Tinet's page of delightful
Eastern
European Music
To disturb the monopoly of Merkin produced music, I hereby
make an attempt at spreading knowledge about
the great music that is made behind
the former Iron Curtain.
(What's that flag doing there?) |
A font that will enhance your pleasure viewing this page: Leningrad Disco (Get Winzip to unzip it.)
Furthermore, I apologise deeply for not (yet) having space to host
MP3's for all of the bands. But if you're brave
enough to visit the Russian MP3 sites linked to below, you
will find lotsa nice music files by these bands ...
P.S. About the page layout: this
web page is designed specifically onto one single page to reduce the annoyance
of
ruth- and tasteless GeoCities advertisements. The only reason for why I'm
keeping them as a host is that it's all for free.
| |||
|
A Slovak band, which I don't know too much about, except that both their music and hairstyles are a bit 80's ... Unofficial
Tublatanka site
|
A Russian metal band, which apparently has taken its name from an infernal character in Mikhail Bulgakov's novel The Master and Margarita. Their music actually isn't so much to my taste, but they are funny guys and deserve a place here, as well. Woland's members started out in 1991 at the tender age of seventeen, and, according to their own story: "Do they were able to rock? Yes!!! But what they had at that time? Very old drum set, repaired "Ural" guitar and ranted GDR made bas. The equipment was very very bad." But, gradually, they established themselves in the Russian metal scene, played gigs, recorded albums and won awards: the best rock band, best vocal, best guitar, best hit and video clip in the region of Siberia in 1998! Whatever the future yet might bring ... Woland's
official home page |
This, on the other hand, is really good Russian metal, dark and gloomy. The band was created on the 25 of February in 1998. Their style, according to the band members themselves, is Melodic Death. "We try to get melodic from Rage, and speed from Dark Tranquillity", they add. No wonder I like it, because some of their inspiration comes from such dear favourites of mine as Dark tranquility, In Flames and Sentenced. Ravencry's
official home page
|
|
|
|
Splin is a nice band from Petersburg, led by a fellow called Aleksandr Vasilev. The latter is a practising buddhist - which, by the way, isn't very unusual amidst Russian rock musicians. There are hordes of them; "Piknik's" Eduard Shklyarskiy (the guy with the wonderful name, but for me unbearable music) and legend Boris Grebenshikov are only two others. Splin's name actually comes from the Russian word for 'spleen' (in the sense of 'melancholy', that is - not necessarily the intestine). Their songs are often about that, too, and, yes, drugs. Also, the songs can often seem rather cute, for some reason, like "Моё сердце", or "Кое-что ещё". Splin regularly figurates in the soundtracks of Aleksei Balabanov's nice films, such as the Брат films ("Линия жизни", "Молоко и мёд"), and Война ("Пластмассовая жизнь"). Splin's official
home page |
|
|
While Splin is a clearly commercial band (with Quiksilver adverts on their home page), Korol i Shut are a strictly anarchist punk rock band, who always keep their concert ticket prices as low as possible. They, too, come from Petersburg. Their lyrics are very nice in the sense that they always tell a story (often with themes from the world of horror). I've actually never met one single song of them that I didn't like. Korol
i Shut's official home page. |
|
|
Zemfira Ramazanova, half Tatar, half Bashkir, moved with her band in 1999 from Ufa to Moscow. They immediately met with great success, which they, however, are very modest about, and blame it all on hard work. Zemfira's
official home page |
|
Vakarchuk displaying his rather hairy chest. Mmm ... |
Okean Elzy is a Ukrainian band, and the songs are in the truly cool Ukrainian language. (N. B. The genre of "Russian rock music" -including Ukrainian such - is often not very 'heavy' or 'hard'. This sounds like some kind of pop* sometimes ... And I don't really fancy this music that much, but the Ukrainian texts sound cool.) An unofficial
home page |
"Модел" |
Nochnye Snaipery is a duo formed by Diana Arbenina
(guitar & vocals) and Svetlana Surganova (violin, guitar, vocals),
both from Petersburg and with academic education. Their lyrics are quite remarkable, and often concern themselves with Russian modern history ("Россия, 37"), and, of course - like many other Russian bands - wandering and rootlessness. |
|
Svetlana, Diana and the boys in the band show off some skin ... |
