Hey everyone. Here comes a digest that represents some of Ukrainian music of various genre and scope made in 2021. For this year’s list we invited Amobishop, whose rateyourmusic top-50 in 2020 resonated with us. Most of releases are reviewed by her, also by Misha and Anthony Junkoid.
Three lists are dedicated to LP’s, EP’s and Singles. Each of them starts with electronic artists and gradually moves to other genres. There are a lot of self-released music or on small record labels, so support by buying is very appreciated!
LONGPLAYS
Nikolaienko - Rings [Faitiche]
Hypnagogic heap of looped tapes for the notable label by Andrew Pekler.
Anthony Junkoid
Dmytro Nikolaienko's release for the Faitiche label finds him at his most refined. He thoroughly registers everything that happens with the tape loops he's playing, including the smallest glitches and warps. Behind this scrupulous work, there's an endless love of the process reflecting in watery, natural sounds that seem to come from some enigmatic being. However, there's a slight downfall in the second half, when the record gets a bit too restrained as if it doesn't let itself fully uncoil.
Amobishop
Vladimir Gnatenko - Ukuvumelanisa [ejekt]
The wunderkind of Ukrainian electronics, in this album Gnatenko gets wickedly close to making a perfect record from trademark elements music connoisseurs will easily recognize from his live performances. In a set of liquid infinitely melodic tracks with almost organic quality to them, he effortlessly drifts between rhythmic patterns and wormholes of sound creating or, perhaps, revealing some infinitely beautiful cosmic fabric. Many days and nights of braindancing guaranteed.
Amobishop
Emil Asadow - A Home No Longer Exists [Standard Deviation]
On his debut LP, Emil Asadow deals with childhood memories in sound texture and record structure, and thanks to high-level mastering provided by Standard Deviation label's craftsmen, all his compositional quirks gain more weight and substance. This album is a great document that bears not just personal meaning but also embodies Odessa electronic sound with its rhythmic openness, light melodicism and a tinge of tribalism. As a result, we get long, meditative tracks that sound airy, misty and porous like memory itself.
Amobishop
Koloah - Millennium Sun [Hyperboloid]
The best thing about this retrofuturistic longplay from Koloah is its masterful use of sound space. No matter which way you choose to listen to it, the space seems to be growing around you, with the air getting thicker and richer. However, I doubt you have to make a 40+ minute record only to demonstrate impressive production skills. There's no concept that would keep it together apart from vague cyberpunk references that are too trendy to mean anything while creating 90s electronic hybrids seems a mere exercise for a lazy mind.
Amobishop
S-Z-2 - S-Z-2 [Pep Gaffe]
A beautiful collaboration between Pep Gaffe residents does a very accurate job of representing the protean sound of this formation. S-Z-2 shifts between decayed samples, damaged loops, spaced out field recordings and sound phrases that appear out of white noise and dissolve back into it the next moment. Not as much music as something that exists alongside it, once in a while it may even seem coherent and structured before falling apart in multiple pieces again and again.
Amobishop
Tickling country sound art.
Anthony Junkoid
This summer I had much fun filming live-acts in Khvylya sanatorium. S-Z-2 stream with cotton-faced creatures is totally odd. Watch it back :D
Misha
Igor Yalivec - Still Life [Polar Seas]
A well-timed debut of Dnipro producer, member of Gamardah Fungus and Submatukana and one of the active explorers of the Ukrainian modular synth community is a snowy white ambient fantasy. Beautifully structured and never boring, it has a deeply minimalistic, wabi-sabi feel to it. The album is inspired by plants and natural phenomena, but its patched pieces find a place somewhere between the organic and the mechanical, painting pictures of music box ballerinas just as much as those of snowflakes.
Amobishop
Cluster Lizard - Star Corsair
Berlin-based duo of electronic vets Kateryna Zavoloka and Dmytro Fedorenko, tends to explore the lesser-known corners of Ukrainian culture. This time it's the weird sci-fi philosophical concepts of 1960s dissident Oles Berdnyk. With its mix of granularly detailed industrial techno and progressive electronics, the record offers a beautiful feel of cosmic breadth. But although full of great intuitive finds and wonderful explorations, it seems to be moving in many directions at once and gets stuck in one place as a result.
