A joke: A Russian who learned to dance and sing despite his families hardship moved to Sweden with his mother. He saved up his money and bought a drum kit and taught himself how to play. Having to give up drumming to his parent complaints of the noise he became interested in computers and programming music. He made some music under the name Skoud compressing his forename and surname together and some famous web designer asked if he could use it for his site. The music got many compliments. He then moved to Carlisle to study. His first album get released by a relatively new label based there called Motivesounds Recordings.
OK, OK, I admit its not funny. That’s because, if you haven’t already seen through my oh so cunning charade then I can tell you that it’s not a joke. And that it is indeed real. And I do indeed hold in my hands an electronica album from a Russian come Swedish guy called Simon Koudriavtsev.
‘Systems And Drafts’ is the...
sounddevastation.co.uk
Editor's Pick
Swedish artist Skoud breaks the cherry and christens the upstart label Motivesounds Recordings with his enigmatic and very original debut. Well that is to say his first non-demo, full-length release on a label. He’s got plenty of CD-R and demo releases under his belt already but this is the real deal. What you have here is glitchy techno with ambient soundscapes as the backdrop. Filtered loops and samples are used with inventive playfulness and after listening to his beats you can tell he was originally a drummer as they’re incredibly different breaks. If you could imagine Aphex Twin, Encomiast, Source Direct, and The Higher Intelligence Agency meet the Orb in a studio drinking magic mushroom tea and armed with a bevy of synths, samplers, and drum machines, you could easily have just pictured “Systems & Drafts”. Pick this album up immediately—I know I’ll be keeping a close eye on this very promising label as it adds more great artists to its roster.
smother.net
excellent debut release from the new motivesounds recordings label. skoud is a swedish artist who goes by the name simon koudriavtsev, born in the early 80's in st. Petersburg, ended up playing drums for a swedish rock band, moila falls, yet decides to release this 13 track, 35 minute album of gorgeous electronic based music under his own alias. the range of music on offer throughout the weirdly named tracks makes for a calmly thrilling aural journey, we get dips into bleepy drum-n-bass styled grooves in the opening few minutes, old school peter namlook ambience in 'system 25', deep bass action, and wonderfully melodic acoustic guitars and harmonies in the lovely folktronica styled 'system 20 live edit'. as a lot of electronica music can become a little unattached to the listener, and too interested in discovering new ways to f*ck with your stereo system, it's great that simon has maintained the listenable quota throughout, with his constant use of drama and cinematic atmosphere ('madia vale') while still...
ireallylovemusic.co.uk
Simon Koudriavtsev (aka Skoud) spends most of his time drumming for Swedish rock band Molia Falls, yet he also has a penchant for homemade electronica in the Mum and Boards Of Canada vein. Talented git. This debut is made up of choppy, minimalistic beats and robotic bleeps, creating spacey atmospheres tinged with warmth and personality. Melodies are never far away, and ‘System 20 Live Edit’ is awash with them. A little more character and these songs would truly grab, but they’re inventive enough to keep you interested. What’s more, the piano ballad ‘Requiem For The Art College’ is positively moving. Four Tet fans should have a gander.
- Mike Haydock
new-noise.net
The press release accompanying label mate Skoud’s debut album makes the rather bold proclamation that “Systems and Drafts” “will… become a soundtrack to your existence”. I’d like to think my life would be soundtracked by something more tuneful than this but if you spend all day listening to the ambient noodling of Boards of Canada, have a fetish for expensive sound recording equipment and a subscription to “Wire” magazine then this may be right up your street.
- Clark Summers
godisinthetvzine.co.uk
Making sounds akin to the Aphex Twin collaborating with Boards Of Canada, Skoud is someone creating music that’s both chilling and mesmerising. SYSTEMS AND DRAFTS is an album of subdued beats and the kind of abstract minimalism you'd associate with Harold Budd or Brian Eno - sounds that drift in and out, less a collection of songs as a collage of ideas and soundscapes, a dreamlike collision of the strange and the beautiful.
