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ABOUT BICHKRAFT
DIMA NOVICHENKO AND JENIA BICHOWSKI FORMED BICHKRAFT IN THE WINTER OF 2014. THEY WERE JOINED BY BASSIST SERZH KUPRIYCHUK AND RECORDED THE MASCOT LP. SHORTLY AFTER, ZENYA FENEC JOINED TO PLAY LIVE DRUM MACHINES. THIS FOUR-PIECE RECORDED THE ALBUM SHADOOF IN THEIR HOMETOWN OF KIEV, UKRAINE. WHILE VISITING NEW YORK THEY RECORDED TRACKS FOR THEIR MOST RECENT ALBUM, 800. THEY FOLLOWED UP 800 WITH THE RELEASE OF THE "DESIRE" SINGLE IN AUGUST OF 2019. BICHKRAFT HAVE PLAYED WITH SUCH GROUPS AS WALL, MERCHANDISE, SONIC DEATH, SELBRAM, THE SEDIMENT CLUB, BAMBARA, IAN SVENONIUS AND LUST FOR YOUTH.
ABOUT “DESIRE”
KIEV, UKRAINE’S BICHKRAFT IS BACK WITH THEIR FIRST SINGLE IN ENGLISH, "DESIRE" B/W "ROD." WHERE BICHKRAFT'S LAUDED 800 WAS COMPRISED OF SPRAWLING COLLABORATIONS WITH SAM YORK (PUBLIC PRACTICE), ELIZABETH SKADDEN (FINALLY PUNK, WALL) AND CARSON COX (MERCHANDISE, TOO FREE), HERE WE SEE BICHKRAFT STREAMLINED TO THE DUO FORMATION OF JENIA BICHOWSKI AND DIMA NOVICHENKO.
THESE CONCISE AND HOOK-DRIVEN TRACKS DO NOT SHY AWAY FROM ADDRESSING THE CHAOS AND UNCERTAINTY OF LIVING IN UKRAINE. A-SIDE "DESIRE" IS ABOUT A POLICE RAID IN A BAR WHERE YOUNG MEN WERE FORCED INTO MILITARY SERVICE AFTERWARDS. YOU CAN HEAR THE FATIGUE AND DISAPPOINTMENT IN JENIA BICHOWSKI’S VOICE AS HE SINGS, “BABY, BABY IT'S TRUE / THERE'S NO SAFE PLACE FOR YOU.” THE B-SIDE “ROD” SEES BICHOWSKI TAKING HIS VOCAL DELIVERY TO NEW PLACES OVER AN ENDLESS STREAM OF NOVICHENKO’S CONCISE AND MORPHING RIFFS. THESE TWO SONGS HINT AT AN EXCITING NEW DIRECTION FOR BICHKRAFT, AND WE CAN'T WAIT TO HEAR MORE.
"DESIRE" WAS RECORDED AT ISTOK STUDIOS IN KYIV BY NIKITA MEKALIN.
Bichkraft RELEASES
The 7" flexi-disc comes with artwork designed by the band and a download card. Hand Numbered Edition of 100 only. Out 9/13/19
About “Desire”
Kiev, Ukraine’s Bichkraft is back with their first single in English, "Desire" b/w "Rod." Where Bichkraft's lauded 800 was comprised of sprawling collaborations with Sam York (Public Practice), Elizabeth Skadden (Finally Punk, WALL) and Carson Cox (Merchandise, Too Free), here we see Bichkraft streamlined to the duo formation of Jenia Bichowski and Dima Novichenko.
These concise and hook-driven tracks do not shy away from addressing the chaos and uncertainty of living in Ukraine. A-side "Desire" is about a police raid in a bar where young men were forced into military service afterwards. You can hear the fatigue and disappointment in Jenia Bichowski’s voice as he sings, “Baby, baby it's true / There's no safe place for you.” The B-side sees Bichowski taking his vocal delivery to new places over an endless stream of Novichenko’s concise and morphing riffs. These two songs hint at an exciting new direction for Bichkraft, and we can't wait to hear more.
