I like to think that usually when I put something up like this, it might catch eyes from a range of people, or if not, at least I don’t have a specific person in mind. This is not one of those posts. This post is made for one person in particular, and whoever you are, you all know that person. They’re the ones who piss and moan about how everything new sucks and there’s nothing good coming out like when they were 12 or whatever and nothing is cool and blah blah blah. Everyone knows that person. Sometimes I think we’ve all been that person, but there’s never been less of an excuse for being that person than there is now. New music is everywhere. Everywhere. Not only is it waiting to be discovered, it’s pretty much throwing itself in your face and screaming “HERE I AM AND ALSO I’M PROBABLY FREE AT LEAST TO STREAM!”

Short of new music showing up at your doorstep carrying a tray of warm blueberry muffins, I find it hard to think of ways in which it could be made easier than it is in this day and age. It’s one of the fringe benefits of the apocalypse in which we reside.

Case in point, here comes Ukrainian imprint Robustfellow Productions with a 42-track/three-plus-hour label sampler bringing together past releases with exclusive songs, upcoming stuff and a whole mess of styles rammed together for your, well, sampling convenience. Frankly, if you — yes, you — make it past Eternal Elysium and Thunderchief and are still complaining there’s nothing good out there, the problem isn’t the rest of the world, but even if they’re not your thing, there’s a ton of stuff here and I won’t even pretend to know it all. It just takes the smallest amount of digging through, that’s all.

So go on. It’s waiting for you:

Robustfellow Prods. is happy to present FREE music sampler featuring finest representatives of the robust scene for the recent times. Listen to the highlights form Robustfellow’s roster., Robust Digital releases that being streaming during this year plus a preview of what’s to grab in Robust Shop for next year.

Cup of robust tea full of psychedelic, sludge, prog, stoned, grunge, death, metalcore, black metal and all the celebrated genres.

https://robustfellow.bandcamp.com/album/robustfellow-sampler-2019

Cover artwork by ????????? ?????
Design by Konstantin Bikmulin
Sounds “AS IT IS”

Robustfellow Prods., 2019

Robustfellow Samper 2019
from A to Z:

Backchat [Kyiv, UA] War and Plague
Cold Shell [Kyiv, UA] You Think Too Much About Death*
Death Pill [Kyiv, UA] Go Your Way*
Dépaysement [Kyiv, UA] Ground Arms*
Doomed City (previously 5R6) [Kharkiv, UA] No Heroes
Eternal Elysium-official [Nagoya, JP] Burning A Sinner*
Ethereal Riffian [Kyiv, UA] Unconquerable
Freeky Cleen [Kyiv, UA] Done Time*
Gamardah Fungus [Dnipro, UA] Fetus Crying*
House Of Flowers [Dnipro, UA] Dawn
??? [Kharkiv, UA] ???
Knifeman [Kharkiv, UA] ?????
??ntur [Kyiv, UA] ??, ???? ??????? ???????
La Horsa Bianca [Kharkiv, UA] Da cao
Love’n’Joy [Kyiv, UA] Come about
Merzotna Potvora [Kyiv, UA] ?erne?*
???? [Kyiv, UA] ?.?.?.?.
NoT [Kharkiv, UA] A Penny (????????)
????? [Uzhgorod, UA] Ad Civitas Solis
One Magic Megawatt [Kyiv, UA] Die Every Night*
OOZE [Vasylkiv, UA] Backend
Pustosh [Vasylkiv, UA] Nespravzhni
Pyraweed [Baku, AZ] Man of the mountain
Red Eyed Hyena [Ivano-Frankivsk, UA] Tale of Marvin Heemeyer
Septa [Odessa, UA] The Tin Man
Shiva the Destructor [Kyiv, UA] Nirvana Beach*
Slice & Dice [Mykolaiv, UA] Filthy Basement
Sons of Alpha Centauri [London, UK] SS Montgomery (James Plotkin Remix)
stonefromthesky [Kyiv, UA] Confined
Straytones [Kyiv, UA] Dark Lord
Swörn [Turin, IT] Electric Saint
The Anchor Stones [Kyiv, UA] Love It
The COW [Kyiv, UA] PLATO
The Glober [Kharkiv, UA] Space Harmony
THUNDERCHIEF [Richmond, Virginia, US] Stone House
Tungu [Chernihiv, UA] ???????? ?????????*
Urgalia [Cherkassy, UA] GhostFloor*
Volver Stone [Zhytomyr, UA] Wasteland
VOVK [Kyiv, UA] The Last Ship Above the Sky
Vykroutas [Kyiv, UA] ??????? ???i? – ????? ?? ?i?*
Warningfog [Kyiv, UA] II. The Cow
We The Censors [Kyiv, UA] Keep It Up

