Far From Moscow

This is a unique musical experience. Featuring, promoting and showcasing music and bands from Russia, Ukraine, Belarus, Latvia, Lithuania, and Estonia it covers a vast geographical area, and a sound palette that's sometimes familiar but often strange. The range of genres covers everything from reggae (including a Christian Orthodox-Reggae band) through electronica and jazz, dance, pop, rock and even English and French language sections. It's all served up from UCLA in California, too, so the media loads and streams much faster than you'd expect. Every artist has several complete tracks to listen to, and sound quality is great. I'll leave you to read the reviews and descriptions of bands for yourself, but note that they're often very un-western and need to be read in their own social context. Videos may be even more fascinating, unintentionally throwing some light on aspects of a society and countries that we seldom if ever see. And there are many videos here. Some comments are particularly striking, for example: "The vocals were really monotonous. It was all accompanied by a loud, head-splitting roar of sound. Nonetheless I really liked what I saw! That atmosphere was especially good; this music is a fitting soundtrack to the nation's growing dependence on booze and drugs." And an equally telling: "The workings of popular music in Russia are so unfairly centralized - and unadventurous - that the emergence of sub-genres like twee pop is no great surprise. Countless musicians, far from media attention or the middle of a map, are aware from the outset that any likelihood of success is minimal. Coming to terms with that grim reality, they turn instead to a simpler, smaller aesthetic, one often associated with their childhood. A celebration begins of minor scales, so to speak, and a deliberately tinny amateurism." This is not a single musical culture but many, encompassing both urban and natural wildernesses and discovering its own voices while drawing from the influences of everything around it. It's fine to mix reggae with hip-hop with Indian or French music, or traditional Chanson with electronics, throw in some Russian lyrics and see what comes out of the mix. Don't be surprised to find a St. Petersburg outfit with an English name and a fondness for fake Chinese sneakers, singing in French. The site is "named after a famous Soviet novel, celebrating the heroic efforts of Siberian oil workers during World War Two, an awfully long way from comfort or safety", a choice that might seem oddly alien to us, but I think you might understand a little better if you take the time to do some reading and listening here. Most of the text is in good English, though there are slips into Russian here and there which don't spoil anything. If you can read any Cyrillic it helps, but not that much. Don't worry about it. I keep wanting to write, here, listen to this one... listen to that one... if you don't mind your vocals in other languages and want your music to be seriously indie, this is a rare find that deserves some attention.