January Blues – Post-Punk Band

January Blues consists of Ibragim Lyanov and Makka Amerkhanova. Based in the regional capital of Magas, the duo just released their debut track and music video: “Ha Tshavekha So” or “Call Me Home.” The song is the first-ever post-punk record written in the Ingush language.

The first single from the band’s upcoming EP, “Ha Tshavekha So” is a solid debut from the January Blues. Lyanov’s deep voice reflects off of a synth-infused melancholy post-punk beat. The lyrics urge the listener to leave home while paradoxically crying out for a longing to come back: “My thoughts were eating me up inside / Whether I ran away or went back home.”

The music video follows a masked protagonist in his metaphorical search for peace and a connection with others. The tinted visuals reflect the contemplative mood as the protagonist moves from one desolate landscape to another.

January Blues – About “Ha Tshavekha So”

“We wanted to write a song in our native language, even though no one has ever done anything like that within the genre. It was our goal: to bring something new into our culture and our music,” says frontman Lyanov. “Young people speak their language less and less frequently, so while we wanted to create using our language, we did it in the area that is familiar for the youth, to popularise the language among our own generation, even if just a little.”

“Ha Tshavekha So” has already garnered almost 9,000 views on YouTube — an impressive feat for newcomers in the music business. But even if we set aside the video’s historic cultural clout, the track still stands on its own, thanks to the band’s talent and production quality. January Blues’ first single leaves listeners wanting more — even if that means waiting until the end of summer when the band plans to release their first EP.

Ingushetia and the Ingush Language

Ingushetia is a federal republic of the Russian Federation. The Ingush are predominantly Sunni Muslims and speak the Ingush language.

According to the linguist Johanna Nichols, “To my surprise, Ingush turned out to be the most complex language of my, besting even polysynthetic languages like Seneca, Lakhota, and Halkomelem. Ingush is not polysynthetic. The complexity of the language is due to extensive inventories of elements, a significant degree of inflectional synthesis in the verb, and classification of various types, for example, declension and conjugation classes, agreement genders, overt inherent genders, split verbal lexicon, split alignment, etc.