Belarusian post-punk band Molchat Doma was a world away from Minsk when they finished writing their fourth album “Belaya Polosa.” The view from Los Angeles may have been sunnier, but the brooding trio maintained the dark reflections of challenging times in their homeland for the release.
The album continues their clear reverence for the goth stylings of dark wave music from decades past. It also pays homage and reinvents the genre ever so slightly while offering up a pleasing, if bleak, landscape.
So, what does Molchat Doma sound like? They sound like everything a 20-year-old in 1987 with an asymmetric haircut and an aging VW Scirocco would listen to. All parts synth-pop, dark wave and a whisper of goth blended together into a dramatic tornado of minor chord progressions.
The band came to wider consciousness on TikTok, where their “Russian doomer” sound, as it has been labeled, became a kind of meme, reinstating an interest in all things goth. The extended result was a new and growing interest in a band that could put this much heart into a familiar sound, newly reimagined.
Molchat Doma leads off with “Ty Zhe Ne Znaesh Kto Ya,” which translated means “You Don’t Know Who I Am.” A steady percussion gives way to aggressive synthesizer stabs. Lead singer Egor Shkutko sells it all well, as he fills the lyrics with emotion, translated here into English: “Hands trembling/I uncontrollably grasp the pen/Maybe it’s necessary, maybe it’s not worth it.”
Industrial tracks make up the bulk of the album, and “Son” offers a nice departure from the form. It is textured with deft reverb guitar work; Mazzy Star-esque with busier percussion.
The title track, “Belaya Polosa,” is adjacent to any slow song from The Cure. The track has so many layers, and is so wonderfully delivered, it feels elevated. On this, the band moves from past personal stagnation toward an exciting but uncertain future, as they explain in the liner notes.
Casual listeners be warned. All the vocals are in Russian. But somehow this feels accessible and transcendent of the language barrier that exists for non-speakers.
Molchat Doma is talented, “Belaya Polosa” is expertly mixed and the brooding approach is handled with care. This is good gloom.
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Ron Harris, The Associated Press
