Molchat Doma is readying their Monument LP for release on November 13th via Sacred Bones. The Belarusian-based post-punk trio, whose name translates as Houses Are Silent, has had a meteoric rise since forming in the country’s capital Minsk back in 2017. The group’s first two albums, 2017’s S Krysh Nashikh Domov and 2018’s Etazhi, found huge success via Bandcamp. The second LP garnered over a million plays on YouTube while selling out six vinyl pressings before Sacred Bones signed the band and reissued the albums this past January.
Molchat Doma celebrated their signing with a London performance that month, and tickets sold out so fast the venue was upgraded twice before they performed a critically acclaimed show to a full house at the cities’ iconic venue Scala. With quarantine looming, the band returned to Minsk where they wrote and recorded their upcoming LP. Continuing to combine synth-pop and post-punk, Monument finds the group further refining this potent combination with excellent song-craft and stellar production.
“Ne Smeshno” translates as “Not Funny,” and it might explain this track’s brooding quality. With a pensive melody chiming across a buoyant bassline as rapid-fire percussion keeps time, the song’s chilly atmosphere sounds majestic nonetheless. While synthesizers and drum machines lend an air of New Wave nostalgia to the song, singer Egor Shkutko‘s resonant voice delivers its imposing sense of urgency.
