OBEMA Releases 2020

The best releases of 2020 according to the Open Belarusian Electronic Music Awards (OBEMA). This page gathers the winners and nominees in the categories of best EPs and releases issued on Belarusian and foreign labels, best independent releases by Belarusian producers, and the best compilations of the year. Listen to the nominees’ tracks right on the page and discover the electronic music of Belarus in 2020 — techno, house, drum-n-bass and more.

Where the Release Categories Came From

There were very few answers, and there were also plenty of answers that didn’t meet the objective criteria: “the release year isn’t 2020”, “not a release, but a recording of a set”. Even after adding the expert survey results, no clear leaders emerged.

Since the submitted answers couldn’t form any more or less representative picture and it would be blind voting, it became clear that we needed to act differently:

1) We split the voting into two separate surveys to reduce the noise from random answers.

2) Instead of “best label” we made the category “best release on a Belarusian label”, and instead of “best producer” we added two more categories. In effect we get three best producers with their releases, and the best Belarusian label.

3) We put the “maximum” number of releases up for voting

4) We put together a selection of all the releases so it would be easy to at least briefly get acquainted with them.

5) We extended all voting until 23:00 on March 3, so those who are genuinely interested would have time to dig in and listen.

All Releases by Category

Category:

“Best Release Issued on a Belarusian Label”

Backside Slice

Minsk

Dmitry Govela – Tempest
Pean Twix – Nous Eclipse
Echo Inside – Physical Illusions
PEKLA – Three Drops Of Patience
Belarusian Dark Integration

Ezhevika

Minsk

Marmi – Under Grammatic

Minsk 0

Minsk, Belarus

Ilya Gurin-Babayeu – Embryos XLP
Ylowii – Bootleg Stuff 2 : Light Adaptation

Postdynamic

Grodno

Smoley – Anesthesia // PD002
Cliche Morph – Exorcist // PD003
Cliche Morph – Thoughts // PD007
Various Artists I // PD010

SENSE LABEL

Molodechno, Belarus

Pekla – Many Impontant Things for Pekloid
Granplus – Remixes 2020

Category:

“Best Independent Release by a Belarusian Producer”

eng8 – when you are really scared but there’s no way back
eng8 – Metrica
Ilya Gurin-Babayeu
All-consuming Knock Above the Beth-peor vol.2
https://soundcloud.com/thegurinbabayeu/sets/ep-zanshin
Ilya Gurin-Babayeu – Zanshin
OlIV – The View
Cliche Morph – Molestation

Category:

Best Release by a Belarusian Producer Issued Abroad

Akaks – Bulldozer
Aslamin – Future Memories
Alexander Bogdanov – Elevation
Alexander Bogdanov – Arcanum
Cliche Morph – Phantom
Dirty Owl // Sleepy Town Manufacture – Memorabilia 2

Full version on Bandcamp

Dmitry Molosh – Elision
Kostya Outta – Extra Virgin
Echo Inside – The Advent
Tender H with Echo Inside – Summer Time
NINA INDI – Just Somewhere
SK​.​EIN – Crossfades
https://soundcloud.com/letstechnorec/pekla-pekloid-late-1-original-mix-peklaton-x-ep
PEKLA – Peklaton-X
PRYPA – Dakor (Remixed By ACIDEATH & Tobikz)
Tender H – Fantasies Of The Present
Tender H – Dacha
Tender H- Lagoon
Tender H- Exit
Tobikz – Technischer Zusammenbruch
Sopik, Skinner, Tobikz – Angeschissen EP
Aznok – Port Under Attack