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Sign upNotes on music, craft, and the era
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September 7, 1988. At the Saratov cafe "Interklub," the group "Kombinaciya" plays its first concert - six young women assembled by a former OBKhSS officer, Alexander Shishinin, and the composer Vitaly Okorokov.
End of 1987. Oleg Gazmanov, a composer from Kaliningrad whose voice had suddenly disappeared, records "Lyusi" together with his six-year-old son Rodion. The author of both music and lyrics is the same person: Oleg Gazmanov.
January 1, 1987. On Central Television's New Year "Goluboy Ogonyok" broadcast, "Yagoda-Malina" ("Berry-Raspberry") is heard for the first time, performed by Valentina Legkostupova. Composer Vyacheslav Dobrynin, lyricist Mikhail Plyatskovsky: behind this hit stand two professionals of the Soviet estrada, not a "folk song" as karaoke booths often label it.
23 June 2022. Yura Shatunov dies. Over 30 years of solo career - eight albums, a rights trial and "Song of the Year". We break down the solo repertoire: "Detstvo" with three versions of authorship, "Klyanus", "A leto tsveta".
1996. Yura Shatunov, four years after the breakup of Laskovyy Mai, releases the album "Iskusstvennoe dykhanie" (Artificial Respiration) - ten hits in rave remixes. Release date: 1 January 1996, according to iTunes. The remixes were done by E. Rodionov at solaris station and V. Afanasyev at C&M Records.
Grandparents, parents and friends share one dance floor, and each generation has its own music. How to write the must-play and do-not-play lists, how to order the dance blocks, and why every lyric should be checked before the day.
1986, Orenburg. Sergei Kuznetsov returns home from the first performance of the group Laskovyy Mai - a New Year's concert at Boarding School No. 2. The next morning he picks up a red pen and writes the song "Belye rozy" (White Roses) in 15 minutes. Yura Shatunov, who will sing it, is 13 years old.
1989. The music video for "Belye rozy" (White Roses) airs on the TV programme Utrennyaya pochta (Morning Post) on Central Television - and within months Laskovyy Mai becomes a national sensation. Twenty years later, in 2009, a biographical film "Laskovyy Mai" will reignite interest in the songs.
1988, Orenburg. Sergei Kuznetsov, the music circle leader at Boarding School No. 2, brings several cassettes to the railway station kiosk - recordings of his pupil, 14-year-old Yura Shatunov. Among six songs on the tape is "Sedaya noch" (Grey Night), the sixth track of the album "Belye rozy" (White Roses), 6 minutes 14 seconds long.
You know the song but need one particular version: that remix from a video or a mix. Which features to write down, where to look up the remixer and why catalogues sometimes disagree. Five worked cases: Blue Monday, Tom's Diner, Missing and two songs from our catalogue.
Three routes to a forgotten song: by the words, by humming and by a recording that is playing. We tested lyric search on five songs from different decades and audio recognition on four reworks: what worked, where services stay silent and what to do next.
In 1983 the group Big Ben Tribe releases a cover of David Bowie's “Heroes” (1977) on Zanza Records. The same year Hipnosis covers Vangelis's “Pulstar” (1976) on Memory Records, and Cockroach covers The Beatles' “Get Back” (1969) on the Out label. Three covers in one year - all on Italian labels.
28 August 1978: the German group Boney M releases the single “Rasputin” - from the album “Nightflight to Venus”. Written by Frank Farian, George Reyam and Fred Jay. The song about Grigori Rasputin rises to №1 in Germany, Austria and Australia, №2 in the United Kingdom and Switzerland. The melody sparked a debate: critics pointed to its similarity with the Turkish song “Kâtibim”, but the band denied borrowing.
1983, Italy. On the Crash label - a sub-label of Il Discotto Productions - a 12-inch single appears: China Town “Bette Davis Eyes”, catalogue number DS 005. It is a cover of Jackie DeShannon's song, which Kim Carnes turned into a number-one hit in 1981. The vocalist is Dora Carofiglio, uncredited on the sleeve. The single does not chart, gets no rotation, and twenty years later exists only in collectors' hands.
One guide from choosing files to the test in the car: what car stereos read according to their manuals, how to format the drive, how to copy music from a computer or a phone, and why numbered songs sometimes play out of order. With the results of our own FAT32 test.
29 October 2019: the streaming service Deezer releases Spleeter into open source - a TensorFlow library that splits a finished recording into vocals, drums, bass and “other”. In its first week the GitHub repository collects over 5,000 stars.
October 1983: the Italian project China Town releases a cover of Kim Carnes's “Bette Davis Eyes” - on the Crash label, catalogue number DS 005. Forty years later, that same track ends up in a playlist next to a cover recorded in 2024 on a home studio running Logic Pro 11. The loudness gap between them can reach 8 decibels.
October was a record month for Disco Magic. Here is what we did together:
141,645
plays in October
10,180
downloads in October
400
new listeners
9,200
plays in a single day - the October 24 record
×39
more visits from Google than in May
9
songs made on your requests
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