Amobishop
Pankifared - Selected Works 2004-2021 [SKP Records]
A treasure trove of all kinds of works by Ukrainian underground legend Oleksandr Kokhanovskiy aka Пан Кіфаред (Pan Kifared), theater and film composer, member of cult collectives as Коллежский асессор (Kollezhskiy Asessor) and Цукор Біла Смерть (Cukor Bila Smert'). It's a joy to see at least a part of the materials he's never stopped working on released: last year, it was a wonderful album on the система (system) label, and now it's a little bit worse ordered collection that still demonstrates the breadth of Kokhanovskiy's musical personality. Ranging from ambient/illbient to trance to dub to neoclassical pieces — sometimes all that in the space of one track, this is a must-listen for anyone who doesn't believe there's a heritage in Ukrainian experimental music just as much as for those who do.
Amobishop
monodont - wave wars
Music by Monodont always sounds natural, with a thin sense of style and space. He is hyper-productive guy, just check his soundcloud for dozens albums and mixtapes (to say nothing of the bandcamp and vk),
Misha
CHAOSY - NEVERLAND
Clanking chains and raw horrorcore homages. Memorable debut.
Misha
Valentina Goncharova - Recordings 1987-1991, Vol. 2 [Shukai]
It was definitely wise of the Shukai label not to release Valentina Goncharova's recordings collection all at once. Although I wasn't that impressed by the first part of it when that came out, on the re-listen, it started to feel like a roadmap for the final, and evidently, main, piece. Thanks to collaborators (Alexander Aksenov (1), Sergey Letov (2,3,4), Pekka Airaksinan (5,6,7)), Goncharova's electroacoustic epiphanies move further to fully realized compositions, at once free and elegantly restrained, electrically charged and drony. Although deeply rooted in the avant-garde tradition, many of these pieces provide a certain level of DIY boldness to feel just as timeless as they are free-spirited.
Amobishop
swipeex. - Rap.readz pt.two
Many say that the Ukrainian hip-hop scene is booming, but this year there were actually even fewer hip-hop acts to catch my attention than in 2020. Except for a few lo-fi hip-hop beatmakers, nothing appeared on my radar, so when it came to representing this genre, I simply chose the latest album I've heard. Then I thought a little bit more and realized it wasn't simply for that: swipeex. 's beats are compact and mellow but from time to time, they also get edgy and hypnotically charged.
Amobishop
dj sacred - memphis rap strikes back
DJ Sacred strikes back with a full-length album.
Misha
Këkht Aräkh - Pale Swordsman
Though I've never been a metalhead (as you've probably gathered from this list), this album has so much energy and beauty that it gets through even to me. It's short and precise, with a one-of-kind ambiance stitched together by grainy lo-fi sound and a mesmerizing story.
Amobishop
Sexual Purity - Beautiful Scar of Society
A fresh minimal synth act from Dnipro — perhaps a capital of Ukrainian synth pop — never for once breaks the limits of the genre working exclusively in post-Boy Harsher soundspace. Although unoriginal to the core, they're truly great, and if they really make money with streams and Bandcamp purchases, their music totally deserves each kopiika. Anastasia Romanova fits perfectly into the role of an ennui-suffering dominatrix, and at least half of these songs are amazingly catchy, a lot catchier than those of many others in the genre.
Amobishop
Amphibian Man - Seven
An instrumental surf punk project of Ivan Semeschenko releases at least one album a year. Not all of them are good, but it kind of adds a nice flavor to the Ukrainian rock scene. This one is a bit on the filler side yet it's nice to have something that stable. Long live, Amphibian Man!
Amobishop
Straytones - Magic Green River Swimmin' & Stunning Tarzanka Experience [Robustfellow]
It was a tough task for me to choose a record from the psychedelic/stoner rock side of Ukrainian music, as I consider this scene second-rate to the core. Even its arguably best band sounds like Ty Segall started to write songs in broken English. If you don't care about the lyrics, though, the album is alright: it has a lot of drive and is well-paced, the cover is fine, and if you're into more weird stuff like I am, there's a Bardo Pond-like last track.
