- A Ukranian rap album from Donetsk and Kyiv that speaks to complicated notions of identity, love and more. All under crushing drum & bass beats.
- I love borsch. Traditionally, it’s made with beef or pork, lots of cabbage, other vegetables and beetroot—an ingredient that the Internet says is non-negotiable. But my grandma back in Donetsk doesn't use beetroot. She uses tomato paste to give the soup its bright red colour. Is the borsch I grew up eating not borsch?
Donetsk rapper АНтрацит_05 and Kyiv producer MDACTION knew that putting out an album in Russian in 2023 would raise eyebrows. On Громкая ненормальная музыка. Мол, у нее посуда дрожит (Loud abnormal music. Like, her plates are shaking), I hear a bird-mimicking sound similar to a traditional Ukrainian instrument sopilka. Artists have overused this instrument to an extent that it's become a brand of sterile Ukrainian-ness that has little to do with the real thing. On this album, the sopilka sound is used ironically—or maybe not—as a symbol of the country at war that is actively shaping its identity. This album of acerbic rap fits well with the experimental club music on the VOSTOK label, which brings together artists from Donbas. It echoes the eerie noise lullaby "Колискова для ворога" by Стасік, who fought in the war in Ukraine in 2014, and the screamo rap ballad "Пір'ячко, that Oi FUSK wrote after a near death experience in 2022.
The craziest thing about being alive, though, is that life goes on. On this album, АНтрацит_05 and MDACTION marry their angry industrial sound with sharp acid, distorted drum & bass and loved-up emo rap (kind of like what Polish rapper Mata did on his gut-wrenching trap single last year). The lo-fi sound and lyrical choices on "Разгружить" remind me of Valentin Strykalo, a 2010s satirical rock band that stood out for their romanticised yet blunt attitude. Since 2018, АНтрацит_05, who stays true to his Donestk homeland throughout his convincing UK grime-style discography, works with MDACTION, who blends experimental electronica, hip-hop and rock to crystallise Громкая Ненормальная Музыка into an alternative rap love letter to a space-time.
I first wrote this review in Russian, which I do sometimes. In 2020, I was sweating and talking to an artist from Lviv in Ukrainian. When I was 14, I had a pen pal from Ivano-Frankivsk and we each spoke in a language that we know best because even when I do, I still love borsch.
Tracklist01. Инъекц и я
02. Сделай назло
03. Знать и не сказать
04. Нечему удивляться
05. Шпионская №1
06. Ты зависим а
07. Разгружить