Track Of The Day Июльские дни [July Days]
From the fourth largest Russian city on the Volga river, Nizhny Novgorod, during the CCCP era called Gor’kij, in honour of the famous writer, 4-piece band Июльские дни [July Days] is hanging around for about 7 years dropping cold new wave and gloomy postpunk visceral passion through a couple of brilliant mini-albums and a bunch of EPs.
Maybe some of you will have noticed their name in the recent flood of compilations about Russian ‘doomer’ music, a term from which, scrolling the group’s page, struggling with my same own generational misunderstanding, I finally acquired a deeper meaning, namely ‘a man of 20 years old in depression who understood the meaninglessness of the world and enjoys loneliness, listening to sad music’.
A poignant and powerful but at the same time moving and melodic guitar-driven post-punk sound that emotionally fuels and binds itself to The Sound-like swirling frigid keyboards, throbbing bass menace and heartfelt and unpassionate vocals, to create epic and sad songs, steeped in endless melancholy, that drift and dive, brood and cry, playing about with tension and release, while enshrouded in dismal despair and hopeless darkness, replete with thoughtful lyrics surrounded by an aura of decadent romanticism, fatally swaying between shattered dreams and redemptions, hopes and disillusions.
The quartet is back after about 2 years with the brand new ‘apocalyptic’ new single “Дождь / Rain”, clouded by lyrics inspired by the 1967 sci-fi novel “Gadkiye lebedi / Ugly swans”, written by brothers Arkady e Boris Strugatsky, that some Andrej Tarkovskij lovers should know, unleashing fire and floods upon the war-torn world, as retribution rains eternal.
“Дождь / Rain” sets off steady punchy drum beats that propel sinuously meandering bleak bassline, awash by icy glaring synth swells that zing along sharp sparkling guitar strains bleeding pain and sorrow, weighted with impending doom, over the grave, intense male vocals, urgently dropping fear and drawn out emotional cries into the raging waters of eternity.
A solid, vibrant sounding return in line with some of the band’s best songs to date.
Keep up with Июльские дни:
