The Russian Futurists are a

Canadian Canadians () are people identified with the country of Canada. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. For most Canadians, many (or all) of these connections exist and are collectively the source of their being ''C ...

indie pop Indie pop (also typeset as indie-pop or indiepop) is a music genre and subculture that combines guitar pop with a DIY ethic in opposition to the style and tone of mainstream pop music. It originated from British post-punk in the late 1970s and s ...

band based in

Toronto Toronto ( , locally pronounced or ) is the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, most populous city in Canada. It is the capital city of the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian province of Ontario. With a p ...

. Their music can be described as

lo-fi Lo-fi (also typeset as lofi or low-fi; short for low fidelity) is a music or production quality in which elements usually regarded as imperfections in the context of a recording or performance are present, sometimes as a deliberate stylistic ch ...

indie Indie is a short form of "independence" or "independent"; it may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media *Independent media, media free of influence by government or corporate interests *Indie art, fine arts made by artists independent of commer ...

electronica Electronica is both a broad group of electronic-based music styles intended for listening rather than strictly for dancing and a music scene that came to prominence in the early 1990s in the United Kingdom. In the United States, the term is mos ...

fused with a twee-pop temperament. The band started as a solo project of Matthew Adam Hart (born 1978), and later expanded into a band for live performances.

History

Hart was born and raised in

Cornwall, Ontario Cornwall is a city in Eastern Ontario, Canada, situated where the provinces of Central Canada, Ontario and Quebec and the U.S. state of New York (state), New York converge. It is Ontario's easternmost city. Although it is the seat of the United ...

. Influenced by songwriters like

Stephin Merritt Stephin Merritt (born February 9, 1965) is an American singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist, best known as the songwriter and principal singer of the bands the Magnetic Fields, the Gothic Archies, and Future Bible Heroes. He is known for ...

The Magnetic Fields The Magnetic Fields are an American Band (rock and pop), band founded and led by Stephin Merritt. Merritt is the group's primary songwriter, producer, and vocalist, as well as frequent multi-instrumentalist. The band is named after the André B ...

, he spent his early career creating indie

hip hop music Hip-hop or hip hop (originally disco rap) is a popular music Music genre, genre that emerged in the early 1970s from the African Americans, African-American community of New York City. The style is characterized by its synthesis of a wide r ...

tracks, using improvised gear, in Cornwall and in

Peterborough, Ontario Peterborough ( ) is a city on the Otonabee River in Ontario, Canada, about 125 kilometres (78 miles) northeast of Toronto. According to the 2021 Census, the population of the City of Peterborough was 83,651. The population of the Peterborough ...

. Hart's first album under the name The Russian Futurists was released by Upper Class Recordings in 2000, and titled ''The Method of Modern Love''. The album was praised by

Graham Coxon Graham Leslie Coxon (born 12 March 1969) is an English guitarist, singer and songwriter who came to prominence as a founding member of the rock band Blur. As the group's lead guitarist and secondary vocalist, Coxon is featured on all of Blur' ...

of Blur and

Peter Buck Peter Lawrence Buck (born December 6, 1956) is an American musician and songwriter. He was a co-founder and the lead guitarist of the alternative rock band R.E.M.; he played the banjo and mandolin on several R.E.M. songs. Throughout his caree ...

R.E.M. R.E.M. was an American alternative rock band formed in Athens, Georgia, in 1980 by drummer Bill Berry, guitarist Peter Buck, bassist Mike Mills, and lead vocalist Michael Stipe, who were students at the University of Georgia. One of the fir ...

'' Uncut'' magazine called it "one of the most melodically seductive and exhilarating records of recent times". The band also received positive reviews in

Pitchfork Media ''Pitchfork'' (formerly ''Pitchfork Media'') is an American online music magazine founded in 1996 by Ryan Schreiber in Minneapolis. It originally covered Alternative rock, alternative and independent music, and expanded to cover genres includin ...

, ''

Spin Spin or spinning most often refers to: * Spin (physics) or particle spin, a fundamental property of elementary particles * Spin quantum number, a number which defines the value of a particle's spin * Spinning (textiles), the creation of yarn or thr ...

'', ''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in Manchester in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'' and changed its name in 1959, followed by a move to London. Along with its sister paper, ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardi ...

