The stuff I do for you guys. I've just spent hours parsing through four hundred MP3s of Russian crap, half sub-eurovision pop, half old-fashioned and/or US copyist* hip-hop, all encoded at too low a bitrate (even though one of the CDs explicitly said 192-320 kbps; it lied). I've done my best to carve out what I think is the most interesting material for your enjoyment, and it hardly presents a particularly unified genre of any kind - Russia is still at a very international stage of its musical development.
So what about Latvian music? Well, fellow couchsurfer Prokur set me onto some hip-hop, but I have to say it's kinda so-so. So I'm going with the Russian stuff for now, though you're welcome to convince me otherwise. I've redownloaded all the tracks at good bitrates.
Viagra - My Emancipation
This is the only track that really caught my ear off the pop CD. It's got a sort of updated "I Feel Love"-ish vibe, not just in the arpeggiator and synth sweeps but in the aloof minor-key melody, which also feels utterly Russian. Good stuff!
Seryoga - Mne S Toboj Harasho
808+HB-style autotune electro, but with rapping. Not bad, the drum programming is varied enough to keep it interesting.
Mnogotochie - Rasstoyanie
Strangely mood-fluttering production where an off-kilter female voice takes centre stage.
Trayektoriya Zhezni - Rifm' Na Ritmakh
The kind of hard, sparse produktion you'd usually associate with good eastern-european hip-hop, here with some unusually decent rhythm work.
Basta - Nu Ego Na
Scratchy nineties-inspired hip-hop of the kind I usually dislike, but this one has a great forward push and the bass sample is killer.
* I realise griping about US copyism is a problematic thing to do. I'll make a post about the issue soon.
2 comments:
Hola! Really nice blog here!
Read your post about recession music. Have you heard Lonny Breaux's 'Quickly'? :)
I'd downloaded it but not heard it before, but wow, that's extremely literally onto the same track. Cool.
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