In this video I’m showing a really fun corner of my collection: Soviet-era Russian bootleg vinyl on the Antrop label. A little while back I covered Melodiya records (the more “legit” Soviet pressings), but these are different—these are Western rock albums that Andrey Tropillo pressed in the late ’80s/early ’90s while the Soviet Union was falling apart. He was connected to Melodiya facilities in Leningrad (now St. Petersburg), and he found a loophole by labeling releases as “recorded from a broadcast/transmission,” which, in his opinion, made it legal at the time. I walk through several Antrop titles—Led Zeppelin (including a double LP labeled “IV & V”), Pink Floyd “Wish You Were Here,” Sonic Youth “Daydream Nation,” Deep Purple “Stormbringer,” and a few Beatles records (Help!, Rubber Soul, etc.). One of the biggest tells is the artwork: it’s often altered (sometimes subtly, sometimes a lot) to dodge copyright trouble, and the tracklists are translated into Russian. I also talk honestly about quality: in my experience the sound is actually good for what these are, but the jackets are thin and cheaply made, even when the copies are in nice condition with inner sleeves and outer sleeves.