"Pain tends to infinity"

Music services and streaming services continue to leave the Russian Internet space

What was once commonplace is inexorably turning into an unaffordable luxury. “Where is the limit of the edge?” - no one will answer. Music services and streaming services continue to leave the Russian Internet space. For example, recently the popular information resource last.fm, which helped expand the musical boundaries of listeners, became unavailable to users from the Russian Federation.

The formula “this music will last forever if I change the batteries” is gradually no longer working. But we are not one of those who are discouraged. Through all kinds of blockages and magnetic storms, we bring you music that is not afraid of obstacles. In this edition of words and notes you will find:

Bassist RHCP Flea gives avant-garde jazz on his solo album The Renaissance era has begun for Liverpool electronic musicians Ladytron The human cry of the duo AIGEL Berlin punk diva Nina Hagen switched to spiritual gospels “Pink Padlo” from Ty23 - without words, but with taste

Flea - Honora / 2026
The legendary Flea of the Red Hot Chili Peppers put aside his bass and recorded an album on trumpet. For decades, the musician remained one of rock's most prominent extroverts. You wouldn't expect any tricks from him, but his solo debut "Honora" reveals a more esoteric, inner side of the famous bassist's aesthetics.
Even as a child, long before the rock craze, Flea played the trumpet and was fond of jazz. This love never went away, and before recording “Honora,” he spent a couple of years re-honing his trumpet playing.
The album turned out to be a little uneven, but it is based on jazz with a powerful groove and restrained, precise arrangements. Flea has assembled a strong lineup around him: saxophonist Josh Johnson, double bassist Anna Butterss, guitarist Jeff Parker of Tortoise and drummer Deantony Parks.
The predominantly instrumental disc features vibrant vocals from Nick Cave and Thom Yorke. Named after Flea's paternal great-great-grandmother, the debut uses an old photo of the musician's mother-in-law for the cover, adding points of sentimental charm to his treasury.
Listen: Apple.Music Telegram

Ladytron - Paradises / 2025
The era of renaissance has overtaken British electroclashers from Liverpool. Without changing their signature sound, developed back in the 2000s, the musicians returned three years after “Time's Arrow”. The new record is Ladytron's most danceable album since Light & Magic. The sound of synthesizers balances somewhere between New Order and Pet Shop Boys, creating an atmosphere where light and hope coexist with mystery.
The narrative of “Paradises” traces nostalgia for the club culture of the late nineties and early 2000s. Thus, the track “Kingdom Undersea” is infused with the warm acid house of European nightclubs from the heyday of rave. Brian Eno once called this Liverpool group “the best in English pop music,” and he, like no one else, knows a lot about this.
Listen: Yandex.Music Telegram

AIGEL - Man / 2025
Aigel Gaisina broadcasts her human word before the face of God to the world under the tearing electronics of Ilya Baramia. The sixth album of the duo, now based in Berlin, is entirely in Russian, as happened with them in 2019. Airy lyrics with a bitter aftertaste of reflection. Many of the words are repeated as a refrain, creating a greenhouse effect of meanings and images. A person is in pain, and this pain tends to infinity.
Ilya Baramia about the album:
“When the album “Man” came together, we saw in it a through-line idea of the existential path of man and his subtle, difficult to formulate relationship with the Creator. And in my opinion, the album also captures the spirit and vibe of the Berlin electronic techno scene.”
Aigel Gaisina about the record:
“Personally, this album took me 20 years to write—demographers usually consider generations to be twenty years. From the point of view of lyrics and presentation, it turned out to be such a digest of a large part of a single human life - the experience of my adulthood, youth, adolescence: the tracks contain naive romanticism, absurdism, realism, a frostbitten counting rhyme, and a classic romance.
Ilya and I, it seems to me, managed to create a cool look from the crazy today, and somewhere we deliberately preserved fragments of the past in the arrangements. For example, they left my favorite pathetic trumpet in “Palipedes”, this was one of my first electronic tracks, I came up with it in 2010 in Frutiloops on default instruments with such a stupid trumpet. Ilya and I left the arrangement close to the original, and even some of the echoes remained from that time - 23-year-old me singing along to my 39-year-old self.”
Listen: Yandex.Music Telegram

Nina Hagen - Highway To Heaven / 2024
Looking into Berlin cafes somewhere on Friedrichstrasse, you can stumble upon an extravagant person with bright makeup, straight bangs and feathers in her hair, immersed in working on the lyrics of her songs. Nina Hagen doesn’t need any tablets or laptops; all the magic happens the old fashioned way - on napkins. Be tactful and don't scare them away.
“Everybody wants to go to heaven, but nobody wants to die,” sings “German punk mom” Nina Hagen on her new album full of gospel songs.
The album “Highway to Heaven” contains interpretations of classic gospel songs, in different variations. It included reggae and punk versions of spirituals by composers such as Mahalia Jackson and Rosetta Tharpe.
Here's what Nina says about her version of Mahalia Jackson's "Trouble of the World": "Soon all the world's problems will be solved. I always knew that earthly pain would remain with my mortal body, which would one day have to be taken off like a tattered spacesuit. When you are transported to another dimension, our Creator will dress you in an indestructible, immortal spacesuit. Elon Musk is in for a big surprise."
Listen: Yandex.Music Telegram

You23 – Pink Bastard / 2026

Lot for those who are tired of words. Anton Klevtsov, responsible for the music in 4 Positions of Bruno, created “Pink Padlo” as part of his project Ty23. The iridescent IDM was replaced by a viscous, disturbing and intriguing sound with an abundance of samples. This is an audio thriller about childhood trauma, abuse, power dynamics and how the victim takes power into his own hands.