Plato Newsroom #26

The Newsroom New Year's edition celebrates the hidden gems of fresh Belarusian indie music.

30.12.2024

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Season's greetings to one and all! Here is Newsroom New Year's edition – the only show on our airwaves about the best of the least obvious of the Belarusian indie scene. Our sincere congratulations from the entire Radio Plato team, the Newsroom crew and from me, Alik Khamiak a.k.a. Schmoltz, personally. Here's our final episode this year, welcome to the very end of 2024 AD and some of its best musical finds. And, no, we're not going to do "Best of 2024" lists like everyone else. Well, at least not in the traditional sense. If you know me by now, of course, I can't help myself but to note some trends of the year and attempt some more or less witty comments on them. Anyway, let's fill those champagne glasses!

Here's the line-up for today:

A sunny hit from SOYUZ;
Touching indie electronics by Her Minds;
The debut album of the indie lofi band Shkolnyj Podval;
Live home record by .K;
Golos Kincheva's chronicles continue with another reissue;
One of the new albums by the electronic prodigy Ilya Semashkevich;
Ilya Gurin-Babayev explores the British electronic heritage;
Turbo Muesli with a pop-punk emo banger straight outta Białystok.

Opening today’s episode are everyone’s darlings SOYUZ – the band that makes me break my own unwritten rule to focus on the lesser-known musicians first. Deservedly so. SOYUZ keeps representing Belarus on renown international labels and venues while honing a very particular kind of sound that explores the unexpected intersections of Belarusian and Brazilian musical traditions. We love them, we follow them, we can’t wait for the next album, while playing their latest single "Kali Ty Zapytaješ" on repeat. We sat down to chat with Aliaksei about all of that, let's take a listen:

– Hi, my name is Alaksiej Čumak, I compose and play music in SOYUZ. I wrote these tracks "Kali Ty Zapytaješ" and “Tenorio” – in the beginning of the year and then we recorded them over a few months time. They were mostly recorded in Warsaw, but the drum parts on both tracks are recorded by Biel Basile in Sao Paolo, a renown contemporary Brazilian drummer, I highly recommend his band O Terno. And keyboards on "Kali Ty Zapytaješ" were recorded by Anthony Ferraro, who plays with Toro Y Moi among others. "Kali Ty Zapytaješ" was partially inspired by musicians from the Brazilian state Minas Gerais who developed a very unique blend of complex harmonies with catchy yet refined melodies, while mostly being untrained musicians. Clube da Esquina, Lô Borges, Beto Guedes, Toninho Horta – a whole cornucopia of wonderful music that sounds like nothing else. My other source of inspiration was Pesniary, who in the late 70s – early 80s played jazz-funk-tinged pop, of course informed by the contemporary global pop trends. Their main arranger at the time was Ihar Palivoda, whose daughter taught me piano for a few years in music school – that’s a fun coincidence and a connection. Though, of course, as a kid, I paid no attention to things like that. My parents were gushing about the daughter of a brilliant known musician, but I only came to appreciate this serendipity when I got older. I also recommend checking out Pesniary’s output from that era – there are some beautiful songs like “Ya Vsio Tot Zhe” and, of course, “Začaravanaja”(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=80KN4HkSQ8o). There are some very cool live recordings by the band from that period on YouTube, including some great instrumental jazz-fusion pieces. That’s a very interesting, mostly unknown, side of this super-popular band.

Here's one of my favorite trends of 2024 – digging up very young artist with very low playcounts and music that definitely deserves more. Check out Her Minds, for example, with a brilliantly concocted dreamy-yet-cheerful vibe of their debut mini-album. It's a real trip to the summer fantasies with subtle lo-fi overtones and vocal snippets sounding like they come from a romantic robot. Coming right next up, but not until we hear a few words from Roma, the man behind the project.

– Hi, everybody. This is Her Minds. I am from Belarus and I make relaxing indie pop. The Assence in Nature EP was recorded last summer, inspired by such artists as TV Girl, Mac DeMarco and Eyedress. I was planning to release it this summer, but it didn't come out until later. It has a very summertime kind of vibe, in my opinion, so if you liked it, I suggest returning to this EP next summer. I plan to keep releasing new music in 2025. I already have a new track called "Miami Vibe" up on my Soundcloud, and it will be up on all streaming platforms soon in 2025. I'm also planning a few tracks in a slightly different direction. It's going to be something like indie pop mixed with slow romantic shoegaze. Thanks to Radio Plato for featuring me in this show. Hugs and kisses to everyone! See you!

