»Izhevsk is a city located between the Ural mountains and the Volga river. In other words, in the middle of nowhere – there’s no chance you’ll be passing it by unless it is your final destination. Comparing to other Russian cities, Izhevsk is a town where it is still easy to find silent places. Since this is a ‘factory-town’, there are sounds of working factories distinguishable in this silence in some places and by night. As a teen I spent a lot of time outdoors with my friends imagining where those sounds could come from. Years later I learned that it was not only me who heard the sounds. I think the atmosphere of the city much influenced the phenomenon of ‘Izhevsk music wave’ and Izhevsk as a ‘Russian capital of electronic music’ in the late 80s and 90s. This mix embodies this atmosphere, this time and those sounds.
Unfortunately it’s impossible to find an archive or Discogs catalogue music of this time and listen to it. There are only few records in high quality, which seems to be natural. Some records in 90s and 00s were produced on CDs, tapes and different mixtapes; some were never released, others are released now – like a vinyl record by Samtsi Dronta put out in 2019 and compiled from mp3 records. Today we can proudly say that the band Стук Бамбука в XI часов (Stuk Bambuka V XI Chasov) invented trip-hop simultaneously with Bristol scene. It was possible to do in such a context.
The phenomenon of Izhevsk seems to become more trending from year to year – and now on air at Radio Cómeme. Enjoy!«
SD – Sound 2
Virgo Intacta – Warm Winter
Стук Бамбука В XI Часов – Слабый Тигр
Stereosobaka – Box
Manhattan Hands – Не бросать
Красивая Пришла – Конькобежцы
Velvet and Velvet Dolls – Electric Wedding
Юка – Шары
Soda – Hallelujah Izhevsk
RяБа Mutantъ – Gut Kaiser Song
Lancer – C Valley
Rhodesia – Xenophobia
Samtsi Dronta – White Child (early version)
