Central European / Eastern European / Central Asian Pop 2019

Back by overwhelming popular demand after a break, like Putin in 2012...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FUdteCBRX9c

Shortparis' Strashno / Страшно - the video is controversial for obvious reasons, filmed about a week after the Kerch shooting but planned beforehand.

Afisha has put together a nice video introduction to their 20 "freshmen" of 2019, which give an insight into quite how thoroughly rap has taken over Russia, Ukraine and Belarus' music scenes.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1SHeLLAbmaw

People used to describe Romanian pop star Inna as an anonymous, generic voice on top of generic dance tracks, in spite of several classic BANGERS released that no one else could've done as well.. and now she's gone and released the ultimate argument in favor of a big personality - a concept album!

Full on singer-songwriter turn, only Inna and two other people produced the whole thing basically.

It's very good and playful! Still a beguiling touch here and there of the classic Romanian pop sound.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MpuZzJTt3LA
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ykdr0sIrFrY

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0elY757vf1w

I love her so much and just downloaded this earlier.

I’ve been listening to the Alyona Alyona album a lot recently. The song with Alina Pash is perfect.

https://youtu.be/n8hiIhJNc8o

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n8hiIhJNc8o

I've been enjoying the second Mirele mini-album too.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TeASQVQIGpg

I’m all for Inna (she was the inspiration for my Spotify profile name). This new stuff is good. I love “Fuego”!

Worth noting that this album is in Spanish, after she’d been courting Spanish-speaking audiences for years.

This one from last year was in Romanian: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=slisxcXTIH8
Inna ft. The Motans • Pentru că

taking advantage of this moment to say thanks to you breastcrawl as one of this board's most effective and diligent music recommenders (whose tastes nicely overlap with mine!)

Thanks forks, that’s so sweet! (though I’m not at all sure about the effective part)

I've been completely negligent this year but there was lots of good stuff around.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lFFCbN49jG0

Alina Pash (who also features on Aylona Alyona's wonderful Padlo) is one of a number of Ukrainian artists mixing folk elements with electro / rap / R&B to great effect.

As are Zventa Sventana (here featuring Ivan Dorn):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9tY4OK-Dg_s

Sticking with the 'wandering around in a forest' video theme Matrang is doing some interesting sort-of-rap club stuff:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RJEiIXnpRis

Meduza from 2018 or late 2017:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kacHLh3fPpg

Ukraine's wonderful Luna has doubled down on the trance-pop part of her sound with her new album:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9kRUnbfwy0A

RSAC X ELLA bringing the maudlin flute jams on NBA:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sl3AOxaVHuU

SBPCh / Samoe Bolshoe Prostoe Chislo have been making excellent art-rock / art-pop for a while but Zloi is probably the closest thing they've had to a mainstream hit.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xra_4Y6CDIs

My favourite Russian album of the year, by some distance, was Hadn Dadn's Lyaoakyn. Completely charming indie-pop.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=haMMdI64RUU

On the more experimental pop side, Kira Lao and Kedr Livansky had strong albums:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GppUO4YIaQA

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6vL2OOMoZ34

Sharlot probably came closest to replicating Monetochka's move from internet viral hit to mainstream success with similarly sweet home-studio pop.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mAsQx4jxhLM

Great stuff, SV! Hoping to investigate soon.
I already expressed my love for the Zventa Sventana/Ivan Dorn jam on the EOY Nominations thread.

And you’re not even done yet, I see. Keep ‘em coming!

Not so good

Turkmenistan dictator is also a DJ https://t.co/f2jCZr3sln pic.twitter.com/z6YSUxtZIX

— Ryskeldi Satke (@RyskeldiSatke) January 2, 2020

Turkmenistan dictator is also a DJ https://youtu.be/XBuucLyK5rw

Which came first, the DJing or the megalomania?

Anyway, he'll have to work harder to break the Russian rapper Timati's record (the Turkmen vid is about 50% thumbs-downs)

Negativrekord bei YouTube
Pro-Putin-Rapper kassiert 1,48 Millionen Dislikes

thank you!!

I've been pretty slack this year, to be honest, but will aim to be more on the ball in 2020.

Another good album from 2019 is Cream Soda's Kometa. It's fairly basic house-y pop, but done well. Not a million miles away from the excellent Alpha Beta.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M95iEQx20Ag&list=LLw-EDyK7CQPvzH4g807voEw&index=517

Tima Belorusskih's Vitaminka was a huge hit and the video is wholesome enough to double as a Actimel advert:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zn0XeYg0hIs