Russian Music Scene: Pompeya
A couple of weeks ago I went to Tuborg Green Jam, a creative one-day festival which showcased the best of street culture that Moscow has to offer including: music, food, art, style and sport. The headlining acts that day were Earl Sweatshirt, an American rapper from the hip hop collective Odd Future, and super producer Just Blaze. However there was also a lot of buzz around a Moscow-based band who’d just returned from touring the USA. Admittedly the phrase ‘Russian band’ didn’t exactly have me running to get to the front of the stage, however my initial reservations turned out to be completely unwarranted.
Pompeya is a four-piece Moscow band who, according to their website, make ‘unabashed Pop and New Wave music’. The band, since their formation in 2006, have toured extensively throughout Eastern Europe and have earned significant popularity in Russia. This was evident when it came time for them to play their set- as a horde of people began to rush from one stage to the other so as not to miss the first note played. Pompeya’s music has been described as ‘new wave’, ‘jangly indie rock’, ‘synth-pop’, ‘pop-funk’, and, according to one music critic, ‘the sonic equivalent to finding a scratch-up new wave CD buried in a Caribbean beach’. In my professional musical opinion would I classify it as- eternal summer goodness. Despite days get shorter and summer coming to an end, their aptly named 2011 album Tropical has me completely unbothered.
I look forward to hearing more from them and learning more about the music scene in the city. So watch this space for more recommendations!
This post was brought to you by Lola, currently studying at Liden & Denz Moscow
