Far From Moscow about Crispo and Unbroken Dub
Originally published at Electronica. You can comment here or there.
The Moscow label Electronica just announced a couple of new publications, namely from Unbroken Dub and Crispo. The founder and owner of Electronica, Sasha Khizhnyakov, is himself originally from Irkutsk, so it’s nice to see a fellow Siberian ushered into the limelight. More specifically, behind the character of Unbroken Dub we find Denis Safiullin, who comes from Tyumen, Siberia’s oldest city. His newest output, shown above, is a three-track «Rain EP,» including a remix by Moscow’s Tim Aminov, well known to this site. These atmospheric compositions, opening with the gorgeous sound of a rainy expanse, have come to us from very far away. The simple fact that Tyumen developed as a trading post between Russia and China gives some indication of the distances involved. Until the end of the nineteenth century, in fact, this was also the end of railways running eastwards - the very edge of Russia, in many minds. The end of the line.
Unbroken Dub
It takes no great effort to imagine what kind of romantic, occasionally worrying associations surround the cold streets of Tyumen. It’s a most fitting address and context both for Safiullin’s stage-name and the tech-house material that has been celebrated on Soundcloud as «Russian Detroit» or «Russia meets Chicago.»
During the horrors of WWII, for example, a large number of factories were evacuated here, together with countless wounded soldiers, earning Tyumen the nickname of «hospital city» in the process. This location, in other words, is sufficiently far from Moscow to hide anything. The same aura or appeal of frozen distance and safe noiselessness pervades Safiullin’s catalog; even his promotional images have an air of calm. Pomp and circumstance are nowhere to be seen. Working nowadays primarily in the fields of dub- and minimal techno, he develops an aesthetic born of removal and subtraction - yet not in any sense of loss.
Not long ago, Safiullin (who also performs under the name of Fish Brain) told the Siberian press how and where he records much of his discography. That information becomes an indicator of his general retreat from noisy, public spaces: «I often compose on Saturday evenings, sitting in a comfortable armchair. That’s the time when most partygoers in Tyumen are methodically getting hammered - prior to hitting the club scene…» This hushed, yet confident air of reduction is clearer still on one of his social networking venues, where Safiullin declares his favorite - and suitably brief - quote to be: «Nothing Is Everything.»
Against that backdrop, Mr. Safiullin’s Twitter account gives a brief insight into the pace of life in Siberia. Four typical tweets would be: «The weather’s bad today - and so is my mood»; «I feel like going for a drive somewhere»; «A bitter-sweet sauce made from poppy seeds goes well with ravioli»; and - on the least consequential level of all - «I should probably leave a morning tweet. Here it is.»
A similar interface of distance, echo, and history accompanies the other Electronica release, specifically from Crispo (aka Denis Sokolov) who’s based in Yaroslavl. Mr. Khizhnyakov tells us - in a single sentence of PR - about the recording’s «freshness and atmosphere,» but where are these sounds created? Yaroslavl is approximately 160 miles from the capital; it grew on the remains of Viking camps that date back to the eighth century. In fact, Yaroslavl is now a World Heritage site. Surrounded by the hushed majesty of ancient Russian churches, the contours of Crispo’s previous recording (Last Night Flavor) were explicitly designed to create a «pleasant atmosphere, rich with appealing vocal samples. (There are quite a few of them!) It’s all combined with an unhurried garage rhythm and a minimalist aesthetic.»
Crispo
Deceleration and solitude - made possible both by distance and history’s quiet streets - therefore inform the new publications by Crispo and Unbroken Dub. Once again, as with the fan-base in Tyumen, Soundcloud offers us a snapshot of the specific terminology used to express approval in Yaroslavl. Together with some predictable descriptions of Crispo’s sound as «Burial-esque,» there’s an interweaving of two opposing viewpoints. Expressions of enthusiasm often coincide with an admission that Crispo’s soundscape is equally appealing and unnerving. The allure of audible emptiness is something that also unnerves. «I love everything about this - the dark atmosphere, the percussion, and the typical future-garage vocals. Great work»; «A lovely atmosphere - I’m loving the sparse swing on the percussion…»
Text by David MacFadyen, Professor and Chair of the Department of Slavic Languages and Literature at the University of California, Los Angeles, has created the only English-language site dedicated to new music from Russia.