A track like SYSTEM 25 might dip its toe in the murky waters of techno, but its a tentative step - the sampled blips and beeps acting as a counterpoint to the deft beats and gentle bass lines. MAIDA VALE is a densely atmospheric affair, deep bass rumbles conveying a sense of tension and distant menace - the aural equivalent of a David Lynch movie, dark and sinister, but with a fearless beauty beating at its heart. SYSTEM 20 LIVE EDIT throws in a delicate guitar line to add some texture against the subtle wafts of glacial synth effects and skittery beats - and its a move...
ukmusicsearch.co.uk
Motivesounds Recordings is a new record label based in Carlisle UK.planning to promote independent and original music with a fresh perspective. Well, their first three releases certainly fit the bill containing some innovative and powerful music.
Finally on Motivesounds comes Simon Koudriavtsev who records under the name Skoud and whose debut album squeezes thirteen electronic miniatures into thirty-five minutes. Full of skewed rhythms, delicate refrains and assorted pops, clicks, and whooshes, the sounds on the album are fresh and invigorating avoiding clichés and never overstaying their welcome, something that seems to happen a lot with electronica these days.
If these releases are anything to go by then Motivesound are a label worth investigating, dealing in music rather than product, long may it continue.
- Simon Lewis
terrascope.co.uk
Skoud is a Russian/Swedish drum and bass aficionado with a flair for the romantic. Listening to his latest album Systems and Drafts is a bit like watching a Bergman film — there are hooks and glances that only make sense in context.
The song titles, however, are far from romantic. System 3 Draft 2 couples a wistful melody with R2D2 electronics. System 25 is similar, repeating a moody melodic line against an array of surprisingly soulful blips and bleeps. In fact, soulful blips and bleeps are all over this record. There’s something about the timing though, that keeps it all noiresque and fog-drenched. There is a ghost in the machine and its heart is on fire.
In what seems to be a new trend, songs are short, flowing into each other with barely a pause. The disc has a cinematic quality, full of elided scenes segueing one into the next. Always there’s the pale blue sky and the open sea.
On System 20 Live Edit, a tap dance rhythm takes over. The dancer is a robot. The guitarist is a man. There is delicate...
indiedisco.com
“Skoud,” aka Russian-born drummer of Swedish instrumental-celestials ‘Molia Falls,’ Simon Koudriavtsev has achieved something rather marvellous with his first release ‘Systems and Drafts.’ The first release from Carlisle-based Motivesounds Recordings, it will surely become the independent release by which others are judged, setting the bar to a higher level of quality, understanding, musicianship and originality than any other artist can comprehend, let alone execute.
Having played this to a large number of friends and acquaintances in various locations since receiving it a fortnight ago, they have each mentioned different artists of varying genre that they feel reflect Skoud’s sound most accurately. Among them; Royksopp, Boards of Canada, Aphex Twin, Spiritualized, Orbital, Higher Intelligence Agency, Thievery Corporation, and various other unknowns from the worlds of trip-hop, drum n’ bass, elctronica and folk. It was this reaction that I...
skiddle.com
Skoud is the shortened name for Russian-born electronica artist Simon Koudriavtsev. After leaving St. Petersburg where he concentrated on singing, he moved with his family to Sweden where he became an accomplished drummer. Now residing in Cumbria, Skoud makes his first appearance for Carlisle-based Motivesounds Recordings. Perhaps not too surprisingly given his varied background, the sound of 'Systems And Drafts' is initially hard to pinpoint; sometimes it appears to consist of a random set of clicks and beats over some sinister background atmospheres. Delve deeper into these thirteen short tracks, however, and there are some wonderful moments to be discovered. There are at least three tracks here which share the mysterious melodies of Boards Of Canada with one of the trio, 'Beat 1-1', virtually a pastiche. Yet further investigation uncovers some inventive techno ('Bagtag') whilst 'System 20 Live Edit' possesses a sped-up, addictive tune. Not everything Skoud...
leonardslair.co.uk
Everything about Skoud’s press release made me desperate to hear the album. It told the story of a poor young Russian boy named Simon Koudriastev, whose actress mother couldn’t afford a babysitter, and so had to take the infant Simon along to rehearsals, giving him a life long love of the arts. Later, when the family moved Sweden, Simon saved for years in order to buy his first drum kit, only to be ordered to sell it by his parents, presumably driven to distraction by his early percussive adventures in their tiny, Swedish flat. The story has a happy ending, and that ending is this album, released by the influential motivesounds label, champions of the diverse and neoteric Cumbria and Borders music scene.
