PORTALS & LABELS
Russia, for reasons both good and bad, has a fairly large number of portals. Several, as we all know, are busy with activities that are less than legal. Other tread the thin line between legality and piracy; the whereabouts of that line is currently being debated in Russian courts.
Quite a few online venues do a great deal to help promote domestic, often unfamiliar performers. The portals listed here either emphasise local performers or pay special attention to unknown domestic artists.
I make no promises about the quality of these sites, for three reasons:
- portals by their very nature change more than any other musical venue.
- their content is profoundly amateur(ish), and therefore – when very large – they tend to contain more than their fair share of nonsense.
- and, as a result of (or despite) that “viral” quality to their growth, portals lack all forms of editorial oversight. That’s awfully romantic, but very often it’s just awful.
Jungle Science
Good introduction to the importance of jungle, breaks, and trip-hop in Russia today.
SynClub
News and media from a wide range of electronic genres.
DrumandBass.ru
The most extensive portal dedicated to drum & bass. Hosted in St Petersburg.
Electro Kids
Although based in Belarus, this electronic portal/collaboration is widely respected and enjoyed inside Russia.
PromoDJ.ru
The largest and best-organized of the dance portals. Enormous collection of mixes, individual tracks and other media.
Zavodnoi apel’sin
“Clockwork Orange”; selected news from western sources, plus minimal selection of Russian mp3s from outside sites.
Midi.ru
Large amateur resource, with emphasis upon “bardic” performance and classical works.
DV Music
Possibly the best resource showcasing amateur performance from Vladivostok and other far eastern towns.
Kazantipa.net
Excellent resource dedicated to the annual Kazantip dance festival. Lots of mixes.
ChelMusic
Music from Cheliabinsk (in the Urals).
Tula Music
Music and other materials from Tula, not far to the south of Moscow.
Kursk Music
Music and concerts from the Kursk region.
Muz-Zone Iuga
Good introduction (with audio) to bands from southern Russia. Based in Krasnodar.
B.M.P.
Music and stories from the Barnaul region of southern Siberia.
Artekfakt
Large collection of amateur music, poetry, prose, photos, and drawings.
Nsk Music
Audio and articles on music from Novosibirsk.
Zvuk In
Music and local features from the Nizhnii Novogorod area.
Gosudarstvo “Detstvo”
Portal dedicated to the emergence of early commercial pop music (just before and) after the fall of the USSR in 1991.
Eat Me
National and international news items, but an mp3 rubric focuses upon Siberian bands.
Grammy.ru
Large selection of news items, together with extremely eclectic choice of albums. Tracks made available for download, albeit via dodgy-looking outside links.
Music.lib.ru
Absolutely enormous resource, but due to a laissez-faire stance from its editors, the portal has recently become a dumping-ground for artistically challenged rappers from the deep provinces.
MuzAll
Claiming itself to offer materials “without anything from the tabloids,” the site (though devoid of audio materials) is a good guide to the various clubs and venues of Moscow.
Melody.Ru
Unstable-looking portal that takes its users on increasingly suspicious journeys in search of mp3s.
Murman Music
Music and information regarding the local scene in Murmansk.
Galaxy Music
News, biographies, and a very meager selection of mp3s from Eurovision 2007. None of the materials are, apparently, original, being instead pasted together from other sites.
Diskobzor
A wide selection of CDs reviewed by volunteers, but submissions have fizzled out over the last two years.
Gromko
An ongoing source of news, though the mp3 selection appears to have been abandoned several years ago. Rather messy from an organizational standpoint, too.
Zvuki.ru
The granddaddy of them all, this portal – despite having relatively little audio material – is excellent from a textual/reference standpoint.
The Soviet Pop Song
A huge collection of Soviet pop songs, albeit on the free – and very slow – “narod” network, so don’t expect large downloads to happen quickly.
MUSIC LABELS
An ever-expanding list of Russian record labels and related activities. Some of these are labels in the traditional sense, others are clusters of creativity based around other types of creative presentation, such as concerts, festivals or work online.
Uplifto
Another offshoot of Rostov’s PPK, this company more than any other has promoted itself aggressively outside of traditional channels and/or hard media. Russia’s most vibrant online dance project.
Media Drive
Dance label equally involved in arranging major club events.
i-Records
Founded by one of Rostov’s trance duo PPK, this is a well-established and respected outlet for electronica.
Pitch Music
Elegant, thoughtful dance music for over a decade.
KDK Records
For over 10 years, one of the largest producers and distributors of dance music around north-western Russia.
Rave DJs
St Petersburg DJ school and affiliated production center.
USSR
“United Space Sound Records.” Techno, hip-hop, and progressive label, representing – among others – DJ List.
