Sobaki Tabaka is the darkest representative of the Moscow underground music for the last 20 years. Risen from the ashes of Crownear, one of the most eclectic post-Soviet bands of the late 80-s, they became the Russian industrial scene’s flagship in the middle of the 90-s and still keep on doing their best in this field. Using provocative methods, they spread like a virus on TV, radio and even in the theaters, establishing the diversity of their creative ambitions. The band’s performances were always a vivid and poignant action which referred the audience to the classics of the genre, such as Swans, Missing Foundation, Throbbing Gristle and others. In 1997, they recorded their first and legendary opus “Into the brain!”, and later on the band performed along with Einsturzende Neubauten at festival organized by the Goethe Institute in Moscow, hitting the audience with their otherworldly sound and appearance. At the end of the 90-s Sobaki Tabaka recorded their second album, "Shadow of Light", partly consisting of music for the play "Faust".

In the early 2000-s, the band's leader Robert Ostrolutsky moved to London, where he tried to accomplish his English trip-hop project Positive Arrogance and recorded an album with British musicians at Abbey Road Studios. The album had been well met by the public and, due to their sound, could be compared with the best representatives of the genre such as Laika, Recoil and Massive Attack. But after a quarrel with producers, Robert left London and returned to Moscow. 

In 2005, along with the bassist Alexei Mostiyev [Altera Forma, Eleven] they revived the band. The Moscow label Q-Code rec. reissued Sobaki Tabaka’s first two albums. The Rolling Stone Magazine published a vast article about the band while the musicians were touring  around the former Soviet republics. 

In 2007, after the show with Dälek, the musicians started creating a new album entitled "You’re done when I get you "  and subsequently released it on Soyuz Music rec. The album received highly positive acclaim of music critics and the audience. It revealed many new aspects of the band’s creativeness, consonant with the modern trends of noise-rock and sludge, keeping the same atmosphere, recognizable from the very first minutes of listening. 

After a gig with the iconic project Scorn in 2011 the musicians plunged into the studio work, which resulted with their fourth release, "The new body". In January of 2012, the band went on tour with the assistance of their colleagues, Swiss musicians from Sludge and Rorcal and a hip hop singer, La Gale. Later on Sobaki Tabaka supported Samael in Lausanne, and after their return to Moscow they shared a stage with Swans. The following years the band also performed with Godflesh and The Young Gods, and, at the same time, the vocalist Robert Ostrolutsky became a superstar of the Russian musical "Todd".


At its highest point, the band played their 20-th anniversary show in Moscow with Christopher Hahn (SWANS) in May of  2016, smashing down their listeners with power of 7 people on stage, and later, in November, they’ve performed with Killing Joke in Geneva. 

This year the band is releasing a special tribute edition, featuring such underground scene’s stars as Octopus from Dälek, Oddateee, Alan Dubin from GNAW / KHANATE, khost, Gnaw Their Tongues, Dave Phillips etc., and here are some words about this work.

     











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youtube.com/@iseenothing

Gnaw is a New York City noise band created by Alan Dubin after the dissolution of Khanate. The band was originally composed of Dubin, Carter Thornton (of Enos Slaughter and others), Jun Mizumachi (a former live member of Ike Yard) and drummer Jamie Sykes (of Burning Witch). Guitarist/sound designer Brian Beatrice and drummer Eric Neuser later joined the group. In addition to the traditional 4 piece rock format and string and wind instruments, Gnaw utilizes synthesis modulation, found sound and manipulated recordings. In issue 302, The Wire magazine called Gnaw "a terrifying rock sextet whose blackened vision has enough dark energy to blot out the sun". The publication described Gnaw's debut album, This Face, as "unsettling but vital listening". The album was named number 17 of the year [1] by Rock-A-Rolla magazine and Fact went on to post it as number 23 on its list of best "post-metal" albums ever made.[2]

In 2013, Gnaw signed with Seventh Rule Recordings who released their second album, Horrible Chamber, on October 15. "Horrible Chamber" was reviewed positively by most publications including Pitchfork, Wire and Dusted, who said, "Gnaw’s combination of murderous riffs, sludgy bass, dark ambience and soulless electronica is mastered expertly on Horrible Chamber, resulting in a seven-song suite that pulls in all directions whilst staying wholly cohesive." WIRE said, "Horrible Chamber raises goosebumps, instils despair, and suggests fruitful future paths for metal in the process".


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