Recommendations from the Kyiv Independent: DakhaBrakha (Patreon)

From: Anna Yakutenko, production manager at the Kyiv Independent 

Every time I am at an international party, I have a small cultural mission: to showcase Ukrainian music by taking control of the speakers. The one band that never fails to grab everyone’s attention is the ethnic band DakhaBrakha. 

If the name doesn’t tell you much, turn on their track “Sho z-pod duba.” Does this tune sound familiar? You might have heard it in Season 3 of the “Fargo” series and in a David Beckham House 99 ad. It doesn’t even sound like ethnic music at first — very minimalistic and catchy — you just start to nod rhythmically. Then you hear a man chanting loudly something like a spell, the female traditional singing kicks in — and eyebrows rise. 

“Wow,” my Indian friend once told me. “It’s so much different from all the other tracks.” 

I think it’s fair to say that DakhaBrakha is a giant in Ukraine’s music industry. The quartet was formed 20 years ago as part of Ukraine’s famous theater, Dakh. Back then, the Ukrainian music scene was heavily dominated by Russian pop music. DakhaBrakha was very far from what mainstream radio stations would play. Due to years of Soviet and Russian cultural oppression, ethnic music, costumes, and everything connected to Ukrainian traditions was perceived as dull, irrelevant “peasant culture.” Here, though, you have a band with upbeat remixes of folk songs collected by the band members themselves and their colleagues, who traveled around Ukraine to record old folk songs in the small villages that preserved them. Well, remixes are what I call them: In reality, it’s an artistic exploration of traditional folk tunes in the realm of contemporary music. All in all, the band was definitely standing out. 

While Ukrainians were slowly rebuilding their relationship with their own traditions and culture, DakhaBrakha found success abroad — even more than at home. The quartet is one of the best known Ukrainian bands internationally. They have performed at countless music festivals in the U.S., Europe, Australia, and New Zealand, played at NPR's Tiny Desk Concert in 2015, and recorded one of their albums in Brazil in 2019. Ukrainians have caught up too, and now most of the tickets sell out at least a couple of months before their concerts here.

Apart from listening to DakhaBrakha, it’s a special pleasure to watch the band perform. Dressed in traditional Ukrainian costumes, the members play a variety of instruments: goblet drums, cello, piano, tabla, didgeridoo, harmonica, accordion, cajón, jaw harp, percussion, djembe, flute, buhay, ukulele, and zhaleika. Don’t worry if half of these instruments sound foreign — I had to Google them just to list them here. 

For beginners, I highly recommend my all-time favorite song: Monakh. I dare you to avoid dancing a little while listening.