Plato Newsroom #22

Farewell to the summer by Belarusian artsits.

16.09.2024

newsroom

Greetings! Welcome to Newsroom – the podcast about fresh releases from Belarusians by Radio Plato, and your host today is Alik Khamiak, a.k.a. Schmoltz.

Today's episode is a farewell to the summer and a digest of the latest August digs:

lo-fi rap by Medovye Shariki;
flashback from oblivion by no wave tricksters Golos Kincheva;
a tribute to classic hip hop by Lightowy Kurs;
analog interplanetary ambient trips by Rimidal.V;
synth black metal by Smertel’naya Nagruzka;
and an August bonus selection of dancefloor electronics by nWave, Sasha Sinica, Alsamin, Magic Wave 42, Domsun & Akiyan.

Gleb Manul is perhaps better known for the indie guitar band Kofe Iz Vitalura, which released a wonderful album earlier this year, that we have featured in one of the earlier installments. But it’s not all only about playing juicy riffs with our friend Gleb. Meet Medovye Shariki – his rap project, that released the "Grand Theft Snickers" mixtape in July. Classic drumloops, soulful piano samples, ironic lyrics, poking fun at rap cliches here and there. It all sounds light and made for fun. Adolescent lo-fi, of sorts. To be taken in via smartphone or a bluetooth speaker at the most – still the classic way to check out the newest tunes on a smoke break with a friend. Anyways, enough about my (italicize) love for lo-fi, let's listen to Gleb:

– Actually, I've been making beats for quite a while now. Maybe even longer than I've been playing guitar. This winter something just clicked for me and I started creating beats with real purpose, drawing inspiration from different sources instead of just randomly messing around with sounds. I like this type of sound - lo-fi boombap - this whole thing. Like Madlib's beats, Nujabes and all that. Plus I love this character - Loaded Vlad and the stupid funny lyrics by him. I used to make funny little rap songs before too. Medovye Shariki have got a ton of songs recorded, of varying quality. It's just that “Grand Theft Snickers” turned out relative well-made. I even kinda mixed things there. Some vocals are actually well-recorded. But still, it's more of a mixtape than an album. I never planned it, it's like a compilation of the best work from last six months. It wasn't planned as an album. I just put it out because I wanted to do something in the rap game (haha). So this mixtape is what I did. But overall, I actually really love it because it's right on that edge of lulz and solid sound with good beats and relatively well-recorded. It's nice. I like it a lot.

Next up is Golos Kincheva from Miensk. The band that just a few years ago caused quite a stir with their uncompromising mockery of the musical cliches of the indie scene only to quietly dissolve into oblivion some time later. But here we have an unexpected and very pleasant postcard from pre-revolutionary Meinsk – the single "B-sides", which the band released this summer. Music that is recorded on such a retro medium as audiocassette seems almost destined to stand trial by time. Only if to become a semi-legit reason to reminisce about the good old days only a few short years later. Or so that the sounds somehow grow patina of context and recent history on their own over time. It was mostly the recent history of the band that we discussed with the former member Michael Dailida. And, spoiler alert - this is probably not the last release in the once almost legendary outfit's discography.

– The story of the band Golos Kincheva actually begins in a rather paradoxical way, with two separate projects coming together, to put it really shortly. First, there was Kinchev project, in which Korney played around 2005-2006 in Murmansk with his brother Lesha. And I had Golos (voice (rus.) - translator’s note) project with George. Because everything we recorded was saved as files with the name "voice1505", "voice1000-gazillion-and-six" etc. – that's how we came up with that name. Then Kornej came here, we united the two bands. So Golos Kincheva came together around 2011. So we started making up songs, looking for our own style, which we – spoiler alert – never found, trying out everything. From discopunk to synthpop to avant guard to noise and industrial and everything else. Eventually, after playing all of that and recording the first single "Divo" we split up.

It seemed, that this idea was done for. But later we exhumed it when Kornej moved to Miensk for good. I suggested reuniting. Then we made this album "Begushchiy Po Ebeniam" (“Running Across the Middle of Nowhere” (rus.) - translator’s note) came about because, well, Korney can explain it better, but he felt like he was constantly running around the sicty – from work to home, from one job to another. It's about the constant hustle of the city, everything around you, and those neon pharmacy signs you see everywhere. Meanwhile, the album came together purely in the studio. We had this approach where we never spent too long rehearsing or beating about the bush. All this time we existed as a trio. We were always missing one component, although we though we were good. But when working in studio it does not matter that much how many people you have. You can improvise a lot when composing. So we liked the whole process and wanted to do a second album. The second album was made up of, pardon my French, studio sessions already. That's album "Slushai Nash Dzhaz".

Going back to this tracks "Dancing (Pupsik)". It was done in 2018. We were having fun at the studio, hanging out, laughing, telling jokes, riffing stupid lyrics and melodies. Which amounted to fun and simple riffs. One of those eventually became "Dancing (pupsik)". Generally, the plan is simple. Two rehearsals – we come in with a clean slate. Two-three rehearsals, the studio is ready, the portastudio is on standby, we press "record" and let's go! We got the base tracks. Great, we're happy, so we start adding more instruments – what you call an arrangement. Some synths, some guitars, riffs, micromelodies etc. We're having a blast, 'cause it's a fun silly track. That's it. It's done. Recorded, ready for publishing.

