привіт! ласкаво просимо to another episode of The Summer Jam 3: Electric Boogaloo! Ah, feels good to break out some of the old tropes of the feature again, doesn’t it? And the salutation is 100% topical, too, for this week we have three members of the Ukranian black metal/dark jazz band White Ward with us: bassist Andrii Pechatkin, guitarist Yuri Kazaryan, and vocalist Andrii Mai. Please enjoy their personal picks!
Andrii Pechatkin
Amenra – Mass III
I’ve discovered this album in summer 2008. Mass III was dark and cold enough to save me from a very warm climate of Southern Ukraine. It was also a period when I practiced sleep deprivation, so ordinary city walks turned into something mysterious. Ten years passed and I still enjoy this album during the summertime.
Byla – Byla
This album is an enigmatic journey deep into your subconscious composed by Colin Marston and Kevin Hufnagel. Soundscapes, drones, and noizes create a non-transferable experience which leads you deep within your being. I remember a moment when we were listening to this masterpiece sitting on top of the old military ship turned into a monument which rises above the Dnipro river. The music was a key to a complete dissolution in the beautiful sight and endless river landscapes covered with cane.
Ben Frost – By the Throat
Another great album to listen to during the summer period. I especially enjoy walking through the night with it in my headphones in August when you feel the coming of autumn with the whole body. Nights are colder, and if the city lights are turned off, every walk turns into an adventure.
Kadaitcha – Corpus Caeli
Industrial rituals that do my head in during any weather or season. This album is something dark and cold, and live performances of the band are a real transcendental experience. But let’s return to our mutton. Since I enjoy running during the hot period of the year, this music helps me not to die when it is 30+ degree above zero and I have to finish the distance.
Yurii Kazaryan
Sektemtum – Panacea
I’ve been waiting for this album for quite some time, and it turned out that its release took place just before the summer of 2016. As a result, this album stayed with me in the player all summer long, after which I returned to it in 2017 and this year as well. It is difficult to characterize for what specific reason I prefer to listen to it in the summer. Perhaps this is some emotional connection with memories. The album is stylistically quite diverse, hence the range of emotions that you can experience while listening to it is extensive. In any case, all this stylistic diversity is highly correlated with my emotional states in a hot southern summer in a crowded resort town in which, at this time, carnal feelings and desires reign.
Deafheaven – Sunbather
An album which doesn’t need the presentation. The album itself is summer. Roast, wet summer, filled with light feelings, and sadness (sometimes bright), and despair. Guys are from San Francisco that stands by the ocean, and I’m from Odessa – the city situated on the shore of the Black Sea, so I think that in many ways I can feel exactly what the guys wanted to convey in this album.
King Dude – Burning Daylight
The album, listening to which I want to put on black sunglasses and feel myself like a vampire whose pale skin burns under the scorching sun and ask myself: ‘What the hell am I doing here?‘ Haha.
Andrii Mai
And So I Watch You From Afar – Heirs
Because this album consists of everything good, bright, warm, and sunny.
Periphery – Periphery
One of my favourite albums ever. I listen to it a lot during the summertime (and other seasons).
Straytones – Straytones
And, for publicity purposes, the self titled work by Straytones. They are my friends, and their music suits well this period of the year.
That’s all for this episode; thanks go to Andrii, Yuri, and Andrii for their lists. White Ward released one of my personal favorite metal records of 2017 with Futility Report, so if you haven’t checked it out already for some ungodly reason, go change that real quick, and make sure to tune back in next week for more summer jam-age!
