For the geographically challenged, the nation of Belarus — which was part of the USSR until it formally declared its independence in 1991 — sits just east of Poland, and directly north of Ukraine. Belarus’ capital city Minsk is near the geographical center of the country, which is a 450-mile drive southwest from Moscow. About a 330-mile car trip southeast of Minsk — roughly as far as from Nashville to Macon, Ga., or St. Louis — is Kyiv. Ukraine’s capital is among the cities targeted by Russia in the invasion that’s been going on since February. Just east of the road from Minsk to Kyiv, the border between Ukraine and Belarus is very close to Chernobyl, the site of the April 1986 nuclear disaster. It’s less than 10 miles away at one point. Radioactive contamination doesn’t stop at borders, and the reactor meltdown led to illness, death and mass evacuations in Belarus as well.
Today’s Minsk is a living museum of Soviet-era architecture and iconography. Its miles upon miles of brutalist apartment blocks are the environment in which vocalist Egor Shkutko, guitarist-keyboardist Roman Komogortsev and bassist Pavel Kozlov — aka synth-punk three-piece Molchat Doma, who play Exit/In on Friday — came of age. The structure of the city is an integral nonmusical influence on the band: The cover of their second album, 2018’s Etazhi (“Floors”), depicts one such angular, imposing building. The band’s name translates roughly to “Houses Are Silent,” and refers to these cold, desolate structures, built with an eye toward a future that never quite materialized.
Though the band’s members were born after the end of the Soviet Union, their sound is firmly rooted in the post-punk and New Wave of the ’80s. The trio employs an enviable array of vintage synthesizers and drum machines to make songs with monophonic synth leads, pulsing keyboard bass and the snap-crackle-pop of electronic percussion. The sound hearkens back to greats like Depeche Mode and The Cure at their most primordial. There’s also an Ian Curtis influence, particularly apparent in Shkutko’s deep, mournful vocals. In interviews, the band members are quick to cite these Western bands’ counterparts from behind the Iron Curtain, like St. Petersburg’s Kino and its iconic frontman Viktor Tsoi. Molchat Doma’s three albums so far — 2020’s Monument is their latest, and it boasts grander songs and bigger sounds than its predecessors — could pass for artifacts freshly unearthed from a time capsule buried 40 years ago. If outsiders’ perceptions of Eastern Europe in winter had a sound, it’d be close to this.
Sung in Russian, Molchat Doma’s songs prove that post-punk as a sound and feeling defies language. The material also seems to be acting as a jumping-off point to the genre for those even younger than Shkutko, Komogortsev and Kozlov. How else can one explain the left-field TikTok success of the Etazhi track “Sudno” (“Vessel”), which has soundtracked more than 200,000 original clips on Gen Z’s favored digital platform?
Being Belarus’ foremost musical export has made Molchat Doma a curiosity even beyond post-punk circles. Lyrically, its struggle seems more personal than political; song titles, translated, include “At the Bottom,” “Doomed” and “Dead Inside.” But saying how you really feel isn’t encouraged when you come from a country where speaking out can get you punished by the government. Belarus maintains close ties to Russia, particularly through its Putin-allied President Alexander Lukashenko, who’s been in power since 1994 and has basically bent the rules to the point that it seems likely he’ll remain so till he dies.
But as Molchat Doma embarks on its first-ever U.S. headlining tour, neutrality doesn’t seem like an option anymore. The atrocities currently unfolding in Belarus’ southern neighbor are too obscene to ignore. Before the invasion, the band had a show on the books for March 15 in Kyiv. Obviously that didn’t happen, but the gig remains at the top of Molchat Doma’s tour itinerary on their website, next to a note: “SLAVA UKRAINI.” (That’s “Glory to Ukraine.”) Within days of the war beginning, they posted a video to Instagram condemning the invasion and offering links to aid resources. Having the freedom to travel around the world to try to make a living from expressing themselves isn’t something they take for granted.
