Review: Artur Rumiński - Untitled

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(Cassette, Wounded Knife, 2013)

It seems that we’ve got some friendly rivalry to the already pretty well-known Sangoplasmo label on our small, yet fertile Polish experimental scene. This time it’s the Warsaw based imprint Wounded Knife, beginning modestly (like almost every brand new label), yet impressively with two hazy, drone-laden cassettes with some very nice packaging.

The very first release is a solo recording by Artur Rumiński, a guitarist from Sosnowiec - that’s in Silesia, a part of Poland known for its numerous coal mines. It’s actually a really lovely area with some rich nature, but some people tend to think it’s a bleak industrial wasteland where not a single sunray touches the earth, unable to penetrate through thick smog and soot. And Rumiński’s untitled tape makes us think so. He plays the guitar in experimental black metal/noise unit THAW, so his solo work won’t fall that far from that, except with a far more drony edge. The two side-long compositions, “Allen K. Drone” and “KBOw” are dark, atmosphere-heavy excursions through thick, cold guitar sludge, looped and ambientalized with some paganistic drumming scattered all over the place. It’s a bit like a darker, more pessimistic version of High Aura’d. Listening to this tape is like crawling through a seemingly endless tunnel filled with cold muck with just a tiny spot of light at the end. You just keep crawling toward the light, because the tunnel is so tiny that you just can’t turn around. You feel that the light won’t bring the escape; even worse - that the light is something evil, malignant. But you have no choice. The ordeal just goes on and on.

Echoes of Sunn O))) strike all over the album, setting the frozen guitar ambience against sparse, yet powerful guitar strums, almost tectonic in nature. Cymbals crash in the darkness, giving an illusion of rhythm once in a while, only to dissolve in the fog. Just like the mysterious light keep drawing you in, despite you knowing the consequences very well, “Untitled” will keep you listening, despite the unwelcoming, unhuman environment. Recommended.

Review: Piotr Kurek - Edena

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(Cassette, Sangoplasmo Records, 2012)

Those who already learned to recognize Warsawian trippertronic magician Piotr Kurek’s work as ecletic, clever bricolages of carefully chosen samples and folky instrumentarium might have quite a bit of surprise with “Edena”, Kurek’s newest release, offered on the ever-solid Polish label Sangoplasmo. While the Suaves Figures project was already a hint of the shifting aesthetic, the modular-analog-dusted influences fully bloom on the newest release, going for the retrofuturistic prog electronic journeys with a touch of Tortoise-like sophistication here and there.

The opening track “Becoming Light” is also the most minimalistic one, relying on slow-paced sequences, gradually getting stacked with new levels of complication, becoming little baroque symphonies for modular analog synthesizers. It also bears a strong influence of 60’s experimentalism, going for the hyper-energetic electronic nirvana in the vein of Terry Riley’s 1967 masterpiece “A Rainbow In Curved Air”. Characteristically for Kurek, the sounds here are rich and whimsical, going for the kaleidoscopic, “happy-go-lucky” electronica with a penchant for some masterful sample collages. Like the cut-up female voices and brilliantly sparse xylophone workouts on “Tonal Colors”, effortlessly gliding through a Technicolor rainbow of retro psychedelia.

But the vocal harmonies really get the spotlight in the main track, “Edena”. The looped and stretched vocal melodies blend perfectly with the somewhat haunting, almost Amon Tobin-like atmospherics (of the lighter kind). The synthesizers still make a strong presence, with almost skeletal pulsations creating the basis for further elements of sound. The following “Untitled” has the sourest, sombrest tone of all the tracks on the album, gradually obtaining a dissonant, droning, somewhat depressing tone, a’la Oneohtrix Point Never before he went all plunderphonic.

The last two track come back to the more traditional Piotr Kurek zone, with rich sample play and synthesizer soundscapes creating a fun source to work on. “Goddes Eye” (named curiously similar to Julia Holter’s “Goddess’ Eyes”) confronts heavily trippy Stellar Om Source-like  saxophone/synthesizer solos with vocal collages, blending together deep opera bartione (or maybe even bass?) with normal, somewhat soul-like singings. The closing desires is the most “traditional” track in Kurek style, harkening back to the “Heat” cassette, released on Digitalis Ltd. Quirky strings and microsamples of uttