горемыка – Scary sounds in Russian

Artists: Горемыка

Genres: wave

Keywords: Smolensk song lyrics duo

Misery from Smolensk (= Смоленск) on the Dnieper River. At least, that’s where Горемыка (Goremyka) comes from, a name meaning something like a wretch or failure (see Академик, поискслов, Wiktionary). Dark language or страшные звуки (scary sounds) are no surprise then, but it’s all на русском (in Russian), and that works well here.

Debut single (2020) and title track from an EP with four songs. Video on YouTube (featuring scenes from the film Лунная радуга, 1983), lyrics here and below.

  Если кто и прав
  Я его накажу.
  Солнце не взойдет
  Если не танцевать.

  Все свои мечты
  Забери назад.
  Ты всегда один.
  Или я не прав?

  Ты не задевай
  Меня своим плечом.
  Танцы на костях
  Это здесь закон.

  Ненависть и страх
  Вижу в твоих глазах.
  Сегодня это так
  А завтра ты мне не враг.

  Только сильный духом
  Не боится разбиваний.
  Не боится улыбаться.
  И ненависть. Ненависть.

  Ты не задевай
  Меня своим плечом.
  Танцы на костях
  Это здесь закон.

  Ненависть и страх
  Вижу в твоих глазах.
  Сегодня это так
  А завтра ты мне не враг.

Listen to цикл (2020) and бесы (2020). Available also on Apple Music, Bandcamp, Soundcloud, and Spotify. More Горемыка on Instagram and VK; see also Record Turnover (2020) and White Light White Heat (2020).

Most of the music here is also available in an R1 playlist on YouTube (from recent to old).
More discoveries in this genre can be found at Detriti Records and Krzysztof Utbult.

The 25-Year Career of Zemfira

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.

Punk against Putin: Criminal State – Путин

Raw Anti-Putin punk from Nizhny Novgorod / Нижний Новгород. Loosely based on ‘Maggie’ by The Exploited.

The Retuses 3x

From the green city of Zelenograd / Зеленоград. Dreamy indie-folk with a melancholic undertone. Created by Mikhail Rodionov (1992).

Wolves in the Shooting Range (Волки в тире)

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).

Offret 3x

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.

До свиданья, дорогая!

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.