Led by front man Foma, Mandry delights fans at a recent Sports Palace concert and prepares for a new album release and season of touring.
ed by up‑and‑coming band Mandry is so hard to find, not even the group’s leader, known only as Foma, can get a copy.
Now five years after the band started playing together, the group is making its second album and re‑releasing the first, “Romances of a Tender Queen.”
“We’re going to print more than 3,000 copies this time,” Foma laughed, during an interview following a recent concert at Sports Palace.
The band has been getting plenty of exposure lately by playing hip clubs like Art Club 44 and Ostannya Barikada, and a Valentine’s concert called “Party for the Enamored,” which drew thousands to one of Kyiv’s largest concert venues.
Mandry’s upbeat, folksy Ukrainian style of rock has apparently earned fans even outside Ukraine. The band has an upcoming concert tour to Paris and London and has played at a rock festival in Budapest in 2000.
The band’s new album, which will incorporate both guest artists and a range of new instruments (cello, violin, a comb), is more complex than the single released in 2000 called “Mermaid.” With 15 songs planned for the new disc, Mandry will have the chance to show the variety of their already‑experimental sound.
“The album is going to be a mixture of folk and reggae, with something of a mystic feel to it,” Foma said.
Mandry has also produced four new videos, including two that have already been released and two others to be release in conjunction with the London/Paris tour.
When Mandry plays in Paris, the five‑piece ensemble – guitar, bass, accordion, drums and percussion – will be promoting a compilation CD project called “Rock Ukraine,” due for release in April. The CD will be sold in Europe.
Mandry has already performed at various festivals across Europe, including the “Eastern Woodstock” Pepsi Island music festival in Budapest in 2000. Mandry has a small but loyal fan base here in Kyiv as well. And recent shows at Ostannya Barikada and Art Club 44 were slickly delivered and enthusiastically received.
At the “Party for the Enamored,” Foma said he wished he’d had a better chance to see some of the performances. The show, which might well have been called the “Party for the Hammered” for the amount of beer consumed, was headlined by hip‑hop sensations TNM Kongo and Tartak. But it wasn’t the beer that made the difference at this concert. The difference was the emcee – none other than TNM Kongo frontman Vol‑D‑Mair.
Though the lead‑up acts included the Art Ballet dance troupe, the all‑girl band Potuzhni Divchata, Plach Yeremy, Haidamaki and Mandry, it was hip‑hop that ruled the night. From the very moment Vol‑D‑Mair and TNM Kongo were introduced, the entire floor at the Sports Palace came to life, thrashing about like ocean waves in a hurricane – not like the star‑crossed lovers one might expect at a Valentine party.
Vol‑D‑Mair, dressed in his trademark black‑rimmed glasses and wool cap, only had to open his mouth to send the crowd into a froth, singing along to several of the group’s hits, including “Propaganda on the Radio.”
But, then again, part of the success of the party stemmed from this odd assortment of music: girl group, reggae‑folk, traditional rock, ska, hip‑hop and rap. Besides proving highly entertaining, it also demonstrated that with bands like Mandry around, the Ukrainian music scene is alive and kicking.
