СУВЕНИР №2 (and other Russian Jazz and Hip-Hop Sounds)

March 8, 2015 9:20 PM

The author’s key creative task is to demonstrate the unique sound of soviet jazz school, where musicians complemented conventional musical tools with folk instruments and soviet electronics. "Souvenir" sets a goal of introducing as many listeners as it can to the legacy of the few jazz collectives there were in USSR. "Souvenir" is a bad mood remedy that will keep you warm throughout the long Russian winter.
Artem Ryazanov (Miracle Libido) is a DJ who likes the music of modern old Russia. And if you like what you hear above, you might also like the mix he just released for Nicolas Jaar's Other People label and the one he made for the Calvert Journal a few years ago.
And if you like those, you might also like the profile that Calvert published about RAD, the label/collective Ryazanov and Low Bob jointly lead.
posted by Going To Maine (6 comments total)

"modern old Russia" should probably be "old modern Russia", really.
posted by Going To Maine at 9:25 PM on March 8, 2015 [1 favorite]

These are amazing. I think that 1980s Leningrad sound, somwhere between Kraftwerk and Kino (as epitomized by these songs), might just be one of my favourite musical niches.
posted by beijingbrown at 5:58 AM on March 9, 2015

Great post! To anyone interested in the subject, I would recommend S. Frederick Starr's Red and Hot: The Fate of Jazz in the Soviet Union (mainly about the early, "classic" period, through the '50s, with a final section on the "rock inundation" -- the author is a professional jazz musician as well as a Russian scholar) and Leo Feigin's Russian Jazz: New Identity (Feigin founded Leo Records, which promoted the great experimental jazz groups of the '70s and '80s -- notably the Ganelin Trio, described by Chris Kelsey as "arguably the world's greatest free jazz ensemble" of the '70s and '80s -- so that's the period his book focuses on).
posted by languagehat at 6:51 AM on March 9, 2015

Hey this is fascinating! I feel like there must be a whole world of music like this; young new musicians borrowing and remixing "classic" music from the 50s–80s and finding hidden beauty there. That phenomenal Nicolas Jaar Essential Mix set me on this path and now anything he's involved with is an instant-listen. (Although not always an instant-fave.) Is there a name for this type of music? I particularly like how it's free from irony, this isn't some neo-lounge shtick like Combustible Edison.

The Other People mix appears to be in AIFF format; a 1 gigabyte file for an hour. That's a bit awkward.
posted by Nelson at 9:43 AM on March 9, 2015

I like this.
posted by oceanjesse at 12:29 PM on March 9, 2015

The Other People mix appears to be in AIFF format; a 1 gigabyte file for an hour. That's a bit awkward.

I recommend downloading and converting to 320 (or whatever.) Takes it to a nice 87 mb.
posted by Going To Maine at 2:01 PM on March 9, 2015