'', and ''

XLR8R ''XLR8R'' (pronounced "accelerator") is a website that covers music, culture, style, and technology. It was originally also a print magazine. History and profile ''XLR8R'' was founded as a newsprint zine in 1993 by publisher Andrew Smith in S ...

''.Dunlevy, T'Cha.
The Russian Futurists Know 'Pop' Isn't a Four-Letter Word
,

Dose Dose or Dosage may refer to: Music * ''Dose'' (Gov't Mule album), 1998 * ''Dose'' (Latin Playboys album) * ''Dosage'' (album), by the band Collective Soul * "Dose" (song), a 2018 song by Ciara * "Dose", song by Filter from the album '' Short ...

, 2007-11-22. Retrieved on 2008-07-06. In 2004 the band toured in the U.S., Canada and Spain. They toured with

Peter Bjorn and John Peter Bjorn and John are a Swedish indie pop/ rock band formed in Stockholm in 1999, named after the first names of the band's members: Peter Morén (vocals, guitar, harmonica), Björn Yttling (bass, keyboards, vocals) and John Eriksson, known ...

Caribou The reindeer or caribou (''Rangifer tarandus'') is a species of deer with circumpolar distribution, native to Arctic, subarctic, tundra, boreal, and mountainous regions of Northern Europe, Siberia, and North America. It is the only represe ...

and

Junior Boys Junior Boys are a Canadian electronic pop group, founded in 1999 in Hamilton, Ontario by Jeremy Greenspan and Johnny Dark. Dark left the project shortly after, and was replaced by engineer Matt Didemus. The duo initially gained critical praise ...

.The Russian Futurists
,

South by Southwest South by Southwest (SXSW) is an annual conglomeration of parallel film, interactive media, and music festivals and Convention (meeting), conferences organized jointly that take place in mid-March in Austin, Texas. It began in 1987 and has conti ...

, 2008. Retrieved on 2008-07-06. Hart recorded the first three lo-fi Futurists albums in his Toronto home, including 2005's ''Our Thickness''; in June 2005 the album appeared on the !earshot Top 200 chart. The band's track "Paul Simon" was chosen by Samsung to include on its phones as a featured song. Hart has remixed other artists' singles, including " Tonight I Have to Leave It" by

Shout Out Louds Shout Out Louds is a Swedish indie pop band from Stockholm. History Formed in Stockholm by childhood friends Adam Olenius (vocals), Ted Malmros (bass), and Carl von Arbin (guitars), Shout Out Louds found an international audience during the e ...

and " The First Five Times" by

Stars A star is a luminous spheroid of plasma held together by self-gravity. The nearest star to Earth is the Sun. Many other stars are visible to the naked eye at night; their immense distances from Earth make them appear as fixed points of ...

. For The Russian Futurists' fourth studio album, looking for more sophisticated production, Hart began recording in a New York studio. The band released the album, '' The Weight’s On The Wheels'', worldwide on November 16, 2010. It was produced by Hart with the aid of

Michael Musmanno Michael Angelo Musmanno (April 7, 1897 – October 12, 1968) was an American jurist, politician, and naval officer. Coming from an immigrant family, he started to work as a coal loader at the age of 14. After serving in the United States Army in ...

(

Outkast Outkast (sometimes written as OutKast) was an American hip-hop duo formed in Atlanta, Georgia, in 1992, consisting of Big Boi (Antwan Patton) and André 3000 (André Benjamin, formerly known as Dré). Widely regarded as one of the greatest an ...

Lilys Lilys are an American indie rock band formed in Washington, D.C in 1988. The only constant member is Kurt Heasley, with the line-up changing regularly. Several of the band's tracks have been used in television advertisements, including the ba ...

Arrested Development ''Arrested Development'' is an American satire, satirical television sitcom created by Mitchell Hurwitz. It follows the Bluths, a formerly wealthy, dysfunctional family and is presented in a Serial (radio and television), serialized format, inco ...

). The lead single “Hoeing Weeds Sowing Seeds”, was mixed by Grammy Award winner

Michael Brauer Michael H. Brauer is an American mix engineer. Career He received a Grammy for "Best Pop Vocal Album" for his work on John Mayer's '' Continuum'', "Best Alternative Album" for Coldplay's '' Parachutes'', and also "Best Rock Album" for Coldplay' ...

