"Dark Patrick’s Rise of the Underworld is a cinematic, conceptual album that ably defies succinct labeling and genre classification. The album is a varied jaunt through successive layers of electronic stimuli, ghostly sound effects, ethereal vocals, and lush organic instrumentation, all threaded together into a cohesive whole that would work just as well as soundtrack, background ambiance, or fully immersive listening experience (try listening to it through headphones in the forest at night – recommended).
There’s a combination of vocals, whistles, harmonicas, hurdy-gurdy, synthesizers, and bandura, as well as various levels of better living through circuitry, resulting in an electronic-inspired stew that rattles and hums at various frequencies throughout Rise of the Underworld’s peaks and valleys. Of which there are many. One of the most innovative and interesting facets of Rise of the Underworld is its propensity to remain true to its inner compass, and the album bends and flows according to an idiosyncratic logic that is fairly personalized in its scope. It’s hard to pinpoint exact influences that aptly mirror what Dark Patrick is going for here, though a safe bet would want to include nods to numerous strata of organic electronica, soundtrack ambient, world ethnotronica, psych and trip-hop. Additionally, the band claims some affiliation to the fertile soils of reggae, dub, and trance as well, all of which work their rooted tendrils into Rise of the Underworld’s compositions at different points..." Reed Burnam, USA (information from the official press release)
Publisher: author Year: 2012
See all albums and songs of the musician(s) on our site:
- Dark Patrick
Domestic price: 208.60UAH
International price: $14.90USD
Sure, "Episodes" is pop music, but it is also sure to be intelligent pop-music, multi-layered, and interesting. That lives somewhere on the edge – and thus it is capable of transforming its audience. If you wish, dark pop. The promise of taking through the darkness and bringing into something new – it is there.
Domestic price: 348.60UAH,
International price: $24.90USD
"Molfar", I guess, is about the fact that there is no difference where from and where to, because there as always here-and-now. Where there is no place for hope – hope requires memory and time – and here all the space is occupied with.. attention? I do not even know – you stay in this space while the album plays on, and then this space just plays on in you..
Domestic price: 390.60UAH,
International price: $27.90USD
It is Alex Nademski who is the author of the project – and, in particular, of all the lyrics and the music (although he says he only recorded what came to him). ILLaria is a "guest star," the voice. Still, when one listens, it's hard to say whose role is the leading one – the both worked at their full capacity, that's sure.
Domestic price: 348.60UAH,
International price: $24.90USD
Above all, Viktor Krysko is known as the constant member of the original Kyiv project Er.J.Orchestra, although recently he pays no less attention to the so-called K-Trio – Roman Kolyada's project. Well, and the album "Cinema Graffiti" introduces us to his somewhat different hypostasis. That of a composer.
Domestic price: 306.60UAH,
International price: $21.90USD
"Brutal pop power" – so they call it. But there is a great temptation to also add other words: post-rock plus acoustic acid jazz with trip hop education – something like this, probably. However, all these names do not contradict each other – because music like this as it is means going beyond the limits of specific style...
Domestic price: 306.60UAH,
International price: $21.90USD
Festivals of electronic music, jazz, rock – everywhere this group feels comfortable, and now it is even testing its ability to create music for films. Mamanet offers to the audience an intellectually energetic, strangely bewitching mixture of trip-hop, acid-jazz, post-rock, drum'n'bass and even disco – it is far not possible to define the group's art with some concrete word.
Domestic price: 250.60UAH,
International price: $17.90USD
Atmospheric guitars, the melodiousness of the bass, separate patterns of the percussion against the background of the not always unambiguous main rhythms – and the interwoven braids of the characteristic, emotional vocal by Olena Sas, crystal-clean and warm at the same time. It might seem that everything is simple – but this is sort of correct, saturated simplicity that makes it transparent and soft inside..
Domestic price: 200.20UAH,
International price: $14.30USD
..Dakh Daughters have taken a step forward, being able to synthesize their previous experience – here the sharpness of the first album and the balance of the second one have come together, and as a result we have got a rich space of mystery and confession..
Domestic price: 250.60UAH,
International price: $17.90USD
It is obvious that something extraordinary was expected from DD – so that it were different from the first album but not inferior to it. The girls have met the both expectations, this is a cool art-house piece, quite far from the ordinary..
Domestic price: 250.60UAH,
International price: $17.90USD
..a studio album is a different story, it offers an opportunity to hear, not to see: music balancing on the brink of theater. Due to the art of intonation, which sometimes reaches its extreme and takes a step further – but also due to the art of silence, which only rarely acts as a pause, taking a breath, but mostly it keeps producing supplementary senses.
