New Voices Ukraine: Memory Leaks IV – How the Underground Embraced Dub and Rejected the Mainstream

In the latest edition of the Memory Leaks podcast from tQ and Kyiv’s 20ft Radio, we learn how Ukraine’s underground developed in the early 00s.

This is the story of how a small Ukrainian label turned away from the expectations that Ukrainian music is exclusively folk music. In the fourth episode of Memory Leaks, we travel back to Ukraine in the 2000s to take a closer look at the phenomenon of small indie labels and the unexpected development of the underground. Our guest is Serhii Dubrowskii aka Dubmasta, a selector, producer, designer and journalist. He was born in Chernihiv and now lives in Kyiv. After starting out with various noise and hardcore bands in the 90s, Dubrowski became a major driving force behind the VzyalSoundSystem AKA VS AKA ВЗЯЛ project, one of the first electronic dub groups in Ukraine.

Serhii has been a key figure in Ukrainian urban independent music for decades, and SKP Records, the label he co-founded, is still active and well-known among those in the know. This year, SKP celebrates its 25th anniversary, so we look back to where it all began – his bedroom.

Dubmasta’s wonderful stories are essentially about creative bartering: from putting together cassettes of “crazy noise punk and atonal drone” and making and trading CDs – sometimes for food – in the early 2000s, to building a network of likeminded artists and collaborators around the world. Along the way, we hear stories about the development of Ukrainian dub and dubstep, denim-clad cinemas, working with Genesis P-Orridge, burning tires for fun, and how the many changes in music formats have shaped the underground. “We don’t need to build a factory to make cassettes!” says Dubmasta. And remember: “Russian music always sounded horrible. Nobody brought Russian stuff in their DJ suitcases.”

Please note that the broadcast contains breaks.

You can listen to the podcast audio below or via our Quietus podcast feed.

This podcast is produced by 20ft Radio from Kyiv, an independent station founded by a team of music lovers in December 2016. Since then, the station has been broadcasting from a port shipping container currently located in a small garden of a former brewery in Podil, Kyiv.

20ft Radio’s contribution to Alternative: New Voices Ukraine is a collaborative project called Memory Leaks: The Story of Ukrainian Indie, Underground & Beyond. This series explores the fascinating history of Ukraine’s independent music scene through the concept of memory as an elusive but valuable source of knowledge. Alternative: New Voices Ukraine is funded by the Ukrainian Institute and the British Council.