One year ago the MayThunder Festival took a place and became the biggest one. 18 bands from Russia, Belarus, Sweden and Germany joined this year fest and it is obvious that such a number of acts would please everyone listening to synth/ebm/gothic music.
The final list the headliners looked so: S.P.O.C.K, !Distain and Das Ich. Besides it all first time in the history the decision was made to organize two days fest devided stylistically. First day was named the “synthday” and the second one went into the history as the “gothicday”.

The synthday.

Haloed Ghost. The side project of Kommutator’s keyboarder is oriented to synth/gothic sound with the female voice. The leading singer of Haloed Ghost (Marie) presented already known due the appearances at some Moscow events during last 2 years songs and for sure “Grey” which is one of the best tracks made by this act.

Nurstress. The collaboration of the well known names in Russia and not only is hidden under this name. The project created by dj BabyMax (Technologia, Module), the singer of Inner Conflict (Nonsense) and the female synth-duo Emplosia. Two songs were played: “Pigment” and “Missing”. The acting at the scene was supported with the videoprojection at the screen

Logika Metro. The synthpop band from Belarus increased the geographical frames of the originally Russian festival. Nice and melodic sound of that band proves that things are going well in Belarus and the synthpop is in the progress there.

D.Sign. The band is from Russian city calling Orel. The quality and original synthpop act with energy and charismatic singers both male and female played a few songs including the newest “Photographer”.

Kommutator. Comparing with other gigs before the MF2’s appearance of the band was colored with 2 additional guitarists. Consequently the “commutation” of the band with the audience was more drive. As it was expected the best tracks were played (“The Light Of The Far Star”, “Ultimatum”, “No One Except You”).

Robots. The discovery of last few years joined the scene in the original head constructions transformed guys into something between robots and church pastors. So or so it looked more than impressive as well the sound line of the Robots’ set. Partially reminding the art of Kraftwerk these guys though go their own minimalist way to create the music.

Mesmer. The band standing along with Technologia, Arrival and Bio at the beginning of the USSR synth scene for sure was that is needed at this festival. Mesmer’s tracks were met very good by the audience especially by the 90-ties synth fans.

TNV. The real surprise awaited for the people coming to see the festival as well it is the legendary act playing EBM which was nearly dead and to organize the appearance of the singer of TNV at the fest was a little miracle even. TNV represented by Valery Valiev only gifted 4 hits and exploded the dancefloor with the energy of the oldschool EBM.


Sensor. The MayThunder Festival 2 became the debut of this band from Nizhny Novgorod in Moscow. This band playing classical and smooth synthpop for sure became a discovery for many visitors of the event. The professional sound and melodic male vocal made this band one of the best newcommers of an year.

Bio. The same story like it is with TNV this band became those brick that made the festival “global”. The father of the synthpop scene of the USSR returned! Exploding the audience with the hit of the 90-ties “Rhythms Of The Life’s Environment” all the time being at the scene Alexander Jakovlev manipulated with the mood of the crowd like it was in the beginning of the 90-ties. After playing of a new track from the forthcoming album Alexander finished the Russian part of the festival’s program.

Module. Beginning from the synthpop genre this electroband is getting more and more drive and hard sounding. The hymns of the “modulators” were played “I Know” and “The Sky”. DJ BabyMax which is a member of the band could be called real hero as well appeared four! times (with Technologia, Nurstress and Virtual Server except Module).

Arrival. The band which is one of favs of the Russian synthpop fans played a brilliant line of their songs which was combined with the video projections. After the songs were sung the audience even didn’t want to let them go.

Technologia. This time legendary Russian synth-pop act Technologia played only the new songs from forthcoming album. That fact was not confusing as well mostly all new songs were known to the audience due the playing of them at the performances of this year in Russia.

!Distain. The first foreign headliner of the synthday !Distain due to the words of band didn’t play yet out of Germany so appearance of the band in Moscow could be described as first “foreign” gig. Due to that fact guys played an excellent show. It’s known fact in Russia that !Distain is a band which has not the last place in the list of favor acts between dm/synth audience here so many of the audience sang with the band (it seems a bit unexpectedly for guys). This fact leaded to that whole the concert was played how it Russians say “soul to soul”. Full the spectrum of the best songs of Germans: “Conversation Overkill”, “Sex’N’Cross”, “America”, “Confession”, “Metal Rules”, “Tears Of Joy” and other great tracks was met very warmly by the visitors. The final point of the !Distain’s show was the song of the Virtual Server where !Distain’s singer Alex contributed the vocals and DJ Ram’s version of one of the songs of the band with BabyMax on the guitar. It was the world premiere of this Virtual Server song and the first time ever when the possibility to hear “guitar vs !Distain” was at all. On of the funniest moments were guys of Das Ich dancing between people near the scene to support German colleagues.

S.P.O.C.K . The appearance of this legendary Swedish band became a big success for all the Russian synthpoppers and fans of this act. The band is not that active last times and play gigs rarely so it is a good question when Russian astroboys and astrogirls could see the band live. But the unreal things turn reality and S.P.O.C.K gave the exclusive show for Russia in frames of this festival. Especial thanks to the band because they didn’t forget to take with them their famous “star-track” clothes. Over than hour of active music and energy activated and re-activated the audience totally. The humor of the singer made the action yet funny. The best hits were sung - “Astrogirl”, “E.T.: Phone Home”, “E.T. Aren’t Nice”, “I’m An Android”, “Never Trust A Klingon” and much more… Krull and Johan did their parts excellent with the improvisation at the keyboard and back vocals of Johan. Johan looked already partially Russian as well it was already eighth time of his visiting of Russia (he was here with Elegant Machinery and Vacuum before and had a nice chance to visit more cities than Moscow and Petersburg even – Saratov and Nizhny Novgorod).

The MayThunder festival 2 (The Wind Returns) proved once again its status of the biggest festival in Russia dedicated to the synth/ebm/gothic genres.