"Russia Today (Slyakot)" and "Vostok" by Xz present two auditory pictures of modern Russia and its Soviet ghost, as imagined from the other side of the world. In the first, stuttering drums and the sinuous alto sax of Bennett Kuhn pulse with the muddled chaos of Moscow in springtime. Unintelligible, oil-drenched commands echo in the mind, a dystopian chant from a mundane nightmare, where people continue to find a way. “Impossible dreams. Nothing is what it seems.”

"Vostok" beams back to the techno-futurist Soviet era, inspired by Russian cold wave and minimal synth music of the early '80s. Drums both mechanical and human collide with resolute synths, a transmission from deep space ambitions.