Schmoltz is a DJ, digger, and electronic musician from Grodno, known for his edits of little-known old songs from countries on this side of the Iron Curtain. Published, among other things, on the cult niche labels Bahnsteig 23, and The Very Polish Cut Outs, thanks to which he is known by DJs and dancers in all Russian-speaking countries and Poland. Recently, he has actively taken up the production of his own author's music and has already released tracks on the new Belarusian label Estetika and the prestigious Parisian Les Yeux Orange.
About the track:
"After listening to the references and digging into my musical erudition, I realized that I could hardly do anything with the traditional sound within the framework of my approach, so I began to listen and remember what I know from the new history of Israeli music. And here for me, a big discovery was that modern (conditionally from the beginning of the 80s) Israeli pop, rock, new wave, and even punk rock very actively use traditional melodies; it sounds almost always recognizable in the Middle East, and this has a name - mizrahi. Not to mention a whole galaxy of modern electronic musicians who are actively exploring this topic in their work and combining the sound of techno and house with mizrahi motives, including Moscoman, Autarkic, Simple Symmetry, Red Axes. This is a very inspiring example of a living musical tradition, which organically, without a forced revival or nostalgia of retro revivals, brings a local, but globally recognizable musical culture to the present and future. In general, I came to the conclusion that it would be most correct to make my own tune (not an interpretation of something from the classics, and without direct references), using the same harmonic series - the Phrygian dominant scale."
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