Originally, all band members to-become were working in the Architectoral Institute's club, "J 22" (run by students of the institute). It was a very 'in' place in the worst parts of Yekaterinburg, where 'Afghans' helped out with security. One day, it happened to be the birthday of one of the workers, and Yulia Chicherina, who had until then mostly been cleaning up puke and carrying boxes (though she had been hitting the drums in a band a while ago), improvised a few songs with another guy who played the guitar. They all noticed that the music created wasn't very bad at all. So, whenever gaps occurred in the club's program, Chicherina and other workers got to fill out, and became more and more popular with the crowd ... And the rest is history, as they say. Their style of music ranges from rather jazzy and poppish things to pretty heavy stuff with strong guitars and a bit of synthetic elements, which breathe of the endless Russian taiga highways. Or something. |
(Aleksei Balabanov's films can often be conveniently used as an introductory drug for Russian rock music, and so, Chicherina also has their part in the Брат 2 soundtrack: Уходя-уходи.) |
Letayuschie Svinyi is a Russian punk rock band with a porcine concept - "Flying Pigs" is what their name means. So, the hog on the left is apparently not enslaved by marihuana, but rather, he's flying on the hemp leaf. Hmmm ... Their style of music is pretty tight, in Official
home page of Music files - some of them in .zip format! |
Note the unstressed O's in "el pueblo unido ..." in the piece Бухта свиньей. That's bad-ass аканье for you ... |
Partizanskoe Radio is a Russian band led by singer/songwriter Elena Nikitaeva. In the 'bio' section of their official home page, all band members stress how long they have been working in the music business, and what a high level of professionalism they maintain. This kind of pride was also apparent, when Aleksei Balabanov in the last minute chose to add their song Холостые пули ("unmarried/blank bullets" - both are the same word in Russian) to the soundtrack of his film Война. The band was careful to point out on many an occasion, that the piece wasn't exclusively written for the film, but their own original creation. The song, essentially about a war reporter, is partly inspired by Nikitaeva's father, a military doctor, and her feelings for him.
Official home page of Partizanskoe Radio |
|
Official site: Bi-2
|
Bi-2's glorious history began in Belorussia, 1985, when a group of youngsters, instead of drinking themselves to oblivion, set up shocking plays by Boris Vian, Beckett and Ionescu. After the administration of the Palace of the Pioneers completely stopped them, the youngsters started to play music, instead. A kid called Shura and another called Lyova got together, and made satirical reggae pieces about Lenin and the Party ("Я - Ленин, ё, ё, ё..."), and other things. In later times, their style has evolved into a kind of bombastic pop-rock, maybe in pretty much the same genre as Smyslovie Gallyutsinatsii and Chicherina - indeed, Мой рок-н-ролл is a duet with Yulia Chicherina - but at the same time completely different. Some of the pieces (like Еще не вечер and Сердце) are not very far from the genre some people call 'rage rock'. |
|
No matter how hard the Finnish people try to be part of
Europe, it is still clear to see that they can never be that. Even if
Finland politically is part of the West, the primary rock is the
westernmost extension of the ancient Russian rock, which has been around
much longer than the relatively newly formed Scandinavian primary
rock. (So, hmm, quite obviously, this must affect Finnish rock music,
as well ...) Anyway. Viikate is one of my favourite Finnish bands
(beside CMX and Sentenced). They are characterised by
a very enjoyable, slightly oriental heavy metal sound, and expressive
lyrics ('Helpompi ty�nt�� neula silm��n kuin lanka pujottaa' - 'It's
more bearable to thrust the needle into the eye, than to pull a thread
through it' - from the piece Marrasvalot). Viikate's home
page |
Viikate. |
The Russians have a word for all that brain dead music young people of today listen to (techno, mainstream rhythm'n'blues, Celine Dion): попса [pops�]. This is not - I repeat, NOT - the same thing as 'pop music' (even though it often can be). Попса is the opposite of рок ('rock'). Here again, 'rock' has a more special meaning for Russians - it is the alternative, non-commercial, not government-supporting music of young people, artists and intellectuals. Certainly, this distinction has become less distinct since 1989 (With 'commercial' bands like Splin still being рок), but with a look at the Russian music market the attentive observer will soon easily discern попса, like "Руки Вверх", from рок, like "Наутилус Помпилиус". Попса is brainless feel-good music, whereas рок is seriously artistic and has something to say. |
Lyrics translations, mp3s, chords and more ...
Russian metal home
page
Lots & lots of links to all kinds of bands to explore.
mp3.smolensk.ru
A fine source of all kinds of Russian music.
www.mp3search.ru
Find Russian mp3 files!
www.zvuki.ru
Another free Russian mp3 site with a very abundant archive.
(Their name seems to be an hommage to the Russian band "Zvuki Mu",
whose singer has laquered his teeth black,
and sings about the most disgusting, dirty, and despised things he can think of
(whom he identifies with), like city pigeons.)
Get your introductory drug to Russian rock
music:
Brat 2 soundtrack in Real Media and
MP3 format at zvuki.ru
Fu�k �opy�ight!