"Desire" was recorded at Istok Studios in Kyiv by Nikita Mekalin.
Order now in LP, CD and 2 bundle formats.
Kiev’s Bichkraft return with 800, another entry in their unique take on the shoegaze and post-punk traditions. After refining their approach on two previous LPs for Wharf Cat, they exude overwhelming confidence on each track of their new LP. And while the band’s penchant for devolving into noisy experimentation remains throughout, it doesn’t take many listens to recognize the album’s strong execution. For it is the songs, coupled with the nervous energy behind them, that propel 800 forward more than anything else. With Carson Cox of Merchandise handling production, Bichkraft’s dense riffage and thumping drum machines are brought to the forefront with greater clarity than ever before. Featuring lead vocals by Sam York ("Introducing Yourself") and Elizabeth Skadden ("Some People Have All The Luck").
On the cusp of their first U.S. tour, Kiev-based four-piece Bichkraft deliver their shimmering second album, Shadoof. To write and record their sophomore effort, the group built a studio in a debris-strewn lot in the hilly Roshinskiy neighborhood of Kiev, Ukraine. Using the piles of broken classical LPs, discarded winter coats and Soviet-era refrigerators they found there, they constructed a studio to serve as their de facto headquarters. The trash-filled yard outside, in all its chaotic beauty, became its own source of inspiration for the recording. Once the songs were complete, the band refined them on the road, performing around Kiev, throughout Ukraine and for the first time in Russia.
Finding inspiration in the wasteland, Shadoof refuses to end the party even while chaos and disintegration build around the edges. From anthemic industro-punk “Big Red Robe‚” and jagged, hook-filled noise pop “Sleeves at Farewell‚” to pulsing techno noise “Stain of Rest‚” Shadoof hits hard out of the gates and takes listeners on a journey through Kiev’s winding streets, out past the Ukrainian border and into regions unknown. This is a record of dangerous beauty made by and for the adventurous.
“The electronic beat recalls Big Black's unsettling metronome‚ or more recently, the dystopian hypnosis of Total Control”
“Fans of early Jesus & Mary Chain, The Ukiah Drag, and psych that doesn’t stray into shitty jam band territory, pay close attention”
Release Date: 4/21/2015
WCR 023
Personnel: Dima Novichenko, Jenia Bichowski, Serzh Kupriychuk, Jenia Machina
RIYL: The Jesus and Mary Chain, early Velvet Underground, Big Black, Sonic Youth
From Kiev to Kansas City, 20-somethings the world over tend to traffic in the same sort of distractions from modern life: clothes, sneakers, cars, love. Mascot, the debut LP from Ukranian guitar and drum machine noise makers, Bichkraft, holds these things for what they are: fleeting diversions from the bleak realities of modern times and an increasingly uncertain political landscape. That the band composed, wrote and recorded Mascot‚Äö√Ñ√¥s eight songs in its hometown of Kiev only adds to their authority on the matter. As Dima Novichenko sings in the album opener “Didn’t Know” — “There are erased numbers on your road‚ We better cover our heads.”
This is heavy, paranoid music in the shape of frenetic jams like ‚”A4,” in which waves of dual-guitar noise accompany a digitized howl, chanting from deep inside the mix. Often, guitar interludes emerge quickly and take a song in a new direction as they do in "Might Night Dicks." On this track Novichenko and Bichowski display an extensive post-punk guitar vocabulary. They are as fluent in Psychocandy as they are early SY. After hearing the record’s interwoven guitar lines, it should come as no surprise that the two originally met up to play garage jazz before Serzh Kupriychuk and Jenia Machina joined to handle bass and drum machines, respectively.
For its brutality and chaos, Mascot has some undeniably pretty moments: the lilting guitar refrain that kicks off “Bushes” for example, or the often poetic imagery in Novichenko and Bichowski’s lyrics about the natural world, love and decay. Still, these nods to beauty always lead back to fractured songs about suburban scenes where mankind’s disregard for nature is just a warning of greater dangers looming on the edge of town.
BICHKRAFT MERCH