Soviet Sounds

Russians are the largest ethnical minority in Finland. That's one reason why it's pretty easy to find Soviet LPs from Finnish flea markets. Another reason is that Finnish tourists and antique dealers have been carrying records from their trips to Eastern European countries for decades.

Most of these LPs are released by the USSR's monopolized record label Melodiya. After 1989 the variety of labels increases. Most of Melodiya's records contain classical music, Eastern European folk and pop songs and Soviet pressings of Western records. There's also some heavy rock, synth pop, electronic music and new wave among other more alternative genres.

For the last couple of years I've been collecting some interesting looking LPs from local flea markets. My main interests are in the strange and unique production values and synth sounds some of the songs have. The USSR had its own synth industry, which makes some of the songs very exciting and special.

I decided to post just a series of "best of" compilations, because most of the records I've found are not so exciting as whole albums. Usually on a record there are one or two real treasures among the more boring songs. Some of the featured songs were big hits in the USSR, some not. The first batch contains 70's and 80's disco and pop from USSR (except the Angel Vladkovic group is from Yugoslavia). Because of my crappy turntable there's some low brum noise in the tracks, sorry about that!

Tracklist:

Zdravstvuj Pesnja: Vokrug Ljubvi
Kruiz: A Top
Angel Vladkovic Group: Don't Let Me Be Misunderstood
Leisja Pesnja: Obruchalnoe Koltzo
Dispeyi: Noch
Forum: Blue River
Jury Chernavskogo: Spit Pridorozhnaya Trava
Valeri Leontiev: Attraction of Love
Dialog: Kosmicheskie Son
Alexander Buinov: V Gorode Sochi

Get them here.