Amobishop
EP’s
Vladimir gnatenko - sacrim ep [Rhythm Büro]
Doors to the dimenison where MTV’s “Chill Out Zone” vibe spreads endless.
Misha
Kiritchenko - Feral [DETROIT UNDERGROUND]
Andrey Kiritchenko, a restless adept of experimental electronics, promoter and label manager, has been tremendously active this year as a producer. In this EP, released on Detroit Underground, he sharpened the approach of Cerebral, a previous record that was slightly out of focus. Each of the chaotic elements in the Cerebral collision now has been given a life of its own, creating, as Bandcamp liner notes suggest, "an ordered confusion of timbres and rhythm sections."
Amobishop
Polje - Seemed
This white cassete would perfectly fit on Opium dancefloor, where I have never been to. Take a look on a track called Transcedental - epic thing where David Lynch comes to Ahgarti while performance of Poterba.
Misha
Nastya Vogan - Uglydelicatessen
A collection of subtle experimental electronics from ∄ resident Nastya Vogan. Being classically trained, she is unmatched in creativity and playfulness when it comes to mingling quirky and outsider elements into her tracks. In this self-released EP, Nastya uses much softer means to forge delicately twisted soundscapes than in her works for Standard Deviation compilations, but they come out just as genuine.
Amobishop
Borys - Voicen in my head EP (12”)
Borys Stepanenko and his long-awaited trickster electro-tech for the Noizar’s label Wicked Bass.
Anthony Junkoid
Hanna Svirska - Shepit [система | system]
An ambitious effort, though a bit less coherent than the first one (with the Save Yourself single), Hanna Svirska's first mini-album finds her in the midst of woods and legends. It's a collection of reimaginings of electronic new age patterns with multilayered arrangements and electroacoustic explorations that accompany a thoughtful study of Ukrainian poetical and cultural context. It starts with readings from Lesya Ukrainka's poem based on the legend of Tristan and Isolde, cleverly addressing the place of Ukrainian culture in the European tradition, and continues as an exploration of self and its surroundings. Svirska moves step by step, not always sure if she'll find all the answers, not even sure if they exist. This tender boldness is what I especially love about the record, but at the same time, it's what keeps it down: not all its ways work right and the only guest appearance (by Eugene Kasian) ruins the atmosphere completely.
Amobishop
Hidden Element - Cycles [1000xxplace]
Igor Kirilenko, a man behind the Hidden Element project and 1000xxplace label co-founder, releases music in a good manager manner. His trilogy of breakbeat / softer focused electronics EPs is impeccable in visuals and concept, but I can't shake off the feeling that the tracks for them were chosen merely by accident. Cycles, the last EP of the cycle (sorry) is solid but a tiny bit inconsistent, and in that way, similar to both its predecessors.
Amobishop
Andrey Sirotkin - Vyrij (Вирій) [mystictrax]
Jumping from one electronic genre to another, Andrey Sirotkin (and a couple of guest producers) recreates his rich impressions of Carpathian nature. Beautifully flawed ambient intro lets you into a foggy dunk forest while more conventional minimal techno and electro tracks provide various flavors and colorings to the experience. Though quite good conceptually, this electronic patchwork might be a bit indigestible.
Amobishop
Sunchase - Late EP
After his outstanding last year's LP, Timeline, Sunchase deserved a holiday. The funny thing is that the holiday seems to be documented in another release (in truth, according to Bandcamp page, these tracks were made several years ago). Late EP has a laidback trip-hoppy feel I didn't know I missed so much until hearing this EP and the latest Saint Etienne album. Unlike its craftier British relative, it doesn't have a concept or specific narrative, instead, all its four tracks bring an enjoyable groove that's absolutely enough.
Amobishop
ТУЧА - Токсік
Maria Tuchka is known as the founder and host of Geroyki podcast that celebrates female musicians of Ukraine and Eastern Europe, and her latest EP is a kind of a manifesto for young feminist ravers. And though I appreciate the concept, this album feels less straightforward and bold than it wants to seem. Tucha's take on the issues of victim-blaming and sexual violence tells nothing new to those familiar with the topic, and I have doubts whether it'll be of interest to anyone else. Токсік, however, is nicely built: what it lacks in diversity, it makes up in style and sincerity, partly thanks to Maria's vocals that sound like a karaoke tribute to Sofia Rotaru.