So we post it in VKontakte, God rest its soul. It was up on our page, getting likes on the local level. There was some hype about this "weird, silly, fun band you need to check out". I don't think streaming was even around back then. So we published tracks and albums in Vkontakte. When streaming platforms came out, we started putting our stuff there. But this single did not end up on streaming platforms somehow. Then we recorded a so-called "rock" album, which was actually a mockery of rock. Anyway. We split up again, and then boom. We start digging in our archives and finding all these gems. We have huge archives thanks to Nikita. He is a guy who collects everything, which is actually really important. Nikita organized everything, gathering all the recordings and session files for every album. Those materials are fantastic in their own right, sometimes even better than the final albums, which may be down to perceived freshness of their sound. So we unearthed this track along with a version of it, and the rest is history. We sent it to Siarhej Zwiki, a brilliant sound engineer, who put it all together, made the final touches, and here it is on the streaming platforms for your listening pleasure. A postcard from the past from the band that no longer exists but puts out songs. Technically, while were still putting out new songs, the bang kind of exists online, I guess. And just around the corner, there’s a bunch more of this delightful, charming weirdness that we’ll be releasing periodically. Some of the albums we were planning didn't make it to the final stage so we have enough material to compile another LP and release it. Some tracks will be mixed and mastered anew and we're putting them out. Stay tuned for more b-sides, c-sides, g-sides and so on and so forth, all the way to z-sides.

The name Lightowy is familiar to our long-time listeners. We’ve covered his releases in the Newsroom before and also conducted an interview with him. And in August we just got another excuse to chat – the brilliant fresh EP "Lightowy Kurs" created in collaboration with musician Andrei Kurs. It’s a four-track EP with the rapping flow taking Belarusian-language lyrics to new heights, featuring impeccable old-school instrumentals, nods to rap classics, and a strategically chosen release date. The track "Za Fank" for this EP is, in my opinion, one of the absolute hits of this summer. A definite must-check for those who missed it. And here's what mr. Lightowy had to say about this release:

– The EP was created gradually over time and took many different forms during its development. Initially, I intended to release "Kincuhi" as a single and had already started preparing the material and cover art when it became clear that I actually had more stuff in this vein that I could possibly combine into a longer release. And finally I got an idea to release something with the classic hip hop sound. At that point, "Za Fank" was also ready, which, in my opinion, is a broad reference to the history of hip hop at large. It’s a track written from within the spirit of hip hop, from that ‘hip hop consciousness,’ as KRS-One would put it. Those two tracks were definitely meant to be released together. Then I recalled an old idea of mine to make an outro-type track. So I messaged Kurs, asking to find a beat similar to the reference I sent him. We checked things out for a few days, then finally he sent me the beat that we ended up using. The track "Spoko" was written in about 40 minutes. I was sitting in the kitchen waiting for the kettle to boil thinking "I want to make a chill, light track". Because, you know, Belarusian rap generally is heavy, tense. And I listen to German rap mostly, so let's do something simple, good, and easy.

And none of this would have happened without Dzionia Mandzik, who, noting that the material was ready, told me, "Dude, just publish it. Set a deadline and do it!" So I thought "Ok, Hip Hop Day August 11 is my deadline."

Also, I'd like to note that this EP is fully collaborative, Andrei’s name in the title marks the fact that the work was done exactly 50/50. None of these tracks would exist without Andrei’s music. For example, the track "Za Fank" – when Andrei sent me that beat last October, I couldn’t stop playing it. I listened to it for days and kept singing in my head, "ja žyŭ by za fank, skanaŭ by za fank". I believe it’s thanks to Andrei’s music that the EP sounds like a cohesive piece of work. He also did the all the mixing and mastering on this release. I see it as a completely equal collaboration of the two of us.

Next up is a Homiel project Rimidal.V, which released the album "Zateryannyj v Kosmose" end of July. The album features seven tracks of analog ambient – live and unpolished, with a subtle hint of psychedelia. The sound of cosmos on this album is retrofuturistic in the best sense of the word, free from any modern clichés. If you’ve been planning to re-read a Stanisław Lem novel, here’s the perfect soundtrack for it. Let’s check out what the author has to say about his project and this album:

– Rimidal.V is my solo project. It spells Vladimir in reverse. This is my personal project, where I play all the instruments myself, develop concepts and ideas, play various musical instruments, handle the recording, mixing, and mastering all on my own. The project was born, you could say, for two reasons. The first reason is the vast video archive I possess that I wanted to score soundtracks myself for. The second reason is that I’m a member of the band Simulacross, and during periods of inactivity or downtime in the group, I get new ideas and feel the urge to bring them to life. And so, I’m currently bringing many of these ideas to life in my own project. As time goes on, my work with Simulacross and my solo activities seem to diverge more and more. My ideas are now being individually realized in my own project.

