Gagarin Grooves: Ethno

Like knocking down frozen icicles from radio antennas, Groovalizacion.com is shaking up the Russian airwaves. Slava, a Muscovite and Dasha, who has a Serbian and Cuban background, broadcast combination of the most interesting Russian music –– as contradictory and different as the country itself. From Mongolian jazz to taiga techno, from Moscow electronica to Kamchatka tango, it’s still all Russia.

While Moscow is still waiting for real winter to set in, it takes just a few hours at 0° C for the newly fallen snow to melt. In times of old, however, the country would already be freezing in December. It was precisely during this period that many of what later became “folk” songs were composed, as girls gathered together to while away the long evenings spinning and singing. In the 21st century, girls can no longer spin but they still can sing just as well. Today, Russian folk music is mixed more and more with contemporary tunes in modern rock, reggae and hip-hop arrangements.

Playlist:

Zventa Sventana - Poshla Mlada
Akana-NHS - Szyadzmo mamko
Iva Nova - Vedma
Ivan Kupala - Yascher
Iva Nova - Vdol po ulitce metelica metyot
Pelageya - Kogda mi bili na voine
Pelageya - Valenki
Baba Yaga - Back in the USSR
Akana-NHS - Zhyto polevoe
Evgueni Lebedev - Venok

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