Molchat Doma (Молчат Дома)
A trio from Minsk, Belarus. Where lately a lot of bad news has been coming from – and music that also doesn’t always sound cheerful. Still, Molchat Doma (Молчат Дома, Silent Houses) is worth a listen. Especially if you’re a fan of new or 80’s wave (now called postpunk or coldwave), and if you could appreciate Ploho.
Molchat Doma x Ploho
The link with Ploho is often made. Both bands maintain friendly relations and, in 2019, recorded По краю острова together ( lyrics, lyrics with translation). See also An Introduction to Russian Post-Punk with Ploho and Molchat Doma (Post-punk.com, 2020).
Monument
Three albums, each with something architectural: С крыш наших домов (From the roofs of our houses, 2017), Этажи (Floors, 2018), and now Монумент (Monument, 2020). Also available on Bandcamp, Last.fm, Spotify, and Soundcloud.
Several tracks from Монумент had been released earlier, including Звёзды (Stars, 2019) and Ответа нет (No answer, 2020). New is Дискотека; ‘a change-up for the band’s usual doom and gloom sound,’ according to Post-punk.com.
Here, we’ve selected only from the rich offering of lyric videos.
Zvezdy / Звёзды (2019)
Toska / Тоска (2018)
Sudno / Судно (2018)
The lyrics (with translation below) are from Эмалированное судно (1997), a poem by Boris Ryzhy (1974-2001). See also this video (2019) and this piece on Boris Ryzhy. Interpretation of this Судно in Смысл песни Судно Борис Рыжий (Какой смысл, 2020).
Roofs / Крыши (2017)
More lyric videos
More lyrics on screen (sometimes with translation) in:
- Ответа нет (2020)
- Волны (2018)
- Tанцевать (2018)
- На Дне (2018)
- Коммерсанты (2018)
- Я не коммунист (2017)
- Дома молчат (2017)
Years refer to the albums these tracks are on, not the year of video release.
For Belarus
Molchat Doma is also featured – with Я не коммунист – on For Belarus, a compilation ‘in support of victims of repression and police violence in Belarus.’ Featuring artists such as АИГЕЛ (Russia), Alyona Alyona (Ukraine), Karpov not Kasparov (Romania), Solo Ansamblis (Lithuania), and Super Besse (Belarus).
Meme and more
-
How Belarusian Post-Punks Molchat Doma Became a TikTok Meme (Pitchfork, 2020)
-
In A Sea Of Panel Houses: An Introduction to Post-Punk From Belarus (NBHAP, 2020)
- New Order (Mark Gurarie, Culture Crush)
In German: Molchat Doma: Der düstere Soundtrack zu Weißrusslands Plattenbauten (Arte Tracks, 2019, 6 m).
More via
Facebook,
Instagram, and this
website.
And on Wikipedia
English,
Dutch,
Russian.
Interview The Village
Get to know Yegor Shkutko, Pavel Kozlov, and Roman Komogortsev in this short interview (2020, 2 m) with The Village, English subtitled.
Most of the music here is also in an
R1 playlist on YouTube (in order of release).
See also
Best Russian Music and
Russian Song Lyrics.
More
Music
Anyone who wants to present Russian music cannot ignore Zemfira. Popular and mainstream – millions of records sold – but also distinctly idiosyncratic. The music is usually accessible (we categorize it under Pop), but the attitude is rock.
Raw Anti-Putin punk from
Nizhny Novgorod /
Нижний Новгород. Loosely based on ‘Maggie’ by The Exploited.
From the green city of
Zelenograd /
Зеленоград. Dreamy indie-folk with a melancholic undertone. Created by
Mikhail Rodionov (1992).
The alarm blares (Ревёт тревога), the road awaits (ждёт дорога). They are many (Их немало), we are few (нас немного). We are in an unjust world (Мы в несправедливом мире) tin wolves in the shooting range (Жестяные волки в тире).
The word offret is Swedish and means ‘sacrifice’; the band Offret is Russian and makes heavy music. The link between the word and the band: a
1986 film in Swedish by the Russian Andrei Tarkovsky.
A band from Saint Petersburg that makes a kind of post-punk/indie-pop. Not for long yet, so not much material yet. However, they already have a few very successful tracks with original music videos. До свиданья, дорогая is the
Russian title for the film
The Goodbye Girl (1977), but it has nothing to do with it.
