PLOHO

PLOHO is a post-punk / new-wave band formed in 2013 in Novosibirsk, a major industrial center of Siberia. The band focused on a particular lo-fi sound that derives both from their passion to Soviet and British new-wave of the 80-s and the lack of resources and absence of proper studio equipment. This resolved to the appearance of a particular type of sound afterwards borrowed and thought of by many other bands from different post-soviet countries. 

The band combines the cold and loneliness of a Siberian industrial megapolis with traditional post-punk, adding the stories of hopelessness and pointlessness of struggling with a police state, at times with irony and sometimes with a glimpse of hope. Ploho romanticizes the life of a common man living in an old block building next door. The band sings of an unremarkable life of this ordinary guy that is nostalgic of the 90-00 with its VWS and tape cassettes. 

In 2020 Ploho signed to Artoffact Records. The same year their songs were taken as the main soundtrack for the Lithuanian film «Isaak», selected as the Lithuanian entry for the Best International Feature Film at the 94th Academy Awards. Ploho band members also participated in one of the scenes playing a role of some fictional soviet leningrad rock scene ensemble. 

In February 2022 the band started recording their last album «When the soul sleeps». The start of the Russian invasion of Ukraine at first stopped the recording for some time but afterwards these tragic events heavily influenced the album. The lead singer and frontman Viktor Uzhakov decided to add a few songs written in march 2022 describing his emotions concerning fear for their friends and the tragedy in whole. 

By the end of summer the same year the album was finished in the legendary studio «Melodiya» after which the band officially left Russia and relocated itself to Belgrade, Serbia where it is based now.