“Russia” (Used 26 times)

In 2010, the Error-Broadcast label joined forces with Siberian music blog Gimme5 to curate Fly Russia, a compilation featuring some of Russia's finest beatsmiths. Drawing inspiration from hip-hop, bass-heavy dubstep, and a full spectrum of headphone-pleasing electronic sounds, these artists are on to something big and this comp is a perfect introduction. Fly Russia has already inspired an in-depth Pitchfork feature with special guest mixes from the 8bit-infused Pixelord and 80s/punk-inspired DZA, and an LA Times profile.

One of my favorite artists from this compilation is Damscray, aka Albert Khasanov from Orenburg. Human Workshop first introduced us to Your Rainbow Color Changer, with its intoxicating grooves and Middle Eastern-inspired analogue sounds. But Damscray's been at it since age twelve, and he's a real chameleon, appearing as half of Demokracy, Planet Terror, and Original fools and evolving with every release. So far this year, Damscray's already released Make Me Juke, an EP of Chicago-style juke music on Pixelord's Hyperboloid label (Russia's own Hyperdub?), as well as the Blot Method EP on Gimme5's new imprint.

If you have yet to dig into the virtual crates of Error-Broadcast label, they've also released music by the likes of Shlohmo, Comfort Fit, and KenLo Craqnuques, along with brand new releases from Fly Russia's own Pixelord, DZA, and OL. There's also some nice overlap with the new Jumble branch of Russia's FUSElab -- check out their debut compilation here.

This winter has felt a bit like Siberia in WFMU's hometown of Jersey City, so it's the perfect time for what may be a New Jersey radio first: a twin bill of live sets by bands from Siberia, live on Transpacific Sound Paradise with Rob Weisberg this Saturday, January 22nd from 6-9PM.

Kicking things off is the first and still greatest traditional band from Tuva in southern Siberia, Huun Huur Tu. The tireless overtone-singing spike-fiddle-wielding marvels serenade us in-studio midway through a winter North American tour that includes a gig at Joe's Pub in NY on Saturday January 29.

Later in the show, Sibirskaya Vechora, an award-winning ensemble from the Krasnoyarsk region of central Siberia, steps up to the mics. The group, dedicated to researching and preserving regional traditions, performs traditional songs from Siberia and other parts of Russia.

In 2008, Sibirskaya Vechora carried out a cultural heritage research project titled 'Young Voices for Ancient Songs.' One of its results was the CD "Muziki, Viryazukhi Moi", which contains 13 songs recorded during ethnographic expeditions and performed by Sibirskaya Vechora. The album is available form the Free Music Archive, courtesy of Sibirskaya Vechora and CEC Arts Link.

Huun Huur Tu and Sibirskaya Vechora perform live on Transpacific Sound Paradise with Rob Weisberg this Saturday, January 22nd from 6-9PM, on WFMU 91.1 FM in the New York Metropolitan area and 90.1 in New York's Hudson Valley.

Fans of noise rock, experimental ruminations, epic weirdo jams, or Brooklyn's Oneida should check out the great Russian band Asian Women on the Telephone.

I've posted a few of my favorite AWOTT songs below, but to really do the band justice, you must check out their youtube videos. When the band performs live, they dress up like overgrown mutant arthropods.

Fire up your browser's Russian-to-English translator and get in on AWOTT's other web activity: podcast | blog. Band member Nikita runs a blog/distro, and possibly other great and mysterious operations from his home base in Moscow.

Greatest It -- the multi-netlabel collaborative greatest hits compilation to which Cock Rock Disco, Ego Twister, Peppermill, Proot, UpItUp and WM Recordings each contributed three tracks -- has garnered some nice mentions in The Guardian (alongside Notorious B.I.G.) and Rhizome (where UpItUp label-head Tracky Birthday was a former Fellow) along with countless more sites world wide. As it should!

But those 18 songs are just the tip of a massive net-audio iceberg that we're chiseling at (or swimming through?) every day to find the treasures buried within. There are 1,434 netlabels indexed by the Internet Archive's collection, and countless more still hiding out there somewhere online. Many of these netlabels are both well-curated and astoundingly prolific, like the mighty Clinical Archives -- now on its 372nd release.

<-- a cool track off WM022 (pictured above)

WM Recordings -- the most prolific of the aforementioned six -- is currently at WM107 with the NetLabel Coalition's debut compilation (which is itself a very cool release/project, worthy of its own post). WM Recordings was started in 2004 by Marko Kalnenek, who was an active contributor to the pioneering Comfort Stand netlabel, and also runs Weirdo Music and Balkan Brass World.

When a label's this prolific, sometimes it takes a great DJ to really highlight the music within its proper context. Someone like Charlie Lewis, who used to host Monday mornings on WFMU, and is still doing radio up in Vermont at WVEW-LPFM. He's posting downloads for his show, titled Busy Doing Nothing, and it's been nice to hear Charlie drawing some pod-safe material from the FMA, especially since he was also active in the netlabel scene as part of Comfort Stand. And after hearing him contextualize this Cream-inspired Nambavan jam in the midst of a freeform radio show, I logged in to the FMA and hit the star-shaped "Fan" button on Nambavan's FMA profile.

Nambavan hails from the Russian republic of Tatarstan, and the above two tracks can be found on his album Chechnya on a Dance Floor. The album is technically "Part 1", cuz there's also this Part 2 nonstop mixtape of instrumental jams.

"Liver", a track off of Sex Drugs and Russian Girls, also appeard on the WM Recordings split w/ Rallehand Records. And "You Should Be Dancing Dub" is a track off the much more experimental and glitchy Last Night the DJ Shaved My Ass.