Let's continue with some artists briefly mentioned before but not elaborated upon, shall we?
Кирилл Стукалин (Kirill Stukalin/Stoukaline/etc. - transliteration varies from album to album) put out a somewhat confusing "Органы и Механизм" ("The Organs and the Mechanism") CD-R in 2007, which features four deconstructions of the same track, all built with (sometimes malfunctioning) home appliances and some news samples, I believe. This can be seen as a counterpart of sorts to his own Organomehanizm's "Бред Космоса" ("Cosmic Delirium"). The two main reasons I bring his work up here, however, are "
Программа 2" ("Programme 2") and "
Программа 3" ("Programme 3"). They're hardly "current", but both are unsung classics of harsh noise, in my opinion, and the latter easily stacks up against the more notable works from the dynamic end of Japanoise's golden era. There used to be a "video" on youtube for the closing tracks, but it looks like it got taken down for some reason (perhaps the uploader got banned?). All tracks differ greatly from each other in approach and execution, and while that may be detrimental to a release's overall consistency sometimes, that's not the case here, fortunately, because all tracks are long enough so they have both time to develop and space to breathe. It's a shame the editions are so tiny and the author virtually unknown for his solo works.
For something more recent (but no less better) there's
Maaaa, a duo originally hailing from Karelia, now based to Poland. They too prefer to work in the dynamic end of harsh noise spectrum on most works (Mr. metalpunk will correct me if I'm wrong, hopefully), but sometimes they ditch it altogether for something different, like on "Kello On Soinut" where processed field recordings take the stage, or "Поджигая Кукковского Петуха" ("Setting the Kukkovka Rooster on Fire") which documents the band (they wre a quartet on this cassette) have their way in an abandoned building, visiting destruction upon its environment and screaming their lungs out in an almost caveman-like fury. But their best work is "
Sampo Distortion" (which, once again, could give Japanoise artists a run for their money). The press release references the fabled grinding-mill from Kalevala, and this is spot on, the album itself being a vortex of noise so primal, fierce, unrelenting and hostile that one begins to wonder whether it's truly human beings responsible for this or, indeed, some mythic creatures from Pohjola. Other notable releases are "
Decay and Demoralization", a compilation of material from various splits and EPs, "
Human Waste" (their take on power electronics/death industrial) and, finally, split CD with K2. Most of these are available at their bandcamp page, and some reviews as well as links and samples can be found here -
http://www.maaaa.org/ (for example,
http://www.maaaa.org/p/sampo-distortion-cd.html).Next we have
Alisa-Yhtye and
Аквариум Гурий/
Huren Aquarium, both (as well as numerous other projects) the brainchildren of one Grigoriy Avrorin from Saint Petersburg. The former had one of its early cassettes reissued on Phage Tapes a couple years ago, and then there's untitled CD-R from 2009 on Triangle (run by the people behind Maaaa), it's nothing groundbreaking, but very enjoyable and solid all the way through (there's a review at
terror.lt and a few samples up for listening as well -
http://www.terror.lt/news/553/56/Alisa-Yhtye-Untitled.html); a fitting description would be measured, self-restrained noise with industrial understones. Huren Aquarium, on the contrary, is more chaotic, unpredictable and sometimes a bit too heavy on feedback, particularly on the split with Strup. Once again, nothing groundbreaking here, but good to give a spin or two when in a certain mood. But I think that's rather due to skill and experience than talent.
Then Струп (Strup which means eschar, or scab). It's actually from Belarus, not Russia, but I thought I'd mention it here anyway since the project has so many splits and collaborations with various Russian ones, most notably DN23rd and YAO 91404 D. To be honest, I'm not too keen on his music but I rather liked split CD-Rs with .nyctalops. (whose part I didn't like, actually, too flat- and digital-sounding for my tastes, but Strup's contribution is glorious in its unabashed electrical substation, power line type of sound, droning really loud and powerful, with more things going on in the background and vocals buried underneath) and INDRA (who presented a track stylistically similar to "Through the Cold Wells", but more refined and diverse; Strup's part is a collection of rather short 'electronic' (?) tracks - I can't describe it better because I can't think of anything even remotely similar to them). Other works I didn't enjoy as much, and some were below average. The full-lengths apparently present a totally different approach.
