As a child, I listened to various music, and my older brother influenced my playlist today. It was he and his friends who brought us CDs with various groups, clips, albums and I, in the company of my brother’s friends, listened to this music. When I got older. Of course, my preferences became more specific. But I still liked something from my childhood, my brother and I then went to concerts of those groups that listened in childhood.
So I would like to talk about 5 groups of Russian rock that I listened to as a child, it will be interesting.
1 Group
The very first group I always remember from my childhood is the King and the Jester. A brief history of the group: “King and the Jester” (abbreviated as “KiSh”) is a Russian horror punk band from St. Petersburg.
The group was formed in Leningrad in 1988. After the death of its leader and one of the founders of Mikhail Gorshenev on July 19, 2013, he performs only in the rock musical TODD.
It stands out for its unusual style for classic punk rock. The songs of the group are small finished stories, often in a fantasy, mystical, as well as historical way. The stage image of the group constantly changed and often included makeup corresponding to the theme of the songs. In the press, the group was repeatedly designated as “cult.”
Initially, the rhythmic horror punk prevailing in the musical component eventually went beyond the boundaries of the style and incorporated many musical elements: folk rock (“Acoustic Album”), art punk (“Demon Theater”), hardcore punk (“Riot on the Ship”), hard rock (“Like in an old fairy tale”) and many others. At an early stage, The Beatles had a strong influence on the group.
I liked their energetic sound, the text in the way of terrible tales, like the original tales of the Grimm brothers. Especially I remember. How the whole company of their brother sang their songs with loud voices and it was so cool) Later, when the KiSh group broke up, one of the main members of the Andrei Knyazev group, the King and the Jester, created his new musical group. She has the name “Knyazz” and it retains the theme of the King’s songs and the jester, this energy of music and vocals. So the legacy of the “King and the Jester” still lives.
2 Group
The next group is a little similar to the theme of the lyrics. This group also has lyrics related to the themes of fairy tales, myths and legends, as well as folklore of various peoples.
Mill is a Russian folk rock band from Moscow. It was founded on October 15, 1999 by the musicians of the disbanded group “Til Uhlenspigel.” Vocalist, harpist and main songwriter – Helavisa (Natalya Andreevna O’Shay).
Seven full-length albums created a truly unique phenomenon in folk music and in the domestic music industry as a whole.
The journey from tiny clubs to huge stadiums took ten years – there were radical changes in composition, triumphs on the radio, recognition of the public and a huge number of live concerts. The group managed not only to change the attitude of the audience to folk, but also to make this genre as popular as we see it in Russia today.
It is customary to call the work of the Mill folk rock, but this is a very wide definition. On the albums you can hear chamber harp plays, and large-scale rock canvases, and jazz notes, and direct bits from good pop music. Musicians do not consider it necessary to limit their work to genre frames and direct references – it seems that the concept of “Mill-Style” can be introduced for a long time.
“Mill” takes exactly the melody with folklore, these are lyrical motifs and fabulous text are well connected with the melody of the guitar and harp. Sometimes I just wanted to be in the forest and listen to the songs of this group and feel in a fairy tale. What else is remarkable about this group, so that it is one of the first groups that began to play in the genre of folklore rock. So listen to the advice!
3 Group
Now I’ll tell you about another group.
Beasts is a Russian pop rock band created by Roman Bilyk in 2001. Winner of the MTV Russia Prize and the Debut Prize. At the Muz-TV awards, the group won the nomination “Best Rock Band” 9 times. The Beasts group was created in 2000 by Roman Bilyk, known under the pseudonym Roma Beast. The producer was composer Alexander Voitinsky, who had previously collaborated with the producer of the Tatu group Ivan Shapovalov. They recruited musicians of the group through ads on the Internet. In 2001, the group released the video “For You.” In 2002, a video was released for the song “Just Such Strong Love.” The videos were followed by the debut album “Hunger.” Songs from this album “Rain Pistols,” “Ring,” “For You,” “Just Such Strong Love” were successful in the Chart Dozen charts. In the same year, the group first performed at the Invasion festival.
In February 2004, the group released their second album, Neighborhoods, which was a breakthrough for her to fame. A number of video clips are broadcast by Muz-TV and MTV Russia: “Everything that concerns,” “Drinks are stronger,” “South Night.” The album is followed by a concert tour of Russia and the CIS, lasting almost two years.
This is a little information about the group, how to me these awards were deserved, since this group is very emotional, very suitable for young people of that time and everyone was very quickly remembered. So for once listen to them and I’m sure something she’ll hook you up with.
4 Group
Now let’s talk about one of the oldest groups, this article is the Agatha-Christie group.
Agatha Christie is a Soviet and Russian rock band, one of the most popular in the country in the mid and second half of the 1990s. It was founded in 1985 in Sverdlovsk by Vadim Samoilov, Alexander Kozlov and Peter May under the name VIA RTF UPI, and officially the history of the group is counted from the concert on February 20, 1988. During the recording of the album “Second Front” in early that year, the younger brother Vadim Gleb joined the group. Subsequently, the composition of the group changed several times, but the Samoilov brothers invariably remained its leaders and vocalists. They, together with Alexander Kozlov, are the authors of all the songs “Agatha Christie.”
