Recent release of “GUMA” by ONUKA is a perfect mixture of electronics, folk music and a very distinct social message wrapped up in an anti-utopian video.
Ukrainian band ONUKA is known for her love to decode a message in support of an ecological, social or political issue. This time she decided to focus on society’s indifference to people with disabilities.
The song’s beats from the very beginning hit with a sound for the visually impaired people, recorded at the entrance to a subway station in Kyiv. It is initially brought to demonstrate the insecurity of these people in Ukraine.
“Не чую, не бачу, не кажу (I don’t hear, see, speak)” – three actions in the chorus of “GUMA” fully describe the realities in which they live: full of indifference, inattention and apathy.
To emphasize this message ONUKA incorporated the sound from the Ukrainian Parliament which counts down the legislative voting process as a kind of irony that members of the parliament don’t hear and don’t see those problems as well.
The video elaborates on that topic and portrays “a story about the struggle of the individual with the system and about the resistance of mankind to the processes of automation”. That’s the way it envisions Evgeniy Filatov aka The Maneken – a video director and ONUKA’s sound producer.
The Ukrainian folk is foundational to the band’s music. From the beginning they were aiming to show the sound of Ukrainian instruments to the world, mixing folk motifs with electronics.
GUMA was released within “KOLIR” (“Colour”), the third full-length album in eight years of ONUKA’s existence. “In a musical sense, this album is a symbiosis between the band’s classic sound in their first “ONUKA” album and the more electronic one in “VIDLIK”. It seems to me that this album has really gained color.” – ONUKA’s frontwoman Nata says.
Stream “Kolir” LP on Spotify.
*