DK: The vital importance of the first underground Soviet cult band
Protest is at the core of all music, particularly rock ‘n’ roll.
The acts of singing, writing lyrics and playing an instrument are inherently political, signalling a rebellion against social normativity. Thus, pivotal moments in global history have been soundtracked by prominent artists of the respective era and by smaller, underground artists, feeding the sentiments of disillusion and a need for transition.
The Soviet Union’s Era of Stagnation (roughly from 1964 to 1982) saw one of the most radical music movements in the region’s entire goodamn history. In the midst of the Cold War and coinciding with both national and international strife, this era, under Leonid Brezhnev’s rule, saw a period of high economic growth and prosperity decline into troubles across social, political and financial sectors. Dissenting opinions were brewing, especially among young people who were caught in the crossfire.
In 1979, a young drummer named Sergey Zharikov considered starting his own rock band after his return from the Soviet Army. Driven by the experimental rock that emerged in the 1960s, Zharikov formed the band DK alongside lead guitarist Dmitry Yashin, singer Evgeny Morozov and bassist Vylacheslav Vish. As the “ideologist” behind DK, Zharikov sought to be subversive, possibly obscene (which was damn-near impossible considering the sociocultural repression) and shake up the underground rock world that was beginning to form in the Soviet.
In the early days, DK recorded in the basement of a Moscow hotel, where Zharikov showed up to every rehearsal with 15-20 songs ready to record, self-taught, on tape. As early as 1982, the albums Ikh ravy (“their morals”) and Uvezu tebya ya v tundra (“I’ll take you to the tundra”) were released. They harnessed the DIY punk sound, hastily recorded, but what DK lacked in experience, they made up for in the weight of their emotion. Numerous albums and collections followed, as did a growing rotation of band members. Notably, shortly after the departure of Morozov, he was scrutinised and jailed for “slanderous fabrications” and speculation.
Zharikov infused a variety of influences into DK’s sound; alongside art punk, elements of folk, bluesy rock and jazz can be heard. Certainly not for mainstream audiences, DK found their home in the Soviet underground, gaining a cult following that fueled their prolific discography. By the mid-1980s, DK took on more of a collective approach, inviting fellow musicians from their underground punk circuit, as well as jazz artists, to record and perform with them. This period also saw Zharikov’s focus shift to a “radio theatre” phase, combining lyricism with spoken word and the sampling of advertising clips and political speeches. Transcending a mere punk definition, DK evolved into a full-blown political protest of their own, socially conscious and emphatic in their performance.
DK’s final album, Fire in the Mausoleum, was released in January 1990, closing their “radio theatre” era. Zharikov claimed that he no longer had an interest in recording new material and instead shifted into a career in journalism. He went on to publish his own magazine, ATAKA, which saw an intellectual approach. His timing was most ideal: in 1991, censorship was eradicated and the internet was democratised, yielding new waves of art protests.
A true originator of his time, Zharikov influenced a wave of rock bands from the USSR, including Grazhdanskaya Oboron (“Civil Defence”), Sektor Gaza (“Gaza Strip”), Mongol Shuudan (“Mongol Post”) and more, setting a precedent for imperative protest music to follow.
