SHARE: Behind the Iron Curtain Vol. 3

[Passing_Stranger]

Hi guys! A new compilation here, and something a little unusual this time. I remember someone asking here for some new wave from USSR, and also last year lots of people discovered a song "Na zare" by Alliance, which made quite a few curious about whether there was any kind of new wave/synthpop scene in the USSR. So I decided to dig and came up with quite a few examples. Still, the answer is complicated - while there were songs and even albums in that style (or rather approximation of it), there was never really a "new wave scene" as such. Those often were experiments with fashionable Western sounds, and artists could fluctuate between new wave/synthy stuff, eurodisco-derived music and hard'n'heavy rock during their evolution. And with state-controlled music environment there simply could never be any kind of independent full-fledged movement, only underground activity in home studios (only state-approved musicians could record in "real" studios, those were rare and queue to record in them stretched for years sometimes).

And yet there was a very developed tape network with USSR-wide and very fast tape-copy services. So while this music rarely saw the light of day on vinyl, it thrived on cassettes, which were the medium if you wanted to listen to new music, both home-grown and foreign. Therefore lots of songs I'm going to post are taken from digitized tapes - bear that in mind regarding quality, in many cases even faulty tapes are all we have. Though mostly they're alright Oh yes, I'm doing it all in mp3, as there's no real point in lossless given the sources of the music and besides often mp3s are all I have and I don't like to mix formats.

The first compilation is here: https://mega.nz/file/2k1D1CoL#XFbYRsTju ... yXOMNMntGA

It's rather technological/futuristic thematically, which was very novel for the USSR then. If there's interest, I can give little comments for each song and performer.

Enjoy and let me know what you think, especially if there's a need to continue

[crichert]

Hey Passing_Stranger!

Interesting share - I recently stumbled upon some USSR synthpop on YouTube, and it's intriguing! I'm always excited to hear obscure 80's music, so I appreciate the share and would love to hear more in the future!!

Thank you!!

[Docman427]

I love compilations like this. Feel free to post more.

[maccafan076]

Sounds interesting. I'm gonna give it a listen. Thanks

[Passing_Stranger]

Thanks for the feedback, guys! Most certainly will do more - at least two or three will follow. Started digging the homegrown stuff seriously during the shutdown, so am still finding songs that fit the description

What I find saddening is that there's next to no interest in Russia to re-release all this. I tried to get a couple of reissue labels interested in a compilation of Soviet synth songs, but nothing came of it, this stuff is seemingly not held in high regard (or maybe people don't want to bother with all this legal stuff regarding copyrights and so on). So while other countries release one compilation of "their own synthpop" after another, we in Russia have nothing and, it's sad to say, I don't see even one of those coming. On the other hand, that gives me freedom to do ones myself, especially as NWO seems to be just the place for it.

[Passing_Stranger]

Hi guys! So I did another volume of Soviet synthpop experiments - there's quite enough material for a whole series, as it transpires. The first compilation was more poppy, this one can be called "synthpunk" as there are songs recorded with limited equipment on tape in home environment, with sometimes risky themes. Some can be termed minimal synth and are fine examples of the genre. 10 songs again, mp3 320 kbps, this volume is a bit shorter than the previous for which I'll try to compensate with the third one

The link is here: https://mega.nz/file/Xo0QnC7A#IxByJkMTR ... e3MKLZw07U

Enjoy!

[PKPN]

Thanks for these! You might also be interested in these sites:

• http://www.sovietgroove.com/
• https://baranrecords.com/

[maccafan076]

Im still getting around to listen to the first one. Thanks for the second vol

[Passing_Stranger]

maccafan076, enjoy (hopefully)! Next week will do a third one

PKPN, thank you for the links! Baran are really good at what they do, as for the other one, it's more concerned with jazz-funk-soul then with synth-electropop. But I'll be checking it occasionally just in case

[PKPN]

Sorry, yeah, I should have been more specific. Check the mixes page at https://sovietgroove.com/tag/mix.html and look for e.g. Soviet Electro Mixtype and other interesting mixes around 2010–2011.

[Rissan]

THanks a lot passing stranger or sharing this unique and obscure music.

[Passing_Stranger]

Thank you for the attention! I'm going to do more, now am gathering stuff. Hopefully this week

[crichert]

Exciting to hear that - thank you!!

Thank you for the attention! I'm going to do more, now am gathering stuff. Hopefully this week

[Passing_Stranger]

Hello guys! Finally got around to the third volume. Again 10 songs, this time it's the rockier stuff. Well, actually, electronic songs and experiments by the bands considered rock in USSR and Russia (in that they play mainly guitar music, sometimes with a hefty dose of folk etc). But quite a few of them started or went through a phase of "doing New Wave" as it was very fresh and new sound in mid-to-late 1980s. Those were generally recorded in home studios, in poor conditions so again don't expect sound marvels, but hopefully songs will speak for themselves.

There's a story here. In 2004 I became more and more interested in minimal synth and started corresponding with several people about it. One German guy finally send me a song asking if I by any chance know what it is and where is it from. He got in from some Swedish guys and thought it was from Sweden. Imagine my huge surprise when I discovered that one of the biggest and most enduring "Russian rock" bands dabbled in analogue electronics at the start of their carrier! That was crazy to get my head around at first - but it piqued my interest in synthpop experiments and it snowballed from there. So, a special song to me here. It's at No. 2, seems to be a bit of a cult item in the minimal synth crowd - though even the album it came from is on the whole very far from that sound.

So here it is, let me know what you think (if anything ): https://mega.nz/file/rxtlxSZC#r5njEao8l ... VRCEjO7-Sc

Cheers!

[maccafan076]

Thanks for putting it together. I'm looking forward to some new discoveries.