Before this, back in my younger days, I played in various bands. In the mid-90’s, I was a member of the Bakhchisaray-based band Starpers. We played acoustic free jazz and intuitive music. After that, I pretty much gave up playing music, until the guys from Simulacross invited me to play with them. That was quite a while later.

As for my recently released album "Zateryannyj v Kosmose," the cosmic theme has been on my mind for a long time. I touched on it on my first album, which you can consider a thematic prequel to this new one. The allure of space travel fascinates many. It’s borne of the many books read, movies and TV shows watched. But I wanted to present cosmos in a different light, not as some heroic or romantic adventure, but rather a vast unexplored and even hostile environment for humans. It’s not about flying around in futuristic spaceships. Instead, we tap into a kind of universal consciousness and observe the cosmos, witnessing all the processes occurring in it, including vast objects, entire galaxies.

The track titles on this album mostly contain the official names of actual celestial objects. "Siyaniye Mlechnogo Puti" is about looking up at the stars as the allure of space draws us in, serving as an introduction. Then, for example, "Planeta Shizappa" is a bit of a departure – it's a tribute to Alexander Zatsepin (the author of the soundtrack for the classic "Tayna Tretyey Planety" cartoon) and Frank Zappa at the same time. The name Shizappa is a hint. "Shiza" means all sorts of weirdness in Russian, so you know there is something definitely off with this planet. And the final track, for instance, is filled with a kind of gentle melancholy and evokes thoughts of Major Tom from David Bowie’s song. We see an old spaceship in the distance, wondering if it's wrecked or not. Is Major Tom still alive? Centuries have passed and the spaceship is still drifting into infinity. We hear what seems to sound like an acoustic guitar – perhaps it’s Major Tom himself playing, or maybe it’s just an apparition. You really have to listen to the album for yourself to discover these stories.

As we all know, the real popular music genre of Belarus is metal. If that sounds like trolling to you, let's just compare the number of bands per genre all around the country since the 90's. So it only seems fair to cover some of the gems of the hard-and-heavy multiverse on our podcast, at least from time to time, as we have with Travvma a few episodes ago.

Smertel'naya Nagruzka's "Majestic Delirium" EP is an energetic deconstruction of extreme black metal with a drummachine blastbeat and synthesizer replacing the guitar, all wrapped in the thick haze of cassette lo-fi. The result suggests a more punk that seriously metal attitude. You just can't help but grin while listening to this with the devil's horns raised. But then again, serious black metal can get like that too, can't it? True connoisseurs of the genre do know the sub-branches of the black metal tree that value the chaos, grit and lo-fi above all. So, is this another postmodernist deconstruciton of a genre? Seems more like a sweet spot where parody meets homage and sincerity meets post-irony. One thing is for sure: these guys for sure know how to rock hard. We managed to delve into the depths of the underground to chat with the shadowy demigods of metal dungeon synth who are behind this EP.

– My name is Vitalik, and besides me, the project also features Lyokha Rylo. Recently, we released an EP called "Majestic Delirium," which consists of two tracks. The release was recorded back in the fall of 2023, and we were waiting until we had more tracks ready before releasing it. On this release, we don’t use guitars because they add extra complications. We aimed to achieve a raw, punk-like emotion directly and explored the idea of demos. We’ve long had the thought that demos often sound more vibrant than final studio album versions. So, when these demos came along, we decided to stick to that idea and publish the demos as they were. The demos already sounded fucking awesome in their effortlessness and should have represented the final product. So we released them and we're happy about that. At the moment, Lyokha and I are working with varying degrees of intensity on several projects, and it’s quite possible that one of them will become the next release from Smertel'naya Nagruzka. Our other projects are Zhmach and Amputacya Kentavra.

– I'm Lyokha Rylo. Together with Vitalik we are members of Smertel'naya Nagruzka. We started the project in 2023 when we were hanging out in Georgia. Here's an interesting fact about the EP cover. We were photographed by my wife Dasha after a rehearsal in a garage in Zialiony Łuh. While Dasha was taking photos of us, security guards from the garage complex started chasing us away. We had to rush out of there, but before we did, we got some great shots.

Next up is a bonus selection of August dance electronica from Belarus. Here's what's on the menu:

Juicy melodic deep house from nWave released by Sense label from Maladziečna:

Sasha Sinica from the cult band Super Besse presents his new solo electronic explorations:

Aslamin continues his journey across digital labels of the world, delivering another progressive house banger:

Enchanted lo-fi house from the newcomer Magic Wave 42:

Domsun collaborates with Akiyan in UK garage rhythms:

That's it for today. This was Newsroom, the radio show about Belarusians who make sounds by the Radio Plato team: Reemotto, Stwone, Helga, Krik, Schmoltz, Nadya Ya, Stereobeaver and KorneJ and graphic desiger 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. Don't forget to support your local artists by buying their music on Bandcamp and, of course, by coming to their live shows. See you next time! Radio Plato loves you!