(

Coldplay Coldplay are a British Rock music, rock band formed in London in 1997. They consist of vocalist and pianist Chris Martin, guitarist Jonny Buckland, bassist Guy Berryman, drummer and percussionist Will Champion, and manager Phil Harvey (band m ...

John Mayer John Clayton Mayer ( ; born October 16, 1977) is an American singer, songwriter, and guitarist. He attended Berklee College of Music in Boston, but he left for Atlanta in 1997 with fellow guitarist Clay Cook, with whom he formed the short-liv ...

The Bravery The Bravery is an American rock band formed in New York City in 2003. The band consists of lead vocalist Sam Endicott, guitarist Michael Zakarin, keyboardist John Conway, bassist Mike Hindert and drummer Anthony Burulcich. They are best know ...

). The album, ten tracks in total feature tracks “Horseshoe Fortune”, “Register My Firearms? No Way!”,“100 Shopping Days ‘Til Christmas” and “One Night, One Kiss”, a duet with

Heavy Blinkers The Heavy Blinkers were a Canadian orchestrated-pop music group, from Halifax, Nova Scotia. Their music is influenced by Brian Wilson,

singer

Ruth Minnikin Ruth Minnikin is a Canadian singer-songwriter. She was formerly a member of Booming Airplanes, The Heavy Blinkers, The Guthries and Reels, and now performs as Ruth Minnikin and her Bandwagon. She received nominations for Best Female Album and B ...

. The Russian Futurists released a music video for “One Night, One Kiss” off their 2010 fourth studio album, ''The Weight’s on the Wheels''. The songs "Paul Simon", and "Precious Metals" are featured on the ''

NBA 2K11 ''NBA 2K11'' is a 2010 basketball simulation video game developed by Visual Concepts and published by 2K. It was released in October 2010 for Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 2, PlayStation 3, PlayStation Portable, Xbox 360, and Nintendo Wii. A ...

'' soundtrack. In September 2013, Hart began a 9-year stint as cohost of the morning show on Toronto's

CIND-FM CIND-FM (88.1 MHz), branded as ''Indie88'', is an FM radio station in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. The station, which broadcasts an adult album alternative format, had its "soft launch" on July 31, 2013, and had its official launch on September 3, ...

. He left the station in February 2022, and later hosted weekends on Toronto's

CFXJ-FM CFXJ-FM (93.5 FM, "New Country 93.5") is a radio station in Toronto, Ontario. Owned by Stingray Radio, it broadcasts a country music format. Its studios are located on Yonge Street at St. Clair Avenue in Toronto's Deer Park neighbourhood ...

. Hart shifted to producing several hip hop projects in 2022. He was credited with co-producing the track 'Ghost Photo' by Milano Constantine and Big Ghost Ltd. He also produced the EP 'From Russia With Love 2' by Allah Preme of The Umbrella Collective. The latest Russian Futurists release is a co-production between Hart and Toronto producer Jordache (aka Andrew Carr). The EP entitled 'Don't Die' was released on October 31, 2022.

Discography

Albums

* ''The Method of Modern Love'' (2000) * ''Let's Get Ready to Crumble'' (2002)"A Completely Biased Ranking of the 60 Best Canadian Indie Rock Songs of the 00s Part II"
''Vice'', Cam Lindsay Apr 10 2017 * '' Our Thickness'' (2005) * ''Me, Myself And Rye... An Introduction To The Russian Futurists'' (2006, Memphis Industries) * '' The Weight's on the Wheels'' (Nov 2010)

Singles

* ''Paul Simon'' (2006) * ''Hoeing Weeds Sowing Seeds + Remixes EP'' (2010) * ''One Night, One Kiss '' (2011)

Compilations

* '' Me Myself & Rye... An Introduction to the Russian Futurists'' (2006)

EPs

* ''Ecole de Neige'' (1998) * ''Reality Burger With A Side Of Life'' (2019) * Don't Die (2022) * The Yearling (2025)

References

External links

Russian Futurists
official site
The Russian Futurists
Twitter {{DEFAULTSORT:Russian Futurists, The Canadian indie pop groups Musical groups from Toronto Musical groups established in 2000 Lo-fi music groups 2000 establishments in Ontario Memphis Industries artists