Fleur. Vsio vyshlo iz-pod kontrolja. /digi-pack/. (Everything Went Out Of Control) // www.UMKA.com.ua

Let's begin with the two colors of the envelope. The graphics, the black-and-white photo are separate aesthetics, a specific perception of space, its refined amplification. Moreover, it is a sort of responsibility. Here, even a fault must be, if I dare, faultless. Because both the artist, and his/her art appear practically naked, without ornaments, without compromises, without the opportunity to hide. In modern music, the closest analogue is unplugged, acoustic performance. "Flёur" with their new album make today a step forward in this direction, at that, not in the usual, but in a remarkable way. On the one hand, on this record the group for the first time goes in for serious experiments with the sound, and here acoustic is only the foundation. On it, they build several... I don’t know. Here are enchiladas of the Gothic mood, trip-hop elevator shafts, roofless roofs of trance gleams, light art-rock curtains - and there are windows, through which the pure sun in the west may see itself in the east. And on the other hand, in my opinion, the black-and-white aesthetics of the music are virtually faultless. The criteria are very simple. If only in due course you notice that a picture is not colored, it means that it is real, it has gone beyond the limits of habitual perception. Ascetic beauty, refinement of nuances, rich shades that allowed, for example, Japanese haiku’s taking their place at the top of human poetics – they are also present in the music of the new album "Flёur". If I were a Japanese, I would be able to limit myself to two words – sated simplicity. If I were... However, there exist alternative options. For example, the Kyiv group Ivan Samshit, which I already mentioned in the context of the disc "Olya & Monster". This is another look at the same beauty – and somewhere in night mists these looks may even intersect by chance, they may fail to recognize each other and pass by. Still, this can be noticed only by those who see the both of them simultaneously...

Anton Jozhik Leyba (Hedgehog)

All songs are in Russian.

Ti, Khto Vidayut. Movlennyek. (collection edition). /digi-pack/.

On the one hand – Mokh (Oleg Hnativ) has read authentic magic Huzul texts, sayings against evil forces. And their power can hardly be ignored. On the other hand – Kuzya (Serhiy Kuzminsky) created the music component and provided the entire material with that very specific sound that brings the album to some other orbit...

Domestic price: 85.14UAH, International price: $18.92USD

DOK. DVA. /digi-pack/.

"Brutal pop power" – so they call it. But there is a great temptation to also add other words: post-rock plus acoustic acid jazz with trip hop education – something like this, probably. However, all these names do not contradict each other – because music like this as it is means going beyond the limits of specific style...

Domestic price: 58.14UAH, International price: $12.92USD

Mamanet. Ki-Mono.

Festivals of electronic music, jazz, rock – everywhere this group feels comfortable, and now it is even testing its ability to create music for films. Mamanet offers to the audience an intellectually energetic, strangely bewitching mixture of trip-hop, acid-jazz, post-rock, drum'n'bass and even disco – it is far not possible to define the group's art with some concrete word.

Domestic price: ~~58.14UAH~~ 46.53UAH
International price: ~~$12.92USD~~ $10.34USD

NimB. NimB.

Atmospheric guitars, the melodiousness of the bass, separate patterns of the percussion against the background of the not always unambiguous main rhythms – and the interwoven braids of the characteristic, emotional vocal by Olena Sas, crystal-clean and warm at the same time. It might seem that everything is simple – but this is sort of correct, saturated simplicity that makes it transparent and soft inside..

Domestic price: ~~49.14UAH~~ 27.04UAH
International price: ~~$10.92USD~~ $6.01USD