Domestic price: 250.60UAH,
International price: $17.90USD
An album that's a joke, a discovery, a surprise, a challenge – combining the folk music of the Carpathians with the North American folk. LBB have danced that subtly but stoutly: monologues about dialogues of cultures are not really needed when you have such illustrations at hand..
Domestic price: 250.60UAH,
International price: $17.90USD
This album was ready in the autumn of 2016 – but the musicians were in doubt, as a result they literally re-created it from scratch (the sound producer was Yuryi Hustochka). And it turned out – superb, literally. Fragile like the frosty crust on morning snow, thick and fragrant like masala – an album of hope, an album of surprise. Steppe blues..
Domestic price: 306.60UAH,
International price: $21.90USD
Cooperation of Astarta (a side project by Eduard Prystupa) with Colin Edwin (Porcupine Tree bass-player) is just an example of such quality implementation of ideas, when first you do not even try to understand what the essence is, but just listen. Listen carefully, because it is delicious.
Domestic price: 306.60UAH,
International price: $21.90USD
In its previous album "Pokosy", ShockolaD stepped away from jazz for an almost safe distance – the key definition of the work would be "ethno-lounge". Well, and this time the group seems to have decided to remix all familiar ingredients – both the ethno, and jazz, and acoustic lounge – and, sure, to season it with a few new colors.
Domestic price: 530.60UAH,
International price: $37.90USD
Belarus bands famous here are specific in their artistic, nonlinear attitude to arrangements, self-irony and – they are somehow particularly enlightened, I guess. When one listens to them – sometimes it seems that they are singing the anthem of the Sun, facing the dark wall of the ancient forest. And Vuraj in this regard is no exception.
Domestic price: 306.60UAH,
International price: $21.90USD
...while grounding on Ukrainian folk songs (not played out at all), the musicians threw into the pot a whole bunch of everything – African rhythms, rock groove, ethnic and electronic instruments – and they mixed that up well. The result turned out pretty hot to taste, diverse, sometimes quite unexpected.
Domestic price: 250.60UAH,
International price: $17.90USD
...Ukrainian authenticity is primarily the mystical energy of the earth and the complete harmony with the space. This is very powerful music! The new disc by ILLARIA is a kind of a calendar of Ukrainian music traditions. It includes cover versions of well-known folk songs based on authentic archival records.
Domestic price: 250.60UAH,
International price: $17.90USD
...the album "Free" resembles that very puzzle, an element of mosaics that was lacking in order that the picture became integral, completed. It – disregarding, let me repeat it, the status of the debut one – seems to sum up some results, outline the visible and known space and, thus, free space for a step forward.
Domestic price: 250.60UAH,
International price: $17.90USD
..what is specific: the core of the Ukrainian archaic material is not hidden, not disguised as it could be and as it has already happened. On the contrary, the foundation is very expressive, while all the rest – it is like pastel lighting. All those small sounds of country, rock, fusion, disco, club electronics – they are as if New Year decorations on a living tree...
Domestic price: 250.60UAH,
International price: $17.90USD
This is music with its own identity. And it's not only about interesting arrangements – listen to the lyrics: this is not simulation of rural folklore, this is its urban rethinking, but not limited to the city. Somewhere there, a universal key to the roots reside...
Domestic price: 404.60UAH,
International price: $28.90USD
The album "Duet" is a combination of not only two voices. This is synthesis of two very different manners of performance, schools, music styles, and aesthetics. Since Taras Zhytynsky is a rock singer, and Iryna Zhytynska is an opera singer (mezzo-soprano), a soloist of Wroclaw Opera House...
Domestic price: 250.60UAH,
International price: $17.90USD
Music contents of this release do not differ from the premium edition (apart from a hidden surprise track). Differences relate only to the external design – besides, there is no booklet with the lyrics here. Hence the lower price of this edition compared to the premium one.
Domestic price: 250.60UAH,
International price: $17.90USD
...the content of the album in the style aspect is ambiguous – but, definitely, interesting. This time to their branded ethno-chaos they have added quite a bit of very diverse elements: here you have soul, and D'n'B, and hip-hop, and art-rock, and almost jazz decorations. It appears cool.