Tri goda garantii
“Three Years Guarantee,” a Podol’sk label for young hip-hop and rap performers.
Filtred Recordings
Moscow label for independent house recordings.
AIR
Officially a “studio of experimental video film,” but the collection of amateur and demo-stage audio is wide.
3P Beats
Downtempo, Trip-Hop, Nu Jazz & Abstract Hip-Hop label from St. Petersburg.
NOX Music
Major label with impressive roster of national stars, most famously Valeria (www.valeriya.net).
Ciatdel Records
Long-lived, intelligent label specializing in intricate, jazz-influenced electronica.
Misteriia zvuka
The label represents the work of approximately five rock groups, but plays a much greater role as an influential distributor.
Style Records
Moscow-based purveyor of mainstream, high-energy pop.
Habbal Gharmin Records
St Petersburg psychedelic label that, by its own admission, can afford to produce only one CD per year.
Old Skool Kids Records
Moscow punk and hard core.
Varum Recording Company
Music company founded by Iurii Varum, father (and long-time sponsor) of popular singer Anzhelika Varum (www.avarum.com).
Exotica
Although the label works with a rather eclectic collection of artists, its name is synonymous with the development of electronic music in the late ’90s from Izhevsk and other towns.
Pravitel’stvo zvuka
Aligned with Moscow’s “World Club Music,” the company boasts an enormous range of dance recordings.
WWW Records
Label formed in the late 90s by an ex-director at Soyuz, it today (most notably) is home to “Gosti iz budushchego.”
NYDO Djs
“Pumping” collaboration of electro and house DJs from Moscow: “Music you want to dance to.”
Hot Logic
Moscow hip-hop label, supporting independent artists since 1997.
Sketis Music
A label dedicated to modern interpretations of folk performance from European Russia and Siberia.
Drugaia muzyka
One of the most significant attempts to unify independent blues performers across Russia.
Acilot
St Petersburg label, home to some of the most critically acclaimed DJs from Russia, Ukraine and beyond.
Rodina Records
Label tied closely to FBI music, showing special interest in young performers connected in turn to TV talent shows.
Diamond Records
Wide-ranging dance label, hosting both western and Russian artists, including Russia’s most popular DJ, Rudyk.
Vyrgorod
Russian rock label very much with the intellectual concerns of late Soviet bands.
A-nik Records
Moscow hip-hop label, established in 2002.
Solnze
Widely-respected and well-known purveyor of electronica (with a sense of humor).
Torza
Siberian dance-label — the first!
RAP Recordz
One of the very first labels to develop Russian rap in the mid-90s.
MediaStar
As the company’s name suggests, MediaStar work with many TV-friendly bands, in particular St Petersburg’s “Otpetye moshenniki.”
Jam Group
An excellent example of a more conservative roster, which – as a result – is a better indicator of tastes outside the big cities (where most people live!).
Rock Derzhava
In their own words: “An international movement in support of young musicians” from lands all around the ex-USSR.
FeeLee
Having emerged from the collapse of Melodiya in the mid-’90s, this is one of the best examples of a label showcasing both old and new Russian rock.
Manchester
Saint Petersburg label, spanning great distances between independent music, world, jazz, and classical.
Bad Taste
The name says it all.
Irond
An enormously important player in the field of Russian heavy rock.
Universal
As Russian performers start to enjoy success overseas, major American players such as Universal have moved eastwards to meet them.
Real Records
One of the very largest producers of Russian pop music.
Melodiya
The classic Soviet record label, still in existence today, doing an admirable job of keeping their back-catalog alive in digital formats.
Grand Records
An extremely large catalog of materials, not only modern but stretching far into the past, also.
Monolit
Label based around Russia’s most influential producer, Maks Fadeev.
RuTV
A pop-up realtime player from music TV station RuTV.
Soviet Music
A really impressive (and constantly increasing) collection of Soviet songs, both archived and reinterpreted by today’s amateurs.
RMG
The massive media group that incorporates some of the nation’s best-known radio stations, a record label, national award ceremony, and other equally successful projects.
44100
Less of a label than an audio-textual resource for electronic music in Russia, “44100″ is an excellent place to acquaint oneself with the genre.
Soyuz
Although best known as Russia’s largest chain of record stores, “Soyuz” releases the recordings of several major artists.
Snegiri
Translatable as “Bullfinch Records,” this is one of the best labels in Russia today, specializing in gentle, witty, and often nostalgic soundscapes.
Fulldozer
“All independent music from industrial to experimental electronica.” Clearly an overstatement, but several interesting bands, nonetheless.
FBI Music
A record company with strong links to late-Soviet songwriters, it now invests heavily in TV-based talent shows.