If it were necessary to describe Skoud’s music in a single phrase, then you might like to imagine an easy listening Aphex Twin, although this doesn’t begin to do justice to the variety of ideas and melodies that are explored on this album.
William Burroughs once spoke of the rhythm and music of...
glasswerk.co.uk
Skoud is really Simon Koudriavtsev and this is his first proper full length on Motive Sound Records. Skoud is really minimalist electronica in the vein of, say Mum and Boards of Canada.
"System 3 Draft 2" and "Saker" kick off the album, they are both under the two minute mark and they are both fascinating pieces. There is a bit of a robotic feel to them, yet I find the songs to be slightly soothing. "System 25" has a very ambient feel to it. "Maida Vale" has a great chaotic energy going. "System 20" has to be one of the more different tracks that I have heard all year. It appears to be a loop of an acoustic guitar behind a very spasmodic beat, it's very addictive and I am a little sad to see it end. "Beat 1-1" is something I can see Bjork singing over. The closing number "Requiem for the Art College" is a gorgeous track, the piano there is simply a marvel. I could listen to this for about ten minutes. It's that good.... and only a minute and half long.
"Systems and Drafts" will fit nicely with fans of Board of...
comfortcomes.com
Clipped vocal snippets, warped keyboard sounds, lush filtered beats. These nine words aptly describe Skoud’s Systems and Drafts, the first major release from Cumbria-based label Motive Sounds. However, this long player deserves much more than a cursory listen, such is the talent displayed throughout the 35 minute trip inside the mind of its creator, Swedish musician Simon Koudriavtsev.
Indeed, Systems and Drafts is a beguiling work which reveals more upon repeated visits. The opening tracks are reminiscent of early minimal Aphex Twin releases, and it’s not until the third track that Koudriavtsev really shows his true talent. ‘System 25’ leaks out of the speakers in ever-increasing amounts, the beat gradually building before escaping into the ether, perched upon a melody Boards of Canada would be proud to call their own. It’s an impressive gambit, and one that immediately brings back any wandering listener who might have tagged Skoud as just another coffee table electro-clique cliché...
drownedinsound.com
December 2005
myspace.com/getrhythm
Simon Koudriavtsev may demonstrate a textural allegiance to Richard D. James, Seefeel and other electronic artists who embrace post-rock aesthetics, but he doesn't let his love of heart-stopping shimmer detract from the jittery grooves that drive his songs. Systems and Drafts brashly fuses ambient keys, synths and guitar with sweaty click-clack. Life-affirming Album Leaf melodies and balmy digifunk collide in "System 19" and "System 20", in which Koudriavtsev concludes, surprisingly, that cinematic sweep and libidinous shuck and jive can enjoy a happy coexistence.
The album is about more than striking polarities: in "System 25", Skoud tries his hand at subtle sculpting, adding and subtracting lines of digital clatter until he reaches a blissful resolution. His shotgun marriages and jigsaw compositions aren't asking to live and die on the fringes, either -- Systems and Drafts is comprised of honest-to-God pop songs, the kind that get their...
splendidmagazine.com
Hoorah for Skoud! Or should I say Simon? For Skoud is non other than a Russian drummer from a Swedish rock band and he is really called Simon Koudriavtsev. You can see why he called himself Skoud. But this mindless wittering apart, 'Systems & Drafts' is a wonderful album full of engaging kinetic electronica which brings a real warmth and atmosphere to a genre that can so easily be cold and characterless.
None of those long meandering instrumental types that get you reaching for the skip button after the first 15 minutes of minimalist bleeps here. All the tracks are short and sharp and all the more accessible for it. Although 'Maida Vale' has a touch of Orbital about it, it is something distinctly northern (or northern European in this case). As opposed to 'System 20' which could be straight out of the Mediterranean club scene, via a swarm of cicadas. And 'Fu' is unabashed Casiocore which sounds like it may have been created for a kids TV programme about a factory production line. Unlikely though...
tastyfanzine.org.uk
A breezy post-ambient wonderland from the blossoming Motive Sounds label, the flagship release and debut long-player from binary wunderkind Skoud will doubtless strike a sympathetic chord in any tender souls who’ll as readily disappear into their Ágætis Byrjuns as their Selected Ambient Works.
