Glorious synths of the workers' state

ritm1.jpgOkay, so maybe I just have the USSR on my mind right now: I'm racing through Matthew Brzezinski's "Red Moon Rising," a compulsively readable account of the geopolitical intrigues that spawned the Space Race. And nobody ever accused our Soviet friends of having much of an eye for design. But — is it me? — these Soviet-era synthesizers are sort of beautiful in a stodgy analog way, aren't they? Of course, there's an online "museum" devoted to them. I'm particularly partial to the warm, woody Retakord and the trippy green Unost' 70. Yes, it's endless choruses of "Take On Me"… for victory! (Via Retro Thing.)