New single from Karaoke Tundra is here. This time pretty stoned tune along with remixes from craziest producers out there. Proper music. Have a nice day!
Planet Svetlana - proudly based in Belgrade - is back with a storming free release, a reworking of her third release Diablo Riddim by Piece of Shh… The remixing duties have been handed to Slovenian, UK-based producer Nightwave (aka 8bitch), Hungarian honchos Headshotboyz and Bunny on Acid.
Get the bass-heavy release here. And watch this space for more on Svetlana and other Serbian musical offerings, as we’re in the midst of cutting and splicing our recordings from our Balkan expedition for Resonance FM.
Even though the Baltics were originally not on our sonic map, nevertheless, what wasn’t, can be, no?:) Estonian musician Maria Minerva (or Maria Juur) resides in London, but as the title of her new tape - Tallinn At Dawn which is out on Not Not Fun label -suggests she still has a thing for her home country. Expect ethereal echo-laden vocals, dreamy soundscapes, catchy synthlines.. Aside from the NNF staple, she also has a release - Disco Bliss - on 100% Silk, Amanda Brown’s (aka LA Vampires) imprint.
Silviu Badea aka Montgomery Clunk is a Romanian beatmaker who arose from the Bucharest scene. With releases on Error Broadcast and the Russian hub Gimme5, the future looks bright for the 22-year old producer. What’s more, Monty will also play at our showcase at this year’s Sperm Festival in Prague on 24 April, only few days after his live PA at the Bucharest Rokolectiv festival. Watch this space (and check out the interview:) How and when did you start producing music? Cant remember right, had many attempts, starting from 2004 or something. Effective…around 2007, a dear friend pushed me from behind, so here I am. Clunk came alive last year.
What is it in music that you try to find and express? This is tough to answer…I try to blend couch and dancefloor maybe? I hope I can make others smile…no laughs, just to smile a bit in the end.
How is it to do your stuff in Bucharest, is there a community of like-minded musicians as such? What about whole Romania ? There is a community, I guess…I’m not part of it whatsoever because I spend my time in the bedroom. However there are some good artists in Romania…I can mention Cosmin TRG, Minus, Liar, Mountain, Discordless, Parachute Pulse and this Fanas guy. There are also a couple of metal bands that I love but I’m sure you’re not interested in those so i will only mention asiluum.com.
You have a few releases out, such as on Error Broadcast, could you say something about them? I only have a single release out as Clunk, on Error Broadcast. More to come. Sven and Flip from EB are two great guys that know their place. Made me feel like home, gave me musical and visual freedom…there’s nothing but good things to say about them and the label. I’ll spend some time there.
How do you perceive your cooperation with Gimme5 and the musicians around the website/label ? With Gimme5…there’s this hidden respect we carry. They helped a lot. I released my 1st track on their site. It’s the proof that Russia does it’s own moves, musicwise. They are also dear to me! There’s a couple of things I like there like Demokracy, Dza, Lapti, Moa Pillar…theres this Russian guy 404, there’s Aleph, Damscray, 813 and a couple more. Respect and all that.
How do you make your music and how do you play live? How do I do it…it’s not a process yet…my songs are pretty different…I use my pc and a two midi controllers. I tend to see this question more and more…I won’t give you a full answer to this, I hope you understand. It’s not a big deal, I just do stuff, the way I do it, it’s not rocket science, I keep it simple most of the time. About the gigs…I use the apc20 from akai and a laptop at this point. Things will change probably, who knows.
What are your plans? Got no plans, there’s no need for such things in my universe. I try to make the best with what I got, every single time. Hope you’ll smile.
Just as we delved into editing our Serbian audio material for the luverly Resonance FM, recollecting (at least aurally) our visit there in September 2010, the news about the demise of its digital arts festival Dispatch has hit the Facebook. In September, after having talked to the festival organizer Relja, there was no traces about the impending news. Dispatchers also do other projects, such as the Serbian-US music-tour ViceVerse, a radio show on Belgrade’s B92 radio, etc. The reason for the end of the festival is pragmatic - $$$.
“The (non)financing of the event in the last two years, as well as the paradox that this was the period in which the Dis-patch production has demonstrated strong capacity and potential with no feedback whatsoever, are just some of the reasons which added up to the decision of closing the festival down. For example, in 2009 Dis-patch has realized 45 different programs - most of them self-financed or with absolutely no official support - which goes way beyond the annual output of most of the Serbian cultural centers. The festival was “awarded” for these efforts by the rejection of all of its projects at the next Ministry of Culture open call for projects. In the context of the more recent political reality of Serbia, the even more recent senseless government “reconstruction” and the general social-political climate, there is too little hope that initiatives like this one can survive on any kind of “healthy roots”. Obviously even more so if they are aspiring to high professional and artistic values and standards. All of these facts combined are making the efforts around developing, or mere maintenance of such an event in Belgrade completely futile.”
