Soviet Doomer music

Books, comics, TV, music
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In case this is to the taste of anyone here, I have been enjoying a lot of Soviet Doomer music lately which reminds me a lot of early post-punk and scratches that itch for more Joy Division but I don’t have to listen to Isolation for the 300th time. It can be a bit derivative—ok a lot—but if you want to know what Robert Smith and Ian Curtis would have written together after getting back from a Death Cab for Cutie concert, go to YouTube and just search for “Soviet Doomer mix.” There is a guy named Truckfighter (possibly his real name) who posts a bunch of mixes of varying quality but which usually have several gems. There is a band from Belarus called Molchat Doma that became a TikTok sensation, but some of the best stuff is on YouTube pages with a few thousand views. I was listening to this:

https://youtu.be/emt8guN4Ca4

and found this, which I thought was pretty good

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MnNXUlkUptY

Guy is apparently from Kazakhstan.

Then I found this one, from Ukraine:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0up2jR1MhKk

I wish I could send this guy a few hundred bucks and say keep it up.

Then of course there is Molchat Doma:

I think I’m going to try to go to the Molchat Doma show in Portland so I can be twice as old as the next oldest person there.

It helps if you know Russian, but don’t let that stop you.

2

I’ll admit my own personal expectations were thrown off by the title. Bruce listening to Soviet Doom metal? An unexpected turn! Instead Soviet Doomer is more like darkwave, which is fully a me/ my expectations problem.

Heh, which is a totally valid thing. New takes on existing sounds, especially from different cultures/ countries are always interesting. That last Molchat Doma song could have been performed by The Cure, if only they spoke Russian.

I mean given that I listen to bands singing in numerous languages I don’t speak, ranging from Japanese, t Mongolian, to Uzbek, to Faroese it’s never stopped me before ;)

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Yeah I have a few Russian post-punk artists in my Post-Punk playlist, suprised you didn’t list Ploho though as they seem the biggest.

Tangentially related I went down an Italian Post-Punk rabit hole a few years ago

6

There’s something wonderful about former Soviet countries turning their grief into music.

When life gives you a history of suffering and disappointment, start a post-punk band.

7

You guys probably know this song.

https://youtu.be/j3JbdzMzh2E?t=4899