When reality slaps you, slap back. Poly_Chain, aka Kyiv-born multi-talent Sasha Zakrevska, has a pure-fire mix of “bumpy electro” and adrenaline-driving broken beats, a lot of it unreleased (though some of it you can and should buy.) The Choreography and Merriment departments say you’re welcome.
Photo at top: Helena Majewska. [ Instagram | helenamajewska.com ]
I don’t know about you, but I needed this, especially with a lot of weak sauce mixes floating about out there in our algorithm-driven, pay-for-play dystopia. You know those mixes – the one you want a track ID on every track?
Well, here’s the tracklist:
01. DJ Plead & rRoxymore — Read Wrong
02. Strange Contents — Broken Promise
03. Mercy System — TooLate
04. Poly Chain — Unreleased [Lightronics]
05. DJ Glow x DJ Di’jital — Whoami
06. Andy Garvey — Mastermind Deep Mix
07. Phasmid — Hadal Zone
08. Burna — Whippin
09. Operator — Sector Seven
10. Shai FM — Emergence
11. Monoconda — Fuck These Algorithms
12. Dylan Cameron — Futurebeats
13. Atrice, Klahrk — Youʼve Changed
Some is unreleased – here’s what’s up so far on Buy Music Club so you can grab it yourself from Bandcamp:
Mixmag Ukraine / 13 March, 2025 [Buy Music Club]
And it’s perfect, because I’m excited to talk more about Poly_Chain’s upcoming full-length very soon. That one spans experimental / club / ambient territory, all three, and you can get some early previews that should convince you to mark your calendar:
This accompanies an interview (in Ukrainian, natch), with Mixmag Ukraine. If you want to online-translate that, non-speakers, feel free to let us know if you have other questions for Sasha and maybe I can follow up in time for the LP drop.
Artist of the Month: Poly Chain
The article is a great reminder to revisit this live performance for Unsound’s podcast:
Ukraine in the news
By the way – I’m a fan of Poly_Chain for her music, not her passport or country of origin. But if you do care about someone’s music, then you should also care about what’s going on where they’re from. There are many ways to keep up with what’s happening in Ukraine (with the White House being a suspect source of information, to say the least). I really appreciated the perspective of Ukrainian journalist Romeo Kokraitski (follow him on BlueSky). He’s speaking here to Elia Ayoub, the UK-based Lebanese creator of The Fire These Times and the From the Periphery platform, so you hear a conversation outside the Western filter. And Romeo speaks eloquently about not just Ukraine and the current relationship to the USA, but what it means to live in a world of bullies. That’s something I imagine pretty much every single CDM reader from around the world can relate to.
What Ukraine Faces w/ Romeo Kokriatski
And because supporting musicians means supporting the humans, it’s good to keep spreading these perspectives around and combating misinformation.
There’s plenty more; that’s just what was in my queue this week while talking to friends about the current situation.