out a translucent dark-red LP on a renown German label Alerta Antifascista and disbanded. Contra La Contra gained legendary status over time among anarcho-crust punks worldwide, with numerous covers of their songs and Contra La Contra t-shirts and patches still seen at punk shows accross the globe.

The wave of anarchism, anti-fascism and hardcore sweeps over the local scene. It gives rise to such new bands as Antiglobalizator, Basta! Basta!, Bes Paniki, and Sobaki Pavlova (a.k.a. "Pavlov Dogs"). The latter is almost a myth. The band that appeared seemingly out of nowhere, flashed by swiftly like a comet, but forever left its mark on history. Sobaki Pavlova were formed in 2000 by a bunch of young kids from the punk scene, played two live performances over two days: the first one for the widest possible local audience at the "Tri Shurupa" festival – a typical city-wide rock band showcase, and the second one the following day at a very d.i.y punk gig in the garage. Elders of the scene also mention another show they managed to play in Miensk during their short run, but that's as far as the band's history goes.

Their performance at the "Tri Shurupa" festival was truly explosive by contrast with all the usual rock and metal bands of the day that they shared the stage with. Heavy groovy guitar riffs, protest rhymes, a scratch DJ, wild stage jumps – all marked the arrival of a new musical generation, with its own values, attitude, and a completely different level of energy. The band disappeared from the radar almost immediately, without recording a single album. Lucky for us, a dictaphone recording of a rehearsal was discovered a few years ago, which at least in some ways can help us paint the picture of the early moments of the hardcore explosion in Horadnia.

What seems to be a little known fact is that "Sobaki Pavlova" are the actual authors of one of the punk anthems of the era "Iz Chernoi Reziny Sdelana Vlast'" ("Authority Is Made Of Black Rubber") popularized via a Contra La Contra cover, which, in turn, was covered by dozens of bands accross the punk world. This line from the "Sobaki Pavlova" track could be seen among the numerous banners in Miensk 2020. These and numerous other extremely politically charged lyrics by Horadnia punks, which once seemed intentionally extreme or full of artistic exaggeration to a casual listener, became much more understandable to a significantly broader audience that year.

Another band of the period that gained notoriety locally, all over Belarus and beyond was V3Anus. Heavy hardcore guitars, fun arrangements and a very charismatic frontman Shust delivering unique, absurd, and freakish lyrics with both boldness and artistic finesse. His inimitable on-stage persona would be the closest to what could be called a queer performer nowadays. He would often perform in drag (along with a variety of other striking outfits that always distinguished the band) didn't shy away from occasionally stripping on stage and casually wearing a kilt around town, back in the days when you could still easily get beat up by local gopniks for having long hair or piercings as a male. The band's arrangements contain a healthy dose of irony and humor, besides hardcore and punk riffs and screams. In fact, this trait, as we'll see further on, is characteristic of a significant portion of the Horadnia punk bands, at least during its golden age. In 2000, V3Anus released a demo, followed by two albums: "Ispytaniya Govna Iz Zhopy" (2003) (“Trials of Shit from the Ass”) and "Posledniy Vydokh Gospodina Pzh" (2006) (“The Last Breath of Mr.PZh”).

One more freak phenomenon of the Horadnia punk scene worth mentioning is Ultra Pultra. The band was started by L. in eighth grade under the initial name Terror Out of Law, later joined by Roman Gnilanski to play grindcore. "We recorded our first album 'From Kuratnik' in 2002. Then two years later we listened back to it and said ‘That sucks! We better record another one!’ That second one also seemed whack eventually, so we went on to record the third and the fourth one – instrumental albums. Then we started flirting with pop music, occasionally going back to grindcore. And then Roman said: ‘Fuck that, I'm out’. So I said: ‘Fuck you then!’ And went on playing alone. That's the history of Ultra Pultra."

Another quirky one-off project from the 2000s, featuring numerous members of the Grodno Punx Crew and continuing the theme of intense satire is Krovavyi Nasmork. The album sounds like a warped fantasy on the faceless folksy pop music from state radio and TV, featuring stylistic twists such as parodies of Polish rap, black metal, ska, and the Russian electronic pop band Ruki Vverh. Another essential listen from Horadnia punks, falling under the category of "unorthodox punk".

A unique phenomenon in Horadnia's alternative music scene of the '90s is the work of Ženia Pogost. His music transcends stylistic boundaries and stands right alongside the entire musical whirlwind: "The man has recorded 128 albums since 1994 and didn't make it into the Guinness Book of Records only because some jazz musician recorded 220 albums since 1928. He records like eight albums a year. I asked him once, ‘Have you ever listened to all of your own albums?’ He replied, ‘I have, once’. By 1999 Pogost the band falls apart and Ženia contniues a steady output of solo works. ‘He went so far out there that he circled back," sums up L. Pogost crafts his solo albums in a home studio built from old Soviet gear, echoing the experimental works of Egor Letov, whose influence is also evident in the psychedelic lyrics.

