MOLCHAT DOMA - Belaya Pelosa LP (Cloudy Clear vinyl)

Label: Sacred Bones

Belarusian post-punk / synth pop group Molchat Doma have always exuded the kind ofbrutalist aesthetic of the architecture that adorns their album art. It's cold, gray, imposing,industrial-and yet there are human hearts beating within those foundations.

It was in this headspace that the band settled into theirnew home of Los Angeles to finish writing their fourth album Belaya Polosa, a testamentto change in difficult times, a love letter to the digital pulse of the '90s, and a technicolorreinvention of the band's somber dancefloor anthems.From the opening synth swell and drum machine throb of "Ty Zhe Ne Znaesh' Kto Ya," tothe goth / post-punk austerity of "Son", to the swirling electronic textures mixed with reverbdrenched guitar flourishes, expansive space, and yearning vocals of title track "Belaya Polosa"- that suggests Depeche Mode at their most reflective or The Cure at their most downtrodden - to the sultry and seductive "Chernye Cvety"- a track reminiscent of Duran Duran'searly '90s output in it's fusion of dreamy guitars and authoritative mechanized beats