Lazyfish & Mewark

Another one from k2O Records (*). A deep record, at times cosmic, glitchy, abstract and/or cosy, balancing through ambient atmos and weird beats. It sounds a bit similar to some Merck stuff.

Alexander Potekhin aka Lazyfish and Alexander Petrunin aka Mewark are Russians; so very few things I could tell about them I won't even try. I just knew Lazyfish from the early Trapez and Salo days. Nowdays they seem connected with the Lagunamuch Community, where Selffish and Alexandroid also release.

About 8 years ago I also knew SCSI-9 and Nooncat. And Nikakoi. And I can remember no other artists from the ex-USSR, in any kind of music outside psy-trance. I can't figure out the exact conditions that held them back that much. I blame the long distance from the rest of Europe and the difficulties of the post-communism era most; possibly some russian friends might enlighten us more on that. Yet apparently at that time some few managed to break out of their (vast) borders and the first target was Germany. The music I got to know, through a series of moody deep and trancey techno 12"s, was mostly directed to the dancefloor (call it tech-house, if you like).
Later, with the boom of the net-based labels and free downloads (and the share-net and piracy) millions of bedroom musicians flooded the world with their fresh stuff, listening electronics, hard techno, 8-bit electro, post-rock amalgams, modern classic stuff, neo-goth and electro-house. Everything, actually. Still, I believe their strong spot is their idiomatic electronica, abstract enough to be cerebral but also dipped in melancholy and sentiment, something rare in these days of fast produced club hits. It's no wonder that some of the best artists on the best of the netlabels' circuit (check the end of this post) are from the ex-soviets.
I also think that there should be a medal or something for labels like this one that discovered and promoted certain artists like these here.

Lazyfish & Mewark - 2002 selftitled
Info here.