Welly, welly, well! I’ve just parachuted out of my awesome Bassadelic 747 to touch BASS in Saint-Petersburg, where an artist by the name of Raumskaya is killing the dancefloor with his awesomely-catchy strain of juke music.

Yes, footwork and juke music have gotten to Eastern Europe, and yet there are a number of Americans who STILL don’t know what it is. But that’s ok, that’s always how it is. Honestly, I have friends back in Michigan who have no idea what trap music is. Ah well. The point is, the high tempo has been sweeping across the GLOBE in the last few years, and it’s interesting to see how different cultures interpret a musical language in slightly different ways.

Here’s another one by Raumskaya, featuring samples of a Russian musician, Mihey, called ‘Suka Ljubov (Tribute to Mihey).’ It has a certain melodic angling that I don’t hear as often in Western music, and it also jukes out pretty damn well, too. It fits in anywhere footwork and uptempo dance music is played.

Then, there’s Pixelord. Though Pixelord spans the gambit of electronic music, from colorful 2-step to wonky 8-bit dancefloor symphonies, he is also on a new compilation of juke producers from Russia, with a Gucci Mane mashup with arpeggiated 8-bit-sounding notes of raw and fast color. The kind of colorful notes that you don’t even have to have synethsesia or be on LSD to appreciate. SAFE’N’SOUND vol​.​1 is the name of this release, by the North-West Community. Actually, Raumskaya, whom I just mentioned a bit earlier, is on this release as well. It’s a… TWENTY-NINE-SONG-COMPILATION – and it’s also FREE, somehow!! They have some bonus material, too; like a limited edition CD, but that one’s sold out, unfortunately.

Hey, since I’ve already mentoned Raumskaya twice, here’s ANOTHER release he’s involved with; a compilation by the Russian Ghetto Community. It’s called, simply, ‘Russian Ghetto Compilation, Vol. 1,’ it’s 22 tracks (with artists such as Gillepsy, OL, Tronical, Malefique, Lokiboi, Munguugnum, Mihey, Spaceman, Sofia Rotaru, DJ Ramzan, and DJ Lishniy, among others) it’s only seven bucks, and they had this to say about it:

Appealing to Russian pop-heritage of the 90s always seemed to be ambiguous. One could laugh, one could seriously call it “reincarnation”. But obviously no one could deny,
that this tendency reached everyone who loves underground electronic music in Russia.

Russian Ghetto Compilation Vol.1 is a reflection of this tendency. We gathered 20 tracks from different producers all over the country in order to redefine forgotten pop melodies from the past and give them a new life by means of ghetto music.

Берёза (Beryoza) who apparently started and helped organize the Russian Ghetto Community, put a mixtape out; and what’s better than a mixtape? Nothing, if you ask me. So, here you go:

And yes, there’s a free download of that one.

So, it appears as though juke and footwork music have begun to transcend international borders (well, THAT already happened when it went East and West to London and Tokyo) but now it’s in Eastern Europe. Good! Now, I know what your next question is…

You’re thinking, StrangeFlow, or 5ifty$ix K, or Will, or whatever the fuck your goddamn stupid name is – who was your tour guide, in all this? Surely you didn’t just land in St. Petersburg by yourself, and explore dance club after dance club for months on end, with only a few dollars and a bagel in your pocket, hoping that you might find the new sound of Russia?

Yes, you got it; that’s precisely what happened.

No, actually, my tour guide in all this was a dude named BEARDUS! He’s a talented motherfucker, capable in the many realms of footwork (as well as FOOTWORK JUNGLE!!!!) and whilst I petition him to be on my own footwork jungle label (‘Dynasty Shit,’ of course!) he was kind enough to give me the heads up on some talented musicians in the scene…

I dropped in on him during his live set, which is called, ‘Beardus special for ƒ⊗⊗✞ωσяк נ∇ηgℓє.’ And, well, Beardus, I’m sorry that when I drifted down out of the sky, I landed smack dab in the middle of your mixin’ table, my parachute knocking over your turntables and smashing several of your rarest records. That was straight up RUDE of me, and I hope you’ll forgive me. But anyway, here’s the mix he was playing, for ƒ⊗⊗✞ωσяк נ∇ηgℓє:

I told Beardus I wasn’t able, during my travels, to buy him a new set of turntables, but instead saying that, “I’d be glad to buy you a drink of vodka – perhaps that will make up for it?”
He looked a bit displeased, but he understood it was all an accident.
So, we sat and had a drink, and I asked him about the electronic music scene in Russia, to which he responded, “So, today, Russian bass n beats scene has a lot of talented musicians,” as he explained, he pulled out a sheet of paper – twas a list of artists to check out, and I will let you in on the contents of that sheet of paper, now:

Raumskaya
Pixelord
✿ DZA ✿
BMB
Eight One Three
Aleph ܐ
Damscray
OL

So, THANKS AGAIN, Beardus, for enlightening me about the music scene in Russia. Super glad to see so much juke coming out from Russia!

Signing out!

-Will