Amobishop
Endless Melancholy - Distant Shores (Inspired by ‘The Outlaw Ocean’ a book by Ian Urbina) [The Outlaw Ocean Music Project]
An EP from probably the most successful Ukrainian ambient artist and label owner Oleksiy Sakevych aka Endless Melancholy and a part of the music series dedicated to the rethinking of Ian Urbina's field recordings collection. Urbina is a journalist who explores the offshore realm and lawlessness at sea, so this record is pretty much about water, and working with water, its flow and pace, is something Sakevych is great at. His well-textured immersive ambient pieces fit perfectly here, my only problem is he's done it before. The turbulent field recordings of purportedly outlaw activities are buried under the shimmering stillness, and by the end of it, you seem to forget what the whole fuss is about.
Amobishop
Hyphen Dash - Live at NAMU
2021 has been a triumphant year for this fusion / jazzy hip-hop trio. In January, after the first ZMOVA video was released, they've jumped out of the boiling jamming fusion clubs right in front of the loving audience. The video was then followed by this EP that included all three well-recorded tracks but (much fortunately) lost the interview part. Although not as sublime as their teachers BADBADNOTGOOD, they are quite good (or not bad) at composing catchy melodies and making instrumental build-ups with a post-rock sincerity. Not sure if they could keep pace with the next big release but I hope they'll grow into some serious business.
Amobishop
Діджей Хокаге - Стрільба з водяного пістолета
Serhii Voronov has so many projects of different genres that, as a producer, he seems to be moving in all directions at once. With the first Deejay Hokage EP, he finally gets somewhere: although this mix of glitch hop and downtempo is not as metamodernist as it wants to appear, there's some fine melodic undertone in most of the tracks that does its trick very well.
Amobishop
Subscum - s/t [Rotova Porojnina Records]
Abrasive grind-core, shriek and blast-beat inspired by the Wall of Memory of the Kyiv crematorium.
Anthony Junkoid
SINGLES
Spekulant - vlad [rabitza]
Banger by “Progressive Future” honchos Alex Savage and K. Lobanov. Tribute to ERA, black humor and vibe that cannot be confused. Appears on the debut release by Rabitza.
Misha
Snianio & >Ilkutan & R.Gens - Вітри
I think of Svitlana Nianio's works as an undeniably high point of Ukrainian music, the more I listened to her songs the more I got used to its mannerisms and idiosyncrasies. With this single, however, my initial expectations have been betrayed in the most exquisite way. Both Вітри (Ukrainian for 'winds') and Камінь (Ukrainian for 'stone') tremble with strings, sparse keyboards and whispers of field recordings. With the help of her long-time collaborator >IIkutan and modular synth wizard R.Gens, Nianio creates scarce minimalistic movements that feel like medieval treatises on natural phenomena transformed into sound.
Amobishop
dj superelite feat. arthur snitkus - Ty Teryaesh' Sebya
A hidden gem which was remain dusted in the bins and then emerged only in DJ Superelite sets. Finally showed itself to the world.
Misha
«This track is unique. He was born like jam and started to be as the hit from the first time. Sound and vocals are RAW and this is perfect. We tried to change some moments but we destroyed living in this track and all things like here was stay as are. Enjoy» - DJ Superelite
headache - Dirty Cups and Flowers
Stumbling upon a debut double single by Headache this summer was probably the highest point of my 2021 digging season. Noisy, melodic, crude and sweet, both its A and B sides stood apart from all Ukrainian guitar-driven music and seemed like a newly found treasure from the Flying Nun Records back catalog. Probably the strongest band of the элек///чество label roster, they're just as terrifyingly good live, so the only thing I'm worried about is whether there's space for them to grow.
Amobishop
Karr - Music for Worship
Dark horses of Ukrainian synth based music, Karr keep the mystery well with their latest release. Existing between electronic drone, witch house and ambient pop, these two half-whispered half-sung melodies are equally yearning and paralyzing. Karr's music seems to be moving naturally in its unique thawing pace, and their every new release makes me wait harder for the next one.
Amobishop