TNMK or Tanok na Maidani Kongo ( ; "Dance at the Congo Square") is the most successful Ukrainian hip-hop group. They are known for clever, yet often tongue-in-cheek, lyrics; mixing hip-hop with

rock Rock most often refers to: * Rock (geology), a naturally occurring solid aggregate of minerals or mineraloids * Rock music, a genre of popular music Rock or Rocks may also refer to: Places United Kingdom * Rock, Caerphilly, a location in Wale ...

funk Funk is a music genre that originated in African-American communities in the mid-1960s when musicians created a rhythmic, danceable new form of music through a mixture of various music genres that were popular among African-Americans in the ...

and

jazz Jazz is a music genre that originated in the African-American communities of New Orleans, Louisiana, in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Its roots are in blues, ragtime, European harmony, African rhythmic rituals, spirituals, h ...

music and playing real instruments on their albums and live shows, rather than using samples and

drum machine A drum machine is an electronic musical instrument that creates percussion sounds, drum beats, and patterns. Drum machines may imitate drum kits or other percussion instruments, or produce unique sounds, such as synthesized electronic tones. A d ...

s. TNMK performed at many festivals as: Sziget Fest,Esthetic Education and TNMK showed themselves in “Sziget” rock-festival
/ref> Zakhid, Tavria Games, Chervona Ruta, Faine Misto and Bandershtat.

History

The group was formed at a labor camp on 14 June 1989 by Oleksandr "Fozzi" Sydorenko and Kostiantyn "Kotia" Zhuikov and was originally called Novye Doma () after one of the

Kharkiv Kharkiv, also known as Kharkov, is the second-largest List of cities in Ukraine, city in Ukraine.

city neighborhoods where members of the band lived. They performed at the camp graduation ceremony, after which it was decided to gather the full band on 1 September 1989 at the school No. 11 where they studied. In September of the same year during

subbotnik Subbotnik and voskresnik (from rus, суббо́та, p=sʊˈbotə for "Saturday" and , for "Sunday") were days of volunteer unpaid work on weekends after the October Revolution, though the word itself is derived from (''subbota'' for Satur ...

, the band guitarist Ivan Rykov, instead of painting a goal post, drew at the school shooting range a phrase "''НОВЫЕ ДОМА ГР''", while for the rest ''УППА'' he ran out of paint (ГРУППА in Russian means a band). The phrase survived for over 20 years, but faded away over a time. Originally Novye Doma played near the local Palace of Pioneers (southeastern portion of the city), but later managed to secure a studio at the Palace of Pioneers in the west side of the city where they performed in 1990-1994. Coincidentally just over the fence from the Palace of Culture was located a boarding music school where at the same time the future band member Oleh Mykhailyuta was learning to play

bassoon The bassoon is a musical instrument in the woodwind family, which plays in the tenor and bass ranges. It is composed of six pieces, and is usually made of wood. It is known for its distinctive tone color, wide range, versatility, and virtuosity ...

(). The palace administration allowed the band to perform under one condition that they would play one of the popular songs once a week. Among the composition that they had to learn was

I've Been Thinking About You "I've Been Thinking About You" is a song by British band Londonbeat, released in August 1990 by Radioactive Records, Radioactive and Anxious Records, Anxious as the lead single from their second studio album, ''In the Blood (album), In the Bloo ...

Londonbeat Londonbeat are a British dance-pop band who scored a number of pop and dance hits in the early 1990s. They currently consist of vocalists Jimmy Helms, Jimmy Chambers, and Charles Pierre. Former members include multi-instrumentalist William He ...

Don't Cry "Don't Cry" is a song by American hard rock band Guns N' Roses, two versions of which were released simultaneously on different albums. The version with the original lyrics is the fourth track on '' Use Your Illusion I'' (1991), while the versio ...

