Misha Mishajashvili

Misha Mishajashvili is a dub/ambient artist from Lasnamäe, Talinn, Estonia and he kindly sent me some of his stuff to listen to. One of the labels he uses to describe his music is "stalincore," which is a very intriguing concept in itself given this blog's fascination with Georgian mustaches. The "Stalin" aspect lays in Misha's inclusion of speeches of various CCCP officials in his tracks It is also quite interesting to see a guy from Estonia, which is a country that was incorporated into the Soviet Union under - to put it mildly - dubious conditions. So, Misha's music is heavy industrial/dub drum rhythms and distortions - that would sound in place in a dark decadent post-Soviet club - over samples of old Russian orchestrated music pieces and choirs (and possibly other sources). So, if I had to draw comparison, I'd say this is like a rhythmic version of The Caretaker (due to the ballroom pieces) and perhaps of Quantic (due to the cinematic quality created), thereby creating a dystopian but also dreamy feeling that is accentuated by the Soviet speeches.

 

Misha's blog is https://misha-mishajashvili.bandcamp.com and you can go there to listen to his stuff and perhaps contribute something. I'd recommend the most recent 2018 album as a good start, and perhaps 2011 which includes more traditional music samples.