A magic carpet ride over 13 tracks of Skoud’s rhythmically restless terrain may not be a fully emphatic departure from its borders shared with Aphex Twin and Four Tet, but Systems And Drafts is nevertheless peppered with plenty of possible evolutions playfully bubbling under. Children’s voices, crowd murmurs and occasional husky harmony vox keep the ghost earthed in the machine, between a pristine web of glitches and woozy drones. There’s also sparse twangs of acoustic guitar (the most palpable Four Tet-ism on show), outbursts of kittenish ZX Spectrum-style motifs, and even odd slutty drum & bass flourishes working to shake off that pesky folktronica tag.
All these rogue waves are...
soundsxp.com
Simon Koudriavtseev (aka Skoud) is a somewhat treasured possession at Motive Sounds records. A 22 year old Russian drummer turned electronica pioneer, signed to this Carlisle label after studying in the city following his degree, is producing some of the most innovative, groundbreaking sounds since Squarepusher discovered the use of Pro Tools.
Debut album Systems and Drafts' mishmash of sound includes tracks such as Maida Vale with its dark, almost industrial electronica sound; not to distant from early Cabaret Voltaire only slightly more atmospheric - to Fu and its '80s computer game element which is reminiscent to the old Spectrum 48k Platform games. Other tracks such as Lystandridge and 515 Jackie Adaptor show Skouds softer side with a more glacial sound to recordings, whilst ‘THC’ contradicts this with it's early '90s dance beat adding an acid trip to the albums reverberation.
Obvious influences for Skouds sound can revert back to the...
highvoltage.org.uk
January 2006
rock-sound.net
According to the motivesounds website, Skoud's 'Systems & Drafts' is "a collection of miniature electronic pieces that fuse the delicate melodies of Mum with the lush soundscapes of Boards of Canada underpinned with a rhythmic inventiveness which benefits from his background as a drummer." If it weren't for reading that bit I would have been confused by the song lengths, which are especially short in the world of ambient electronica where 7+ minutes is considered average. As the tracks here range from 1:42 to 3:45 (totalling at 34 minutes) I initially supposed they released a promo of "snippets" like are often available on websites. But these are the composer's complete "songs," although they mostly do have a truncated feel (there's even an audible *thunk!* as some of them are abruptly cut off), which we can attribute perhaps to the old cliche about drummers' attention spans.
"System 20 Live Edit," one of the most fleshed-out tracks, drops a pastoral and pretty guitar lick...
sctas.com
Russians really do have great ideas sometimes. Take Roman Abramovich. Buying a football team with Russian blood money has created a money-spinner that is taking over the English football league with all the power of a vicious and ruthless imperial superpower (I wonder if Roman wears Darth Vader costumes on weekends? Or maybe it’s the Emperor that he identifies with more clearly.) Now, here again we have someone who has decided to move away from the frozen landscapes of Russia, and set up here in the UK. However, there is little football influence in this Carlisle-based electronica artist.
But how does the man behind Skoud, Simon Koudriavtsev, transform from a St. Petersburg singer and dancer, into a promising electronica talent on a new UK label? A stint in Sweden, drumming for a successful band brings out Simon’s obsession with rhythm, and pushes him westward from the motherland. Art College in the UK brings him closer to the burgeoning art-house...
indieworkshop.com
If he was raised in the wild by wolves that listened to Boards Of Canada and taught him music composition, that would be a better story. As it is, Simon Koudriavtsev’s real-life drama is pretty good, too. It has all the elements of a Charles Dickens’ novel: the financial hardship of a Russian family devoted to the theatre, a mother’s brave move to a foreign country, and finally, the release of Koudriavtsev’s first electronic album, Systems And Drafts, to overwhelming critical acclaim. You can’t make this stuff up.