The work of the group is heterogeneous and intersects with many areas of rock music – gothic rock, post-punk, alternative rock, psychedelic rock, glam rock, art rock, hard rock and others.
The most famous songs of the group include such compositions as “Viva Kalman!,” “How to War,” “Hysteria,” “Opium for No One,” “Fabulous Taiga,” “Black Moon,” “Sailor,” “Carpet-Helicopter” and “Secret.”
The group has ten studio albums, five collections, two albums with remixes, three maxi-singles, eighteen videos. In 2009, the musicians announced the termination of the existence of the group and went on a final tour of Russia and neighboring countries. By the summer of 2010, the last album of the group was recorded – “Epilogue,” and also a point was made in the tour of the same name – the group played a farewell concert at the festival “Invasion.”
After the collapse of Agatha Christie, Gleb Samoilov, together with keyboardist Konstantin Bekrev and drummer Dmitry Khakimov, who played in Agate since 2008, created the group Gleb Samoiloff & The Matrix (later simply The Matrix).
The name that glorified the group appeared in 1987. Since none of the band members could come up with any original names, Vadim Samoilov suggested naming it in honor of Jacques-Yves Cousteau, whose fan he was then, but his idea was not supported. When it came to using the name of another famous person, Alexander Kozlov proposed the English writer Agatha Christie despite the fact that he never loved her detective novels. One of the motives for this name, perhaps, was that its initials – A.K. – coincided with his own.
We liked this group with its unusual lyrics, sound and the way the video series was shown in their clips. One can consider “Agathu-Christie” to be a kind of weirdo who differs from others. My favorite songs are “Secret” and “Like in the War.”
5 Group
And the last group for today is Bi-2.
Bi-2 is a Soviet, then Belarusian rock band, formed in 1988 in Bobruisk. The founders and permanent members are Shura Bi-2 (guitar, vocals) and Leva Bi-2 (main vocals). The team in 2021 also includes Andrei Zvolov (guitar), Max Lakmus (bass), Boris Lifshits (drums, percussion) and Jan Nikolenko (backing vocals, keyboards, flute, percussion).
In September 1999, Leva and Shura came to Russia to consolidate the virtual success of Bi-2. However, despite the fame of the songs, the group for a long time fails to conclude a contract for the release of the album. In addition, the Australian composition of Bi-2 could not come to Russia, so Shura and Leva had to look for musicians in Moscow. Alexander “Heap” Ponomarev, who also worked with the Spleen group, took up the promotion of Bi-2.
Leva Bi-2: “We did acoustic concerts, and then held a wise action: we pulled journalists to the cottage, sang our songs to them under vodka and barbecue, and people drew attention to us. They began to look for musicians here. Bass player Vadim Ermolov was lured from the Zhuki group, in addition, drummer Grigory Gaberman (he worked with Kvartal) and keyboardist Nikolai Plyavin joined us. They learned the material recorded on the record, of course, contributing a lot of their own to it. ”
The first major performance of Bi-2 in the new composition took place on December 10, 1999 – at the very first festival “Invasion,” held in the recreation center of Gorbunov. The first appearance of the group on TV took place in February next year on the live broadcast of Dmitry Dibrov’s Anthropology.
Filming for the film “Brother 2,” 1999
In 2000, Bi-2 took part in the creation of the soundtrack for Alexei Balabanov’s film “Brother-2” and starred in this film (as themselves). The song “Nobody writes to the Colonel,” sounded in this blockbuster, instantly becomes a hit and still remains one of the main compositions of the group.
After the release of the video “Barbara” and the radio single “No one will come” Bi-2 April 13, 2000 sign a contract with Sony Music Entertainment Russia. As a result, on May 20, 2000, Sony released on the Russian market the record recorded by the group back in Australia “And the ship sails…,” but with a different order of tracks, a different design and a new name – “Bi-2.”
The group “Bi-2” still lives and so far it writes some of the most cool sounding songs from Russian rock. Their melodies are very unusual for sound, because the soloist puts emphasis on how he wants, and always sings in different ways. So each song will have a different sound, but similar motives will hint to you that the same group sings. Separately, you need to mention how their songs sound with the symphony orchestra, the guys just watch the video and listen.
I told you a little about which groups have influenced my musical tastes since my childhood. Of course, things change over time. But everyone sometimes hears a melody from his childhood and recalls it with nostalgia. I touched only Russian rock, on the account of a foreign I will tell you later)
A horror game that is addictive with its psychological plot, but its music is just awesome. I like it so much, but I can tell you that at first you will think that it is not for this game. But I can assure you, this music creates a much greater contrast between the soundtrack of the game and the game itself. The music will soothe you, and at the same time, stress you out. And what will happen in the game will scare you even more. Just listen to the motifs of the game)
