Unplugged | No |
Cover band | No |
Members | 5 |
Downloads |
Label / Release | Type | Year | |
---|---|---|---|
Soyuz Music | |||
Говорил я вам / As I Said Unto You | Album | 2017 | |
Нашатырь | Album | 2017 | |
Акробатенька | Album | 2016 | |
Громыка | Album | 2016 |
The band's name refers to the Russian word 'gromko' or 'loudly' and to Andrei Gromyko, former USSR's Foreign Minister. To define their music, Gromyka coined the term 'heavy psychedelic twist': the songs imagine Soviet 1960s/1970s official cultural archetypes as seen in a distorted psychedelic trip, emphasising the music's futuristic paranoia.
The already bizarre albeit tuneful blend of heavy garage rock, Italo Disco and Soviet Estrada is overlaid with beeping Sputnik sounds of Stylophone 350S synthesizer and glockenspiel ostinato. Vocals are declamatory and formidable, as though delivered from the party rostrum. Since their first gig in 2014 Gromyka have caused controversy with their onstage appearance – official grey suits and painted eyebrows reminiscent of the Brezhnev-era Politburo – but the band denies any political involvement.
Gromyka's first, eponymous album, released by Russian record major Soyuz Music in March 2016, received a prestigious 4 star review in Rolling Stone magazine. In the first days after release (14th October 2016), their second album, 'Akrobatenka' ('Acrobuddy') reached no. 4 in the Russian Google Play chart. With the release of the third album, 'Nashatyr' (‘Ammoniac’) in April 2017, Gromyka reinforced their reputation as one of the most interesting and unusual bands in Russia
Many prominent music festivals have been keen to have Gromyka in their line ups. Festival performances in 2016-2017 include Tallinn Music Week and Manka Boutique Pop Festival (Tallinn, Estonia), StereoLeto (St. Petersburg, Russia), Nashestvie (Bolshoe Zavidovo, Russia), Finnmark Internasjonale Litteraturefestival (Kirkenes, Norway), Irkutsk International Book Festival (Irkutsk, Russia), Wschód Kultury – Inne Brzmienia International Festival (Lublin, Poland), SKIF - Sergey Kuryokhin International Festival (St. Petersburg, Russia) and many others.