Merrie Melodias #9 - Robot Meloman M-110

Uzbekistan-based DJ and boss of the experimental ТОПОТ label Eugenie Galochkin presents rare vinyl rips from the Soviet Melodia label. Melodia has released music from all around the world: from obscure Baltic electronica and free jazz from Siberia; to synth-pop from Tajikistan and academic avant-garde from Ukraine. The series will explore how national and cultural characteristics are embedded in musical language.

This episode is dedicated to the first Meloman M-110 music machines in the Soviet Union. Cabinets with music weighing 130 kilograms began to appear in the 60s in places where citizens would rest – cafes and restaurants, sanatoriums and cruise ships. Each jukebox held fifty seven-inch records and accordingly allowed listening to two-hundred songs.

In total, Melodiya issued about two-hundred records for Meloman - they were not sold in ordinary shops, but the music recorded on them was popular among listeners. The cost of listening to one song was only five kopecks, while the price of a seven-inch record at retail was seventy kopecks and more.

Meloman's repertoire included mostly city pop music of the 60s and 70s in the languages of commonwealth countries. However, in this episode I tried to include not the biggest hits of those years. You will hear bubblegum pop from Poland and Japan, psychedelic rock from Azerbaijan, pop chorals from Georgia, foxtrots from the GDR, as well as a lot of jazz and swing from Russia and the Lesser Caucasus.

It is believed that it was through the Meloman's speakers that Soviet citizens first heard the The Beatles' music – not the original recordings, but performed on a Hammond organ. In 1967, Keith Buckingham recorded a medley of three songs by the Liverpool 4 and this was included in the repertoire of the Soviet Jukebox and in this episode (track 11).

It can seem that the repertoire of the Meloman music machine sounds rather utopian: "I walk and sing and the street sings. The traffic light winked: ‘Go ahead!’," – Soviet pop diva Edita Piekha squints with pleasure in her schlager. It seems to have been so! Meloman's popularity waned in the late 70s, when clubs with live ensembles began to appear in big cities, personal vinyl players became available to almost every worker, and soon the rough rock of Perestroika became fashionable.

Tracklist

Гая - Гая (1969)
ВИА Голубые гитары - Скачки (1970)
Полад Бюль-Бюль оглы - Тар и квартет гитар (1970)
Эстрадный Оркестр Олдо Земана - Лежу в траве (1970)
Филипинки - Мы - Филипинки (1969)
Эдита Пьеха - Я иду и пою (1967)
Лайне - Весёлые монашки (1966)
ВИА Орэра - На любимой улице (1966)
Батыр Закиров - Без тебя (1967)
Олег Ухналёв - Баллада о солнечном "Ра" (1970)
Кит Бекингем - Фантазия на темы Битлсов (1967)
Кит Бекингем - Караван (1967)
Гарри Хайнц - Попурри фокстротов (1970)
Гюлли Чохели - Потанцуй со мной (1966)
Ройял Найтс - У нас есть завтра (1967)
Джаз-ансамбль Балалайка - Тульский самовар (1967)
Джаз-квартет Георгия Гараняна - Здравствуй (1967)
Мурад Кажлаев - Не спеша (1967)
Оркестр под управлением Олега Лундстрема - Песня без слов (1967)
Трио Б. Рычкова - Песня (1967)