I can say with some certainty that I went for this mix as much for the images as the vibe. It’s artful in every sense of the word, and it’s not a word to be taken lightly. Everyone wants to be described as artful, or to do things artfully, but what we end up with is one cliche after another. Maybe this is cliche also, in some post-Soviet, Eastern bloc sense and it’s just too unfamiliar to me to come off that way. I’m going in though.

I’m going in.

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So what is the mix? It’s not at all Sovietwave. It’s mostly what falls under the post-Soviet/post-Punk category, melodic and melancholic. The Children of Joy Division, as it were. Ian Curtis would most likely be mortified by that, but not to be too dark, he was mortified by most things or he’d most likely still be around. They fall in the same vein as Velvet Underground, around for a minute but still echoing around the world. You get what you get. Fame and/or notoriety may be hard to handle but if you don’t want it, keep quiet. I was watching a music documentary last night, about the Seattle music scene, or grunge, Kim Thayil from Soundgarden was talking about the curse of becoming famous and something to the effect of, “I’d like to do away with all that and just keep the money.”

Freedom is one of those odd words where the definition is really entirely dependent on context. I mean, poverty is its own prison in many respects and when you’re poor you spend most of your time thinking of all the things you might do if you only had the freedom of movement that comes with wealth and fame. Being nobody is its own prison. Then you look at the people who have everything you’ve ever wanted and they’re fucking miserable too.

On the whole I’d rather be miserable with money.

How’s that for a tangent. Are you here for the music? Here you go.

I’ve got my own ideas of what freedom is and isn’t, but that’s another story for another time. Free is not feeling compelled to explain yourself all the time and that’s where I am.

The coffee is especially good this morning, for no special reason except it’s especially welcome. It was raining all night but now, judging from the sounds of the tires on the pavement outside, it’s stopped and things are drying up a bit. That’s good, I suppose, not that there’s anywhere to go. It will be easier to go nowhere if it’s a bit more dry. Nowhere in particular that is. It’s just about movement. Just movement.

I’m going back to Radio Quarantine for now. It’s less relevant but these morning missives were born of a specific time and it’s somehow still fitting. My quarantine was beginning before the pandemic. It’s more of a psychic quarantine and that may or may not make sense to you. I’m going to stick with it though.

For now.

Let’s add the timecoded playlist if even just for the cyrillic letters:

Timecodes: 00:00 – Где фантом? – Я тебя люблю 03:16 – Super Besse – Holod 08:08 – Второй этаж поражает – Искра 11:25 – Молчат дома – Звёзды 15:16 – Горемыка – Страшные звуки на русском 18:01 – Городок чекистов – Лёд 21:10 – Sierpien – Поход карательный 25:39 – ТЭЦ – Всё связано со всем 28:50 – Атмосферное давление – Поезда 31:23 – Nürnberg – Biessensoŭnasć 34:29 – Superkomfort – Фотограф 37:11 – Motorama – Ghost 40:51 – Черная Речка – Глаза 43:07 – Спасибо – Полный провал 47:30 – Bitcevsky park – Маленький принц 50:59 – Буерак – Электропоезд Ласточка