Shkol'nyj Podval is another project by our old friend Marg – an incredibly prolific young man, who has put out numerous releases this year under various aliases. At the very end of 2024, we saw another project of his, started together with three of his high school friends. The sound is what you'd expect from a Marg production – lofi and hypnagogic with playful stylistic free association, and very Marg-esque trademark ironic-yet-sincere adolescent lyrics. Here's a little bit of info about the new band from Marg and his friends:

– Hi, I'm Vladik. Shkol'nyj Podval is the band that appeared out of nowhere. One day, back in high school, we had some kind of school event where we were asked to bring guitars. We kept lugging them around during all the classes, when we got bored and went down to the basement, where we hung out often and started playing there. Then, all of a sudden Marg takes out his cassette recorder and presses record. That's basically how we recorded our first track "Yaponskiy Magnitofon". We decided to keep playing together and eventually we had enough material for an album.

– Hi, this is Marg. I'm kind of a band-leader in Shkol'nyj Podval. I'm like Pasha Tehnik in Kunteynir – I make the beats, record the instrumentals and then we come up with the lyrics and record vocals together. Our debut album Dezhurnyj Po Shkole took a while to complete. We started working on it two years ago, back when we were all in high school together. We recorded and selected our best songs composed over those two years. The musical genres on the album range from indie rock to club music to gabber, etc. It's a really diverse album, actually, you'll find tracks for any type of mood on it. I'm absolutely positive of that.

– Hi, I'm Sanya. I wanted to tell everybody, we made cool mp3 CD's of this album. So you can listen to it, for instance, in the back seat of your car. We also included a bunch of exclusive bonus tracks on it that will never be released on streaming platforms. So, if you're interested, DM Marg on Instagram, or find me somehwere somehow. Bye, see you!

Next up is .K with the first live album in the project's discography. Jaŭhien Kučmiejna from Horadnia has long been known as a musical maverick with a unique talent on the Belarusian scene, with critics calling him a "shaman-songwriter delving straight into the subconscious" and stuff like that. It's hard not to agree, actually, if you've ever been to his live shows. It's a real trip, trust me. Now, we all have a pretext to chinstroke and speculate whether his live magic transfers to tape, with the release of his first ever live album. It has been recorded during one of his kvartirniks (home shows) – a good old soviet-times underground tradition of playing intimate acoustic sets in living rooms and kitchens of appartment block flats unregulated by the authorities. Sign of the times, I guess. I spoke to Yauhien about the new release and all the rest, and we delved deep right from the start.

– I was into music very early on, maybe since I was born. I was about three or so when I found my father's broken watch and really loved the mechanical melody on it. Around ten I started recording things on a boombox. And around 14 I started learning the guitar and immediately composing my own stuff. I was 19 when I moved to Horadnia, and got my first band together. Throughout my student years in Horadnia, I was constantly playing music and rehearsing, hanging out; Nesterka Bar, garage shows – it was all very inspiring and kept nudging me in the right direction in both character and aesthetics. And so I keep playing and recording music. I have been living and playing in Miensk for the last three years.

I wasn't planning this kind of release, actually. Quite by chance I got offered to do a video recording, to which I agreed. I decided to record one of my home shows. I've put on about 40 of them within 2,5 years. That's something. So, while I was working on the sound for this video, I realized there is enough material for an full live album – about 49 minutes. I cut out a few things, and trimmed it down to 43. The funny thing is, the material was ready by early December, a one year anniversary of my last album 1ok. So the video version is shorter in length and features only the tracks from that album, while the full length audio version also has other older songs on it as well. It's a live album recorded with a live audience, which is especially important for me. It's a way to capture the mood of my live show.

I always have this one question: What happens next as I proceed on my quest, trying to bring an idea to life? What will this new music bring me, when I sit down to play it? What will this process reveal to me? It's a journey. Some ideas never come to life, some take years to flesh out. As I look back, I realize that most of my lust for life, the beauty of it, all that I really like was related to this creative path. When music reveals something you never would have expected, some new depths and dimensions. The question is what will the music bring me tomorrow in the studio. That's what makes me want to live.