Guns N' Roses Guns N' Roses is an American hard rock band formed in Los Angeles, California in 1985 as a merger of local bands L.A. Guns and Hollywood Rose. When they signed to Geffen Records in 1986, the band's "classic" line-up consisted of vocalist Axl R ...

, as well as Soviet pop songs. On suggestion of the band's

wind instrument A wind instrument is a musical instrument that contains some type of resonator (usually a tube) in which a column of air is set into vibration by the player blowing into (or over) a mouthpiece set at or near the end of the resonator. The pitch ...

s performer Maksym Lytvynenko, the band changed its name to Tanets na ploschadi Kongo after the

Congo Square Congo Square () is an open space, now within Louis Armstrong Park, which is located in the Tremé neighborhood of New Orleans, Louisiana, just across Rampart Street north of the French Quarter. The square is famous for its influence on the ...

New Orleans New Orleans (commonly known as NOLA or The Big Easy among other nicknames) is a Consolidated city-county, consolidated city-parish located along the Mississippi River in the U.S. state of Louisiana. With a population of 383,997 at the 2020 ...

, which is considered to be a place where

was born. Sometime in 1997 the band changed its name to the current Ukrainian version which was adopted for the 1997 Chervona Ruta festival. TNMK released its first album, ''Zroby meni hip-hop'', in 1998. The title track became an underground hit in

Ukraine Ukraine is a country in Eastern Europe. It is the List of European countries by area, second-largest country in Europe after Russia, which Russia–Ukraine border, borders it to the east and northeast. Ukraine also borders Belarus to the nor ...

, but it was only with the release of Neformat in 2001 that they rose to mainstream popularity. ''Pozhezhi mista Vavilon'', released in 2004, had a harder sound, while ''Jazzy'', released in the same year, was a

live album An album is a collection of audio recordings (e.g., music) issued on a medium such as compact disc (CD), vinyl (record), audio tape (like 8-track or cassette), or digital. Albums of recorded sound were developed in the early 20th centur ...

recorded with a Ukrainian jazz band, Skhid-Side, and featured TNMK songs re-arranged in a jazz and funk style. In the same year, the group toured

France France, officially the French Republic, is a country located primarily in Western Europe. Overseas France, Its overseas regions and territories include French Guiana in South America, Saint Pierre and Miquelon in the Atlantic Ocean#North Atlan ...

and recorded French versions of some of their songs. Their album ''Syla'' was voted the best album of 2005 by the most popular Ukrainian music porta
music.com.ua
Their 2008 album, ''ReFormatTsia vol.2'', is a compilation of remixes of their songs sung by them and other singers such as Oleh Skrypka, Mariya Burmaka and GreatFruit. The album also includes a remix of the song " Chervona Ruta" featuring

Sofia Rotaru Sofiia Mykhailivna Yevdokymenko-Rotaru ( ; ; ; born 7 August 1947), known simply as Sofia Rotaru, is a Ukrainian pop singer of Romanian origin. Rotaru, nicknamed "Bukovinsky Solovey" ("the Nightingale from Bukovina"), emerged in 1966 as a po ...

. In 2014 they released their album ''Dzerkalo''.

Discography

* 1998 '' Zroby meni hip-hop (Make me hip hop)'' (Зроби мені хіп-хоп) * 2001 '' Neformat (Curiosities)'' (Неформат) * 2002 '' Reformatsiya (Reformation)'' (Реформація) (remix album) * 2004 '' Pozhezhi mista Vavilon (Fires of the City Babylon)'' (Пожежі міста Вавілон) * 2004 '' Jazzy'' (live album)'' * 2005 '' Syla (The Power)'' (Сила) * 2008 '' ReFormatTsia vol.2'' (ReFormation vol.2) (remix album) * 2010 '' S.P.A.M.'' (С.П.А.М.) * 2014 '' Dzerkalo (The Mirror)'' (Дзеркало) * 2018 '

References

External links

Official website
{{Authority control Ukrainian rock music groups Soviet musical groups Soviet rock music groups Ukrainian hip-hop groups