It has become clear what the independent rock scene will look like tomorrow: three main trends

A year ago, one of the most encouraging trends in indie music was a focus on good lyrics. Interestingly, this year this trend can be seen in almost all the groups that deserve mention in the review of the most current indie trends of 2023.

The first trend is the fashion for quality texts

Independent groups for the most part have stopped singing in English, now they have nothing to hide and be ashamed of in their poetry, they want to be heard and want to be sung along with them. This may be a long way off, but now there is no shame in listening to them, and this is already a positive thing.

For example, the group “vb” from Kaluga knocked everyone down with their ironic lyrics in the spirit of “Sounds of Mu”. The group produces high-quality folk rock and gives birth to a stream of texts like: “No matter what I take, everything falls out of my hands/ in all matters there is a web/ but I’m not a spider-man/… and once they told me that I’m a joint-man/ I once they told me / I once guessed.” The audience was slightly shocked by the combination of strange music with equally strange poetry, but responded mostly positively. The only negative is that this group, like many new groups, is absolutely elusive on the Internet.

The second trend is theatricality

The winners of the festival, the St. Petersburg group UGLI, vividly personify acting at the microphone on the rock stage. Now it is important for many groups not only to sing and play, but also to show some kind of performance on stage, to act out something. A kind of theater of song. Perhaps the fashion trend came from such mastodons of the indie scene as Shortparis and The Hatters, although its roots, of course, go back to a much more distant and legendary pop past.

The lead singer of the group, Daria Trushek, four years ago had a rather nice pop group “Trush”, which wrote a satirical song with the refrain: “Well, why are you gay? Why, nature, are you taking the best people to this steppe?” The group appeared on a popular TV show, and the public even knew it a little. But, as happens too often, something went wrong, the project was stopped and resumed under a new name, with a second soloist, Andrei Chubis, and in a new, more aggressive and bold style. They are starting their ascent again, although for now they sound better in recordings than they look on stage. Despite the expressive costumes that the couple dresses up in, the stage movements have not yet been rehearsed; it is difficult to move in unison, or rather, it is not possible at all. These two only look like a couple in the photo, but in life Dasha and Andrey stand too far from each other.

Another brazen and ambitious theatrical group is Copper Mount from Yekaterinburg. Crowded by modern standards – five people, producing art rock with a touch of decadence and early 20th century cabaret. There is also a lot of attention to texts and meanings. Lovers of dark humor may enjoy the gloomy chorus: “Married alive, with a certificate impaled on your finger that you are now mine”… The noir irony is reminiscent of the aesthetics of Tim Burton’s horror film “Corpse Bride.” Particular attention was paid to suits with black and white stripes (ZD wrote last week about the striped trend, which even Philip Kirkorov and Mikhail Shufutinsky succumbed to) and heavy makeup, regardless of gender. The concept still dominates the quality of implementation, like most other groups.

St. Petersburg’s Anderwill, with second place, is more similar than others to a classical ensemble, the theatricality is read in the general stylization of the VIA of the 70s, but not so much Soviet as Western. These are real flower children with deliberately joyful songs “Sun”, “Moon” and stuff like that about how they run through puddles, eat popcorn and hug.

“Princess Peacock” from Krasnodar lures witnesses of her performances into a pink latex space odyssey. The members of the group (especially the soloist, who regularly forgets to put on a skirt on stage) attract attention with the unimaginable radiance of their space clothes. So that the public doesn’t care about music and lyrics; everything else pales in comparison to the contemplation of such bliss. Someone even compared the girl to Lady Gaga, but don’t forget that we have our own cosmodiva – the incomparable Zhanna Aguzarova, to whom this is much more similar. Only Zhanna, immersed in tinsel, does not forget about the quality of the song material.

The third trend is minimalism

Either because it is easier and cheaper to transport small groups around the country, or under the influence of the general craving for “tube” sound, which is given by uncrowded acoustics, but now it is in fashion to make do with a minimum of musical instruments.

“Two Anxieties”, a group from Ufa with its own history and unique character, supports this “tube” trend. It consists of only two members: “father-rocker” Maxim Shkel and “daughter – tea punk” Natasha Shkel, as the musicians themselves introduce themselves. Maxim is known to fans of Ufa rock from the group “Something” from the 2000s, but now his rock and roll friends have families and problems of a different scale. And we can’t knock the spirit of rock and roll out of Maxim, and then his daughter grew up and also declared her love for music. Now they are touring as a family duet: father on guitar, daughter on keys, and both on vocals.

An indicative story about how some rockers beget other rockers, and as a result they get into all sorts of “disturbing” adventures of life together. The name of the group was also given for a reason: Natasha is studying to become a psychologist quite seriously and, not without a smile, is trying to figure everything out, including how to now combine touring and studying at the university…

The group has a concept, unique charisma and a real voice, because the artistic image does not deviate from the real image. The musicians do not pretend to be other people and do not play at anyone; on stage they are exactly the same as in life. This is captivating. In addition to humorous musical jokes – skirmishes in the style of “Eh, Maksimka” or “Separation”, in which the eternal conflict between fathers and children sounds, the duo has serious lyrical and even light philosophical essays like “I love this time and place.” As a result, the group received third place and the love of the public.

Another minimalist group that is fascinating to watch and listen to is “attention lingonberries!” from Yekaterinburg. The group is considered one of the most popular on the indie scene at the moment, but in fact it represents a whole flank of similar groups (Istoma, My Name is Masha, Makodzeba) with beautiful soloists, gentle voices and stories about pride, cracked love, sunrises and sunsets, peeling nail polish, a warm sweater and old sneakers – everything that girls love so much… This trend is headed by Zhenya Lyubich and Princesse Angine (although in some places “Princess Angina” sounds very rich due to the abundance of string instruments), but in In the last year, this flank has especially expanded and been replenished with new names.

In the group “attention lingonberries!” everything revolves around the lead singer and author of all the songs, 19-year-old Sophia Schultz. In the gray everyday life of the Ural, Yekaterinburg, as the main business and art center of the Urals, was simply obliged to give birth from its gloomy mountain depths to something gentle to rest the soul, delight the eyes and relax the ears. “Lingonberry” Sonya really touches and is capable of melting any iceberg in the ocean with her fire. The girl smiles widely and sings sad lyrics to completely unsad music. This is how popular photos on the Internet of the radiant smiles of Marilyn Monroe, Kurt Cobain, Amy Winehouse, Whitney Houston with the caption: “What depression really looks like” appear before your eyes.

Minimalistic sound: quiet voice, guitar, keys, soft drums – the main feature of whispering girl groups. They convey not so much meanings as states: expectations of a miracle, disappointment, desire for coziness, comfortable loneliness, the smell of vanilla raf, simple, ordinary life.

“Brys” is another group of this “trend” from St. Petersburg, consisting of only three members: lead singer Vika Zavgorodnyaya, bassist Arkady Romanov and guitarist Ilya Mikhaltsov. All three of them perform in black clothes, just like the St. Petersburg group “Churchill”, which was never able to really show what it was capable of due to fatal (emphasis on the “s”) problems with the equipment.

The fashion for black is another common “trick” of beginners. But this year it’s not just black, but just such a powerful pain of the soul, engulfed in existential darkness, the nature of the gloominess of the same group “Brys” or “Lingonberries” is not emphasized – it’s just a given. But, despite the noir, the trio fills the hall with a special chemistry that can suddenly bewitch a naive audience unprepared for such a turn. Depressive states are a common thing for a creative person, but somehow there are too many of them in indie rock this year. I don’t want to turn everyone’s sadness into a fourth trend, so we’ll focus on three: texts, theater, minimalism.