Continuing in a linear fashion: .nyctalops. Now this is some real fresh blood here. The project is only a few years old but already has split CDs with the almighty Government Alpha and Guilty Connector under its belt thanks to Sickcore. The tracks on both of those are actually better than on split with Strup, but the sound is still a bit too modern for me. But worth investigating anyway. From what I can gather, solo releases feature shorter tracks and therefore might be easier to stomach. There are some tracks posted at soundcloud, and three recent split cassette singles on Rokot (a sublabel of Abgurd) are available at the label's bandcamp page.
Next comes perhaps the most idiosyncratic noise unit in Russia, По.Но.(и)За. (Po.No.(i)Za., previously known as Ло.Бы... (Lo.By...)). His stylistic approach is, as far as I'm aware, unique: it's cut-up, looped noise sourced mostly from TV and radio (a tad processed, of course) in a linear progression, i.e. some 'noise+voice' construct repeats (is looped) for a while, then gives way to another, and so on. So it's kind of narrative, but in a demented way. Personally I'm not too fond of the usual end results, but there's enough variation between albums for the project to keep going.
Another possible contender for the title is
Obozdur, but this is rather absolutely free-form, stream-of-consciousness type of projects. While some works are more composed, many appear to be improvised on the spot and left unedited with all possible kinds of artifacts, glitches, etc. While I can see appeal, there are way too many such releases. One I'd recommend giving a chance, though, is "
7 Steps Behind the Horizon" which reminds me of "Slash" by Grey Wolves + Macronympha a little bit. The physical edition is sold out but the album is available for streaming and downloading at the label's bandcamp page, if I'm not mistaken. And the other that absolutely stands out is "
XX CIF. SP For NIoF", a collaboration with Gorduw. That's something utterly compelling. I'd even go so far as to say this (the first disc, at least) is up there with Zoviet France circa 1986-1992, so authentic and captivating the atmosphere is.
Light Collapse is another project by the same man, and it generally falls into two distinct categories: radionoise and (recently) HNW. It began as a purely radionoise-oriented act, but then developed an affinity with the wall. From what I've heard, the walls are sometimes built from, well, radionoise (sometimes not) and are usually more dynamic (even if subtly) than your average HNW (and have a nice texture to them). Still I like his radionoise works (both processed and unprocessed) better, especially "
Tired Sun". That one is almost meditative (and the handmade sleeve is very, very nice). There are some more related projects, like
Kromeshna (drone/ambient), Mossad (conceptual collaboration with Gorduw - quite noisy, actually)...
Пустота (Pustota - "emptiness") and
Радиосталкинг (Radiostalking) are two recent projects by the untiring Evgeniy Savenko of Lunar Abyss/Sadogipnoz/Ritualnaya Bioingeneria and 8th Moon Art/Biosonar fame. The former began as a study in urban field recordings but quickly reshaped itself into an ongoing cassette noise research, thus resembling SSRI with Francisco Lopez' "Paris Hiss" mindset (i.e. using blank cassettes only, but both new and recycled), or, in other words, producing works from many hours of manipulations with cassettes, erasing, dubbing and redubbing, resulting in a thick, fuzzy and warm analogue sound. And while it can be wall-ish at times, this is no detriment. I'd recommend the recent CD-R + cassette set on Operator Produkzion as a starting point. The latter, Radiostalking, is, as the name suggests, radionoise-oriented, but it's always processed, I believe. Can't say much else about it as I've only heard one cassette out of five or six released so far.
Ganzer is a harsh noise project of some people involved in Majdanek Waltz that inherited its inconsistent nature. Run-of-the-mill digital (?) noise with nothing in particular standing out, only some incomprehensible track titles bear semblance to "Green Wheels". The recent full length manifests a change in direction, apparently: now with blackened shoegaze... and then some.
Finally, there are three related Siberian projects:
Instant Movie Combinations, Indu Mezu and Stpocold. The first is droning noise (or noisy drone - whatever suits better) and so far the best of the three. Texture is the word of the day, and subtle variations in each piece make them highly enjoyable. Plus the artwork always fits the music very well. The other two projects dabble in more chaotic/cut-up/experimental forms of noise, and I can't say I find the results particularly successful, especially because of the sound - it's far more plastic and 'fake' than that of IMC.