I'll maybe have a concert in Latvia in the spring. In Horadnia I will play in 5no club end of January if it all works out, sorry it's not in Nesterka, guys. Not much we can do about that. What can we do, damn it. I'll probably have more home concerts in Miensk, or maybe in some club. I'm not getting that fucking performance permit approved in Miensk so far though. We'll see how that goes in Horadnia. I'm also planning to put out more videos. Lots of stuff planned in terms of releases: singles, EPs, etc. I'm in the process of scoring two films right now, but I can't share any further details about them yet.

Another Newsroom 2024 trend is Michael Dailida's repeat guest appearances with his fun insightful stories about the recording of his numerous records – both solo and with Golos Kincheva. Let's get back to one those in this final episode, as we do have an excuse – another album reissue by this glorious cult band from the late 2010s. Golos Kincheva may have disbanded, but there is no shortage of both new and refurbished materials from the band, which lead many, myself included, to re-discover them and gain a new appreciation for the band sadly lost to history, their impeccable sense of style, scathing wit, and effortless genre-juggling.

– So, both Izoliant and Slushaj Nash Pank were originally two mini-albums or extended singles. Izoliant was released in 2020, smack dab in the middle of the Covid thing. We isolated ourselves in the studio reflecting on it, as you can tell from the title, although, it was supposed to refer to something else, actually. We had a long break after the previous album Roj Il, which we purposefully made more muscially palatable, commercial-sounding almost. So with Izoliant we decided to go back to the raw lo-fi, although well-recorded, kind of sound. And Slushaj Nash Pank, with the self-referential nod to our earlier album Slushai Nash Dzhaz in the title came out in 2021. Both are either EPs or maxi-singles, depending on how you look at it. The band was still playing together at the time, even playing gigs, so those songs got some live play. And those mini-albums were on Spotify and other streaming platforms, until one day they miraculously, somehow, weren't. They probably ran out of something. Either patience, or money, or fame, or a band. We thought it's a shame these fine little fun punky shoegaze-y lofi ditties went offline, so we decided to resuscitate them. Thank god Nikita backs up all the original stems and projects.I got them from him and sent them to Sergey Zwicky who re-mixed the whole thing together again, and we put these two out as a single big album. It's a simple story really. Two small albums were made into one big one. A hefty, heavy, raw, punky, dirty, cynical, boisterous and cocky big album – just how we like it. Those songs are back online with a refurbished sound, a bit tighter and nastier, but with all the good parts left untouched.

<h2>One of the new albums by the electronic prodigy Ilya Semashkevich</h2>

Next up is another discovery of 2024. Ilya Semashkevich is an electronic musician who is not bound by style and probably considers recording albums as an artistic discipline in itself. I first planned to cover a release of his some weeks ago, and when I returned to his Bandcamp page a few days ago, I was shocked to discover that he has put out several full-length albums since. Across his numerous releases, Ilya explores a wide range of sound textures of both synthesized and acoustic nature, treats drummachine rhythms playfully, whenever he decides to to use them at all, and the steers towards the so-called deep atmospheres and contemplative moods. Faced with quite a choice of material, I ended up going for his December release on Natur label called Tamba Taura, that features the gorgeous trippy deep techno track we'll hear in a minute, but first, let's get to know Ilya a bit closer.

– I've been making various types of music for over 12 years now, both solo and with other people. Over the past few years my experience and vision have crystallized into the ability to convert what I hear in my head into actual tracks. You can just say that Ilya Semashkevich today is the music that plays in my head, that I get out onto records and call my own. Simply put, the music I consciously create, without being tied to a genre, although I do like to play with genres, but most importantly, it's my own vision of the sound. I write what I hear in my head.

The album Tamba Taura traces parallels to a few kinds of African dance, but also features two short ambient piano pieces, written on a piano in one of Warsaw squats, that I managed to play on, before it was demolished by law enforcement during the eviction. I piece of a piano key that stuck to my finger during the performance is all that remains of that instrument now. I have been carrying it around for a year and a half now as a reminder, a token of free musical expression not confined to strict tonal boundaries.

I have recently released a lot of my music, follow me on Bandcamp or Instagram or wherever you prefer to follow, to keep up-to-date on it. All of it is coming soon to the streaming platforms. And I keep working on new material, so there will be still more releases to come. That's all I can say.

Another Ilya, also an electronic prodigy currently repping the Belarusian scene abroad – Ilya Gurin-Babayeŭ, currently living in London, where he recorded his new album GAME-O that explores his Belarusian vision of the British musical heritage. The album juggles elements of different styles freely, without sticking to one, but also without falling into the endless noodling of experimenting for experiment's sake. Instead, the core of the album seems to be held together by a certain atmosphere, a spirit, or an artistic method. And as we'll soon hear from Ilya's own words, that impression is no accident – the release is very thought-out conceptually, or maybe conversely, very well analyzed ex post. It's a release that's hard to choose a standout track from, so I invite you to check it out in its entirety on your own time, so you can come up with your own answer to the classic dilemma: is it more dancebale than experimental, or the other way around. In the meantime, let's hear what the author had to say about it:

– Hi, my name is Ilya Gurin-Babayeŭ. I am an electornic musician, a DJ and a multidisciplinary artist from Miensk. My new release, and album GAME-O is the result of my two year long exploration of the London musical scene and a reflection on moving and starting over in a new place. Stylistically it was conceived to present a convergence of the genres I’ve been exploring lately: footwork, jungle, techno, trip hop and electro. The name is an abbreviation of both ‘game-oriented’ and ‘game over’ and reflects the idea of blending intuition with creative practice as a game. Conceptually based on an intuitive approach to produciton using techniques of sound collage as the main framework. The album is available on all platforms, but for full context, I would recommend also checking out my Instagram, where I uncover the visual part of this project that adds another dimension to the GAME-O universe. I would add that this album marks a rather important step in my cretive musical practice, where I’ve been able to gather all my new cultural references and interests during a two-year-long break after the previous release. This album has become key for unlocking the next level of my creative explorations.

Quite a treat at the end of the sumptuous new year's eve feast – Turbo Muesli! Fun-time vibe, great songwriting, a dynamic arrangement with a few cool twists and turns. "Cool, energetic, fun, stylish" – that's my shorthand scribble from the first listen, and also "for fans of Kofe Iz Vitalura", if you know what I mean. Instant subscribe and follow, I definitely want to hear more from these guys. Also, the track "When I Ride Fixed Gear" has been my go-to first track of the day to pep me up while sipping the first morning coffee. Let's check it out together, but first, a little bit of history of this brand new band:

– I put this band together because I wanted to continue my musical adventures that I started in Miensk, when I played in a bunch of bands and really liked it a lot, and I just missed all that in Poland. So, after I moved, I got this new band together, with great guys who play really well. The song is about riding a fixed gear bike, which we like a lot and Białystok is a great city for this mode of transportation. Our sound is inspired by such bands as Kofe Iz Vitalyura and V'eybi Yemu, Donatello.

We came up with this band name a while ago back in Miensk together with my friend Vicia Pracenka when we both played in Ostatki. We wanted to start a more pop-sounding project, something like Steve Lacy, and one day Vicia messaged me that he came up with this name for it – Turbo Muesli. I was like 'Wtf, dude, this is whack!' Some time passed and I was like 'Yeah, ok, it's a cool band name, actually'. We never followed through with that project, but when I put together a new band in Poland I repurposed the name. He messaged me 'Wtf dude, that's my band name!' And I was like 'Come on, don't be stingy', hahaha. So, yeah, that's where the name comes from.

We're planning a live gig in Białystok March 1st together with Polish bands The Transistors, Tekla Goldman, and I think Puste Pokoje is on the bill too. As for the releases, I think I'll start working on an album next. I have lots of material. It's gonna be an emo punk album with some shoegaze elements, something like that.

That's it for our special New Year's Eve edition of Newsroom. I'd like to thank all the listeners, all the bands and musicians who have been taking part in it and of course the entire Radio Plato family – it all wouldn't have been possible without you. This episode is season finale of Newsroom 2024, after which we're taking a break, but we do have some good news for you. We're starting a new Belarusian music playlist very soon, which will focus on best of the local indie music of all time (not just recent, as in Newsroom), of all genres (except pop, of course) and chock full of rarities, forgotten hits, obscure finds and simply great tracks. That's some of our plans for 2025. In the meantime, let's raise another glass and welcome the New Year!