Born in St. Petersburg, Koudriavtsev was surrounded by artistic types, and at the age of 9, he joined a local dancing and singing group. It was here that Koudriavtsev – take his first name and his last and mash them together, and you get Skoud – developed his performance and studio chops. Eventually, he grew bored with singing and left the group. It was about that time that he and his mother moved to Sweden to try to improve their lot in life. He bought a drum kit and learned to play in the family’s...
lostatsea.net
The Brickyard, Carlisle
3rd February 2006
Motive Sounds act Skoud has gone from strength to strength recently with the release of his debut album 'Systems and Drafts' getting stunning reviews in magazines such as 'Rock Sound'. The label's Brickyard gig in their native Carlisle attracted a big audience, creating an electric atmosphere that left even the music behind...
...Headliner Skoud took the music in a completely different direction from the support, mixing electronica with live bass. This is a brilliant and original idea but, after a night of pounding live music interwoven with indie and rock from the DJ, the audience really did not know how to react to this sudden change.
Great electronic music lost out to the socialising crowd, the music being just too easy to ignore. The set was crying out for something visual to hold the audience’s attention as clips of random footage projected on a backdrop were not strong or continuous...
pennyblackmusic.co.uk
A rather good release from brand new label Motive recordings by an artist called Skoud from Carlisle. It's defintley above average electronica that benefits from the fact that the artist is a rock drummer, so it's rhythmically inventive with lots of strange noises,without being overcomplicated and has a minimal musical touch that's reminicent of the best of simple electronica. Additions of traditional rock instrumentation and a nod towards dubbier electronics producers like Arovane make this an excellent headphone listen.
warpmart.com
The first full release from Motivesounds Recordings sets an impressive bar for every record to follow. "Systems and Drafts" is a classy debut full of soothing electronica with a wonderfully judged sense of tone, melody and space prevailing through all 13 tracks here.
The opening salvo of "System 3 Draft 2", "Saker" and "System 25" present a facade of icy electronica recalling the likes of Massive Attack at their most paranoid, but beneath the pulsing synths and flickering melodies lies a warmth that seeps across the album offering a glimpse of sunshine to the barren landscape.
The mid album highlight of "System 20 (live edit)" is a fantastic achievement fusing together whimsical acoustic guitars with some fantastic drum programming that resembles the kind of taut, off-kilter atmosphere that first launched Four Tet into music fan`s orbit.
If a fault can be found here it is that towards the end of the album the ideas seem to run...
the-mag.me.uk
This promo disc must have slipped down the side of the sofa for a few months, hence the late review, but certainly deserves a few belated words of recommendation. Because there’s something that works about Skoud’s soothing beeps and beats, something that digs in under your skin, makes you unwittingly nod along – and that’s a hard thing to achieve with music as abstract and minimalist as this. On further investigation, it turns out Skoud is a handy abbreviation of Russian-born (but Swedish-based) laptop-doodler Simon Koudriavtsev, who has somehow ended up providing the debut release from Cumbrian (UK) label Emotive Sounds. Systems & Drafts is based predominately around a theme of bleepy instrumental ambience, but has some interesting detours now and then; see the Nintendo electro of “Fu”, the clipped sample weirdness of “THC”, or the lovely piano-led ender “Requiem For The Art College”. This early in his career Skoud already seems to have the balance right...
killthenoise.net
January 2006
twenty4-seven.co.uk
It’s criminal I have taken so long to review this album, because it is brilliantly composed ambient glitch electronica. I mean there is actually no way someone should be able to take what sounds like a Gameboy beeping and turn it into a piece of absorbing music. Simon Koudriavstev aka Skoud has an intriguing tale alongside his music, Russia to Sweden to Carlisle, possibly not the most logical progression one might imagine.
The rhythm is so densely absorbing, it takes around ten minutes before the experimental beeps and sounds evolve into something that could perhaps be considered to be a ‘song’, it borrows heavily from artists like Múm and Boards of Canada. If anything the first five tracks are an introduction to what Skoud can perform, and each are so varied that it should mess with the flow but somehow it blends from the electronica William Orbit-esque ‘System 25’, into the menacing drum loop and static of ‘Maida Vale’. The masterpiece that is ‘System 20’ just needs to be revelled in. It’s...
dieshellsuit.co.uk
December 2006
loewygroup.com
March 2007
creativereview.co.uk
February 2008
idnworld.com