Domestic price: 250.60UAH,
International price: $17.90USD
Is the studio version different from the concert one? No doubt. Without disclosing all secrets, it is enough to say that it remains up to date to go beyond one language and one culture. In my opinion, the album represents the Ukrainian music, but the music which is done by the new generation. It is the product of the new world. The entire world.
Domestic price: 250.60UAH,
International price: $17.90USD
Taking the Carpathian and Polissya folklore as a basis, PoliKarp modernizes it very carefully – the key melody and, actually, the manner of singing remain unchanged. While speaking about rhythmic structures and additional melody lines – here already musicians release their fantasy. And that is why in their music it is possible to hear impacts of outright rock, and jazz, and funk, and dub..
Domestic price: 438.20UAH,
International price: $31.30USD
First I listened to the Ojra’s records somewhere at the end of 90-ties, yet then it was the attempt to join the archaic and the up-to-date. The staff of the group changed several times since then, and they didn’t give up to search. Of course, a variety of creative paths they made gave its outcome: one of the best, I think, neo-folk records of all Ukrainian discography of the recent years.
Domestic price: 390.60UAH,
International price: $27.90USD
..here, "On the Verge" – the force of water is revealed very perceptibly, magic of quite a different level appears, intended for other purposes. That is, the first works were just to burn everything old, not able to live on – to clear the space. The new work – must feed the new, fresh relying on those roots that did not subdue to the action of fire. That verge from which creation of the new myth..
Domestic price: 250.60UAH,
International price: $17.90USD
From ballads to dance, from folklore through art rock to meditation and jazz – I would call this world fusion, as a lot of roots from the whole world have intertwined here. However, all the plays have their common root: the basis is creative re-consideration of music of Crimean Tatars and other Black Sea peoples.
Domestic price: 754.60UAH,
International price: $53.90USD
The mosaic that results is as bright as deep – "Burdon" once again opens the beauty of old music virtually lost for large audiences. And, at the same time, throws a tank of oxygen into the flame of modern folk – let it burn brightly and not die away...
Domestic price: 250.60UAH,
International price: $17.90USD
The album "Valley of Muses" is, in fact, a Ukrainian project in the domain of world music – at that, presumably, virtually the first one in Ukraine. It is strange and nice to hear how organically there sound together, for example, the lyre, the deeply Ukrainian violin, – and the Indian percussion. Or the mandolin with the drymba – why not a couple?
Domestic price: 208.60UAH,
International price: $14.90USD
Some of these songs could be heard at Foma's performances back in 2014. Time flies, sure – now there are more of them. Because the theme remains unchanged – the war, which came about then, lasts as of the eve of 2018, when the album is finally released. The country is painfully transforming itself. The price is loss of illusions, inoculated so long ago and so deeply...
Domestic price: 390.60UAH,
International price: $27.90USD
It would seem that with such a title one should expect from the album if not pink tears with ruffles – then, in any case, some average ballads. But "Rock-H" from the very beginning stood out against the background, and this time, too, they do not disappoint.
Domestic price: 348.60UAH,
International price: $24.90USD
Even though "Wonderful World" seems to continue the trend of combining rock aesthetics with ethnics – now it sounds different. It sounds as if the band was able to rethink and synthesize all the previous groundwork – thus, when Oleh Skrypka defines this new piece as "velvet symphonic punk", that is not that much of an exaggeration..
Domestic price: 278.60UAH,
International price: $19.90USD
"Kozak System" offers a bright mixture of modern and folk poetry, powerful rock, ska-punk with insertions of reggae, and everything is kept together by the serious frame of the Ukrainian folk root. In short - you should meet them again.
Domestic price: 320.60UAH,
International price: $22.90USD
...However, they thus somehow fit into the concept of "ethno-rock" – but nevertheless the entire picture comes out very colorful. And – it is nice that within the same style one can hear so diverse, unconventional, brilliant music.
Domestic price: 250.60UAH,
International price: $17.90USD
Well, finally a new disc by the boyan Zhyvosyl – Vasyl Lyuty – has appeared. I think that anyone who had already heard his songs before could not help waiting for something new. There is such force in his texts, and in music – live indeed – that it is almost impossible to listen indifferently, not to get penetrated with it.
Domestic price: 250.60UAH,
International price: $17.90USD
..."Lehenda pro Ivanka ta Odarku" is a collection of fairy tales, legends and stories which "Mandry" spread in front of our reverie eyes as a rich carpet. Some paints are up to a pain native and familiar, others are absolutely not familiar and even exotic...
Domestic price: 460.60UAH,
International price: $32.90USD
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