Dzeltenie Pastnieki

Dzeltenie Pastnieki
Dzeltenie Pastnieki live in 2006. From left: Viesturs Slava, Ilgvars Rišķis, Ingus Baušķenieks.
Background information
Origin	Latvia
Genres	Synthpop, new wave, post-punk
Years active	1979–1987, 1989, 2002-present
Labels	IB Ieraksti Mikrofona Ieraksti
Associated acts	NSRD Eastbam 19 gadi pirms sākuma 11Y1
Website	http://www.draugiem.lv/dzelteniepastnieki
Members	Ingus Baušķenieks Ilgvars Rišķis Viesturs Slava Zigmunds Streiķis
Past members	Roberts Gobziņš Andris Kalniņš Mārtiņš Rutkis

Dzeltenie Pastnieki are a Latvian band formed in 1979 in Riga, Latvia. Their name means "the yellow postmen" in Latvian, and is sometimes abbreviated to DzP. They were among the pioneers of new wave as well as reggae in the former Soviet Union. The music has ranged from guitar/bass/drums-based post-punk to minimal synthpop to experimental tape manipulation.

The constant core members of the band have remained Ingus Baušķenieks (bass, keyboards, vocals) and Viesturs Slava (guitar, keyboards, vocals), with Zigmunds Streiķis (keyboards) and Ilgvars Rišķis (drums) completing the "classic" line-up. Most members of the band, past and present, are alumni of the school currently known as Riga State Gymnasium No.1 (formerly Leons Paegle Riga Secondary School No.1): Ingus Baušķenieks (1974), Viesturs Slava (1974), Andris Kalniņš (1974), and Mārtiņš Rutkis (1975).

Their first six albums (1981–1987) were home-recorded using consumer tape recorders, and distributed by means of magnitizdat, on 1/4" reel-to-reel tape and compact cassette, with no artwork. Despite popular demand throughout the 1990s, none of these albums was released properly until 2003, when Baušķenieks began issuing them on compact disc on his own label, IB Ieraksti.

Contemporary Latvian composer Mārtiņš Brauns has said that Dzeltenie Pastnieki influenced the entire Latvian scene, including himself, and even Raimonds Pauls. The band's work of the 1980s has often been praised by leading Russian music critic Artemy Troitsky. Also, DzP were the only Latvian-language artists featured in Alexander Kushnir's book 100 магнитоальбомов советского рока (1999, "100 Tape Albums of Soviet Rock"), with dedicated chapters for two of their albums - Bolderājas dzelzceļš (1981) and Alise (1984).