* – ex?lusive tune

Enjoy the Eclectic Flight !

https://www.facebook.com/RobustfellowProds
https://robustfellow.bandcamp.com/

As I sit here and type this post out, I’m watching a Judiciary Committee hearing about impeaching my country’s president for his whether-they-impeach-him-or-don’t-they’re-still-shady-ass dealings with his counterpart in Ukraine. It’s not exactly thrilling television, but I kind of feel like it’s history happening and should probably be seen since, while I doubt it’s the last time it’ll happen before I’m dead — which in itself is kind of sad — it doesn’t happen all the time. At least not yet. I kind of already feel for the next Democrat elected to lead the executive branch of the US government, whoever and whenever that might happen, unless, you know, it never happens again because, well, descent into totalitarianism and all that.

Much more enjoyable, frankly, is this new EP from Vasylkiv-based heavy progressive post-rockers Ooze. It’s called Cableway and it came out yesterday through respected purveyor Robustfellow Productions. I’m not sure if it’s newly released or a reissue, or something maybe that came out earlier this year around the time they released the video for “Pillars of Creation” that you can also see below, but the news about the release came down the PR wire and I checked it out owing to my general trust in the label’s taste and dug what I heard. Simple as that. It’s a quick reminder as both sides of the debate I’m watching deify the slave owners who founded my country’s government in order to prove their disparate points, that there are many, many things that resonate beyond the reach of current events. Just at this moment, that reminder, is particularly welcome.

I don’t want any favors for posting about it.

Bottom line: We’re all screwed, but music’s still good:

Robustfellow Digital presents the debut full-length from multi-genre band OOZE

OOZE is a Vasylkiv-Kyiv multi-genre music band which is releasing its debut EP ‘Cableway’ via Robust-fellow Prods. Earlier this year the band has presented the self-released music video for the track ‘Pillars of Cretion’ which on a certain level conveys the idea of the band’s formation.

The band finds its musical style on the periphery of different heavy genres that sometimes touch ambient and symphonic soundscapes. The latter is embodied on the second, yet unreleased album of the band which can only be heard live. OOZE leaves the definition of the genre to the listeners and critics and if they have different opinions about it, it is exactly what should be expected.

Says the band: “Soon we will all meet winter, but the ooze team is not afraid to freeze due to the warmth of further news and events. We are pleased to announce the launch of joint activities with the Kiev label robustfellow – this is great news, or even a toast, and we are grateful that they shook hands on the way to common development.

“Now and immediately, we are ready to announce our first step – the long-awaited, but not forgotten: the release of the debut album titled ‘Cableway’ of the vasylkovo-Kyiv Band Ooze will be held on December 4 on all world platforms! There are 4 tracks waiting for you, each of which advocates its grotesque position and declares itself, unexpectedly complementing the organic unity of the album.”

‘Cableway’ tracklisting:
1. Intro 07:15
2. Debilis 03:21
3. Backend 04:42
4. Pillars of Creation 09:40

With or without musical labels, the band easily creates a grotesque, but warm atmosphere and doesn’t cease to experiment even on stage.

OOZE are Yegor Druzenko, Maxim Salov, Yevhenii Khrulov.

https://instagram.com/oozeband
https://t.me/oozeband
https://www.facebook.com/oozegang
https://www.facebook.com/RobustfellowProds
https://robustfellow.bandcamp.com/

Ooze, Cableway (2019)

Ooze, “Pillars of Creation” official video