* * *

A cult-favorite (though short-lived) venue where everyone went for concerts and where a whole generation of alternative youth grew up was Kletka club. Initially the live music club of the same name was opened in another building located in the same park, that closed down shortly thereafter and re-opened in the former summer cinema building in the early 2000's. Kletka was run by sound engineers and event organizers Chałodny brothers and Siarhiei Finski. "It was a huge building that looked like a big wooden barn” recalls L. "You go in, and there's a door guy at the entrance. No frisking (like nowadays). If you're a punk, a long-hair metalhead or a poseur – you get in. If you look prim and proper – you don't. You walk in and that's it – freedom. You can smoke inside, you can go to the toilet and down that bottle of cheap wine you brought in. The place was mega punk-rock, pure energy. Bands like Contra La Contra, Trompka Pompka and Maskotki from Poland played there – world-class bands, in my opinion. I remember thinking that's how it should be. But it ended quickly. That former summer cinema building was demolished by the city a few years later just to put some park benches in its place. We even wanted to buy it back, but the land it stands on belongs to the state..."

Another stronghold of the Horadnia underground scene was the so-called Shit Sound Shock Club: "Duzer, the bassist of Antiglobalizator, had a garage. They started rehearsing there while Kletka was still in business. Once Kletka closed down, they started organizing regular concerts and later parties there. Your regular garage, with crossbars along the ceiling, one of which proudly states "Shit Sound Shock Club". It would pack 70-80 people regularly”. At some point, this location became the epicenter of the local punk scene, marking the era of DIY concerts held on your own equipment, without permits or restrictions from authorities. A wall of sound, moshing in crowded space, sweat pouring from the ceiling. A couple of times it all ended with the arrival of the police and a hasty search for ways out of the labyrinths of the garage cooperative. The place is, without exaggeration, iconic. For many foreign punk (and not only punk) bands, it was either the only or one of the two venues in Belarus (followed by Miensk the next day), on their tour from Europe towards Russia. "Spaniards, Italians, Germans, Poles, Brazilians also played there."

<h2>Pop punk and even more hardcore</h2><iframe width="100%" height="166" scrolling="no" frameborder="no" allow="autoplay" src="https://w.soundcloud.com/player/?url=https%3A//api.soundcloud.com/tracks/1860150525&color=%23ff5500&auto_play=false&hide_related=false&show_comments=true&show_user=true&show_reposts=false&show_teaser=true"></iframe><div style="font-size: 10px; color: #cccccc;line-break: anywhere;word-break: normal;overflow: hidden;white-space: nowrap;text-overflow: ellipsis; font-family: Interstate,Lucida Grande,Lucida Sans Unicode,Lucida Sans,Garuda,Verdana,Tahoma,sans-serif;font-weight: 100;"><a href="https://soundcloud.com/grodno-punk" title="Grodno Punk" target="_blank" style="color: #cccccc; text-decoration: none;">Grodno Punk</a> · <a href="https://soundcloud.com/grodno-punk/grodno-punk-history-part3" title="Grodno Punk History Part3" target="_blank" style="color: #cccccc; text-decoration: none;">Grodno Punk History Part3</a></div>

At the end of the 2000's, a new punk wave washes over young people from a completely different direction – through the screens of MTV with bands like Green Day, Blink 182, Sum 41, and others. The emo fad, songs of love and youth sung to the overdriven guitar chords – the worldwide trends of the time certainly had their influence on Horadnia youth as well. The new generation of pop-punk emerged in Horadnia through bands like ND Panda, Komposter 323, S’n’D, Tvoi Gorod, Malysh & Karlsberg, and others. Concerts took place at the Flint Club first, and then another iconic venue for this scene appeared — DK imeni Greka (Grek’s Cultural Center), a former warehouse not far from the city center. "It was a different breed of punk-rock, hardcore crusties didn't go there, ‘Too many poseurs’ they'd say. The venue’s unofficial name comes from this guy who everybody knew by his nickname Grek ("the greek"), who rented out the building and said: ‘We got ourselves a rehearsal space, so let's play, record, get f*cked up, hang out and play gigs here’"._ But, just like many of the previous venues, its history was relatively shortlived. A few years later the warehouse building was demolished by the city while building a multi-level road juncture nearby. However, it was not the pop-punk mini-scene that earned Horadnia the title of a punk rock capital.

In the 2000s, a community of like-minded individuals formed around the aforementioned garage, often affectionately referred to as the Grodno Punx Crew — heirs to the pioneering Contra La Contra collective, a musical and ideological DIY force. The lineups of the bands are deeply intertwined, often overlapping, with musicians sometimes just swapping instruments during a concert when it's time for the next band to take the stage.

Bagna was formed by the Masalski brothers in 2005 and continues the hardcore legacy and energy of Contra La Contra, while introducing more melodic variety. The messages are as uncompromising as ever.

Despierta formed in 2010 and released a demo, followed two years later by a split with Fuori Strada from Bieraśćie, in keeping with the classic DIY punk traditions.

I Hope You Die has played heavy melodic metallic crust since 2007.

Monday Suicide churn out anarcho-crust anthems for the whole concert audience to sing along to over three highly enjoyable albums.

Agida plays dark, sometimes blackened hardcore with melodic elements.

Ozhog ("a burn" - rus.) emerged in 2018 from the remnants of Bagna. During their initial rehearsals, inspired by a powerful and feverish sound, the guys come up with the name for their new project — Jahrush^4. However, reality intervenes when one of their rehearsals is abruptly and harshly shut down by the police. "When your face is dragged on asphalt, it leaves a burn that never heals," sings Dima Masal on their first demo, giving the name to the band.

Vegan Boots is a one-off project by members of Ozhog, either an homage or a parody of oi/streetpunk, unexpectedly releasing two near-anthems in the genre.

Bangcock emerged in 2018, continuing the Horadnia tradition of heavy and fast straightforward hardcore.

But of course, the city's punk scene is not limited to the single close-knit community of friends.

Here are a few more must-check names of other Horadnia punk bands:

Mister X, a street-punk/oi band led by activist and showman Igor Bancer, has been playing since 2003. They actively tour, record, and cultivate a strong fan base among anti-fascist skinheads both locally and internationally. Due to his activism, and subsequent persecution by authorities, as well as frequent interviews, Bancer earns the reputation of one of the newsmakers of independent Horadnia media since 2020.

Messed Up is an all-girl punk band, playing oldschool punk rock.

Pet Nihil formed in 2000 puts out four albums stylistically covering a wide spectrum of heavy sounds from punk to grunge to metal.

Tłusta Łusta released two albums starting in 2008 which explore various directions within the realm of Belarusian-language punk and alternative rock music.

In 2016 Grodno Punx Crew members buy out a bar called Nesterka located in the Grodno Drama Theater – one of the architectural attractions of the city. They created the first vegan bar in the city, which is also one of the first vegan establishments in the whole country. It also becomes a venue for numerous DIY scene events. Besides weekly DJ parties, they hold concerts of both local and visiting bands in the marble-walled triangular nook under the stairs of the modernist building of the Drama Theater. The bar operates essentially on cooperative principles, maintaining very affordable prices and an informal atmosphere. This is what attracts both long-standing members of the scene and the younger generation of misfits of the ‘cultural capital’, eager to find their place in the expanding urban landscape of public spaces with numerous new bars and hangout spots rapidly opening downtown on the eve of the pivotal year 2020.

After the events of 2020, almost all participants of the Grodno Punx Crew find themselves abroad, Nesterka is closed by the Drama Theater following extensive inspections by various government authorities promptly carried out immediately in the wake of the failed nation-wide strike on October 26. This would be the place to finish the unofficial history of anarcho punk in Horadnia. However, finding themselves in new places, our fervent advocates of heavy, fast riffs and the most sincere lyrics aren't sitting idle. They continue to play, occasionally forming entirely "Horadnia-born" bands wherever they find themselves. Here's a quick bonus round lineup of the new bands started abroad by the members of Grodno Punx Crew.

Hnida is a dark metalcore band with apocalyptic anti-war lyrics started in Krakow, Poland by the former members of the Horadnia punk scene. Bandcamp suggests the price of $6.66 for their debut album.

Serotonin Zero – another extremely dark and heavy band, this time from Warsaw. Neocrust with heavy death and black metal influences. The band is actively performing and touring, having recorded two full-length albums and an atmospheric music video within two years since its formation.

Wolftrap 13 plays metal/hardcore. Or rather, used to play. The band consisting of Horadnia and Miensk punk scene figures has already disbanded, but left us two full-length albums.

Dzieciuki is a folk-punk project of Aleś Dzianisaŭ, known as the founder of Kalian since the very first wave of Horadnia punk movement. He has relocated to Warsaw together with his bandmates, and the band continues to play live shows all over Poland and beyond regularly, although their latest release to date is the album from 2019, i.e. their Horadnia period.

Editor/translator notes:

^1 – English transcription of the city name from Belarusian Classical Orthography (Taraškievica). This text also uses an English transcription from Russian Grodno to denote the same location; the difference is purely contextual. Grodno is used as part of a set expression Grodno Punx Crew.

^2 – A music sub-genre emerging in the late 90’s in Russia combining elements of rock sound with pop music mass appeal, popularized by such Russian bands as Mumiy Troll, Zemfira, Bi-2 and others.

^3 – The brand of nationalism espoused by the organization deserves a comment. BPF, the primary political rival of Łukašenka, has been pictured as far more extreme than it actually was. Young punks, traditionally more alligned with anarchism and the left-wing political spectrum often did not find contradictions in visiting a nationalist party office, viewing BPF as another political underdog, enemy of the president and thus somewhat of an ally. Certain views were expressly shared by both groups, such as anti-authoritarianism, antifascism and opposition to the regime.

^4 – one of the brand names of once-legal synthetic cannabinoid designer drugs popular around 2010’s.