Plato Newsroom #16

Fresh Belarusian releases by Diamos Roll, Domsun, Four Walls, FOKU, Eng8 and Stelmakh.

13.03.2024

newsroom

Greetings! You are listening to Newsroom – a Belarusian music news podcast from the Radio Plato team. Here is Denis Reemotto and we continue shining a light on the local scene.

Today's episode is all about the electronics. Many new names and new releases, which is what we love.

New vinyl EP by Four Walls on the new Ultraworld Records label curated by DJ Craft.
"Find Rena" single from electronic indie project Domsun.
"Imagine One" – a fresh release by Diamos Roll on Belarusian label Ezhevika.
Five bangers on the new "Core" EP by a Gomel artist called FOKU released by ДИСКО ТЕКА label.
The full-length album "Future Continuous" from the Minsk musician eng8, released on the Backside Slice label;
A heavyweight EP "I Will Not Lose" from a Pinsk producer called Stelmakh on the GESTALT.PROMO label.

We begin with the latest release by Diamos Roll, aka Dmitry Litvinovich, the founder of the CherryVata band and the Belarusian label Ezhevika. In "Image One" consisting of three tracks he explores the boundaries of ambient electronics and IDM. Here is Dmitry in his own words:

– I have been making music since 2001. I started DJing in student years, exploring early music software, then everything scaled up to a full-fledged band – CherryVata. In 2006, I started DJing more actively and working on my solo project Diamos Roll.

The latest release "Image One" explores the idea of creative freedom. When composing tracks for this EP I tried not to polish the arrangements, but rather adopted the following rule: once I start making a track try to finish it in one go without taking breaks. A free energy flow of sorts. The tracks on this release were done in 2012. Now the time has come to publish them. "Image" is a new series of chill and somewhat melancholic music I am starting. Follow Ezhevika label to catch new installments of the series soon.

Domsun is the artist featured on the virtual airwaves of Radio Plato many times before. He has been making music for about ten years, starting with noodling on guitar, fast forward to about three years ago – creation of the Domsun project. Keeping a steady flow of single releases, we also got word from the man behind the name about an upcoming full-length album. But today, we're checking out a recently released melodic breakbeat track "Find Rena". Here's Barys with the details of the new release, which, by the way, is literally a bedroom production, as that's where Barys makes his tracks.

– I'm a fan of Bonobo, Bicep and Moderat and that kind of indie electronica. So if you like that type of sound yourself, you may like my new stuff.

"Find Rena" began with me trying to cleanup an a very old sample from the 30's. I was into atmospheric breaks at the time so the choice of drum beats and pads was obvious. Fun fact: the synth part on the first drop is actually a guitar sample that sounded so awful, I had to process it into what it is now.

The name Four Walls may sound familiar to you. His releases on Traxx Underground, Kolour Limited, Housewax and many other labels have built him quite a reputation as a house music powerhouse. Here's Misha himself with his story:

– I've been into music since childhood. First time I DJed was in 2005. In 2011 I released my first vinyl as Four Walls. I have released on numerous labels since, mostly on vinyl. I keep making mostly different types of house music as Four Walls.

The "B Life" EP is due in April 2024 on Ultraworld Records run by DJ Craft. There is no special concept behind this EP. I moved to Georgia in 2022, this EP is a selection of tracks I have made since. I have been sharing them privately to my friends including Zhenya, who liked them so much he decided to release them on his new label. That's how this record came to be. Basically "B Life" refers to Batumi, where I live now, so you can say it's dedicated to the city.

Next up is a Homiel artist known as FOKU. He started out as a guitar player in a metalcore band and now is a locally popular DJ, founder of YO! promo and the regular resident of the wild Toast parties. "The Core" EP released by the Miensk label ДИСКО ТЕКА features five ready-to-rock-you bangers. Here's Foku himself about getting into dance music and the new release:

– I got into electronic music quite by chance. In 2016 a friend showed me FL Studio. Initially I made a name for myself as a beatmaker. I made a lot of trap tracks and then began experimenting beyond that style.

This EP has in a way updated my creative self and my approach to electronic music in general. The underlying concept here was that I was trying to use authentic 90's synth sounds as much as I could. I still listen to that stuff and find myself impressed with it no less than with the new releases. I used to make tracks at 130-135 beats per minute, here we're jumping in at 140 and go up from there.

Next up is the artist well known to our listeners – eng8 from Miensk. We could not miss the chance for a chat about the new release on Backside Slice label, who, by the way, have their own show on Radio Plato, check it out! His latest work is the cyberpunk epic about fighting back against the dystopian reality we are actually heading towards. Here's the author with story of making the album, including a collab with rapper Lajtovy.

– This album took three years to complete. I initially set out to make an IDM album leaning towards experimental sounds and melodic compositions, but things got heavier and nastier during this time. I changed my setup slightly last year, and some of the things planned for the IDM-type release ended up on this album.

A highlight of this release to me is "Chill No More" made in collaboration with Belarusian rapper Лайтовы. The instrumental for it was made three years ago. It lived as a set of patterns on my hardware and I only performed it live. Last year I recorded it and tried using a royalty-free acappella from freesound.com in it. I send it to Tyts-Tyts from Backside Slice. He suggested why don't we have a Belarusian-language rap on it instead of a generic one in English. Just to make it more relatable for the local audience. I was scrambling to find a rapper when my friend Dirty Owl suggested Лайтовы, who was very quick and easy to work with. It must be the biggest hit on the album, if you ask me.

And we conclude our release with a fierce and unique release from the mysterious producer Stelmakh. Unfortunately he is not available for comment, so you will have to trust my word that this EP is a potent mix of techno, breakbeat and electro-punk. Each track works like a real battle cry for dancefloor amok, as one could witness numerous times at parties thrown by Gestalt.Promo – the label behind this EP.

That's it for today. This was the Newsroom podcast — the music news show by the Radio Plato team, where we gather info about the news of the Belarusian electronic music scene. The podcast is brought to you by our team: Reemotto, Stwone, Helga, Krik, Schmoltz , Nadya Ya, Stereobeaver and KorneJ. Cover art by chernova.ya.

If you're a Belarusian making music, share it with us on social networks and we'll share it with the world in our next episodes. Subscribe to the podcast on streaming platforms, support us on Patreon, or simply Paypal us a donation – this helps us do more cool stuff. This was Plato's Newsroom. Asta la vista and see you on the other side!