Building on critical acclaim that crossed national borders, thanks to the excellent album “Etazhi”, the Belarusian darkwave trio Molchat Doma chose to move to America just as the war in Ukraine was putting the existence of many artistic identities to the test, blocked by the bans imposed by the conflict.
For the band it was an opportunity to finally measure themselves with the technical potential of American recording studios, but while the album “Monument” tried to catalyze the success of “Sudno (Boris Rizhy)” fueled by TikTok, giving space to synth-pop at the expense of magic lo-fi of their early days, the new album offers Molchat Doma the opportunity to show off their full potential.
In “Belaya Polosa” the balance between darkness and flashes of light is a harbinger of interesting developments. Yahor Shkutko's vocal affinities with Dave Gahan of Depeche Mode and even more with Viktor Tsoi of Kino – a historic Russian group whose formula Molchat Doma have followed – are evident but never invasive. The uniformity of the groove rhythmic is mitigated by impulses and jolts (“Ty Zhe Ne Znaesh' Kto Ya”) and by mid-tempo in which a psychedelic sensitivity emerges in a post-punk key (“Chernye Cvety”).
The more contaminated nature of “Belaya Polosa” will perhaps disappoint fans of the first albums, but it must be said that the concession to rhythms big beat makes the sound more accessible, but also more varied and evocative. The extroverted attitude of “III” and the powerful electronic-rhythmic texture of “Ya Tak Ustal” are two successful prototypes of the new course of Molchat Doma, but the evolution has a price to pay: the indolence of the daring “Beznadezhniy Waltz” and the forcedly heavy tone of “Zimnyaya” are not convincing (even if strangely they are the two songs that most recall the first efforts of the group).
The brilliant foray into darkwave western sounds of “Son” and the powerful resonance of the synths of the splendid title track definitely leave their mark and open up further future prospects for the Belarusian group, here grappling with the most insidious album, but far from being a simple exercise in style. Molchat Doma are not renewing the darkwave canons, but they know its secrets and nuance which have yet to be fully revealed.
09/16/2024
Daniel D`Amico for SANREMO.FM