ODDZIAŁ ZAMKNIĘTY - "REDA BY NIGHT" (1985)

"Reda by Night" is the second album released by Oddział Zamknięty. It contains some wonderful songs ("Horror", "Pokusy", "To tylko pech") and the formula is more peculiar than ever, mixing glam and blues, new wave and punk, hard rock and acoustic guitars.

It sold 60.000 copies at the time, marking a strong decline of popularity, if you consider that their debut was the Polish best seller of 1984. The subsequent crisis lasted many years and the band was never able to regain its magic moment. 

P.S. I've added two important bonus tracks: "Świat rad", released as a single in 1983, and "Oddział". The latter is a cover of Tom Robinson's hit "2-4-6-8 Motorway". Originally recorded in 1984, it made its first appearance on the movie "Miłość z listy przebojów", released one year later.

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PROMYSHLENNAYA ARKHITEKTURA - "LYUBOV' I TEKHNOLOGIYA" (1988)

Original title: Любовь и технология
Band: Промышленная архитектура

Promyshlennaya Arkhitektura was the music project of Dmitry Selivanov, one of the cult figures of the Siberian underground scene. 
Selivanov was a charismatic singer and a self-taught guitar player. His style was technically raw but quite creative, a mix of power chords and radical improvisation.

Apart from some collaborations with Yegor Letov, this is Selivanov's sole album, as he committed suicide one year after it was released. Sharp post-punk sounds, low fidelity production, toy keyboards, and a bunch of grotesque lyrics sung in the most theatrical way possible. That's all these nine songs needed.

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APRELSKIY MARSH - "MUZYKA DLYA DETEY I INVALIDOV" (1987)

Original title: Музыка для детей и инвалидов

Band: Апрельский марш

Aprelskiy Marsh were one of the many cult bands from the Yekaterinburg rock scene. The project gravitated around two members, keyboard player Igor Grishenkov and poet Yevgeny Kormiltsev.

They tried to record a first album in 1986, but the sound quality was so poor that they didn't have the courage to release it at the time. On the contrary, they were lucky enough to gain access to a professional television studio in 1987, where this second studio effort was produced, with satisfying results. 

Distributed by the band itself at their gigs, the album was a new wave gem, with synthesized sounds, post-punk rhythms, effected guitars, and some striking, threatrical vocal performances by Mikhail Simakov, Natalya Romanova, and Grishenkov himself. The lyrics are strong collages which involve sex, politics, social commentary, and poetry. 

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MUMIY TROLL - "MORSKAYA" (1997)

Original band name: Мумий Тролль
Original album title: Морская

"Morskaya" was not only the best selling Russian rock album of 1997, with over one million copies in seven months, but also one of the most critically acclaimed local albums .

Composed by singer Ilya Lagutenko and arranged by multi-instrumentalist Albert Krasnov, these ten songs represent a great answer to the contemporary brit-pop scene. While you can certainly hear the influence of bands such as Blur and Supergrass, the band doesn't hide the Russian background, generating tunes that will stuck in your head after a few listens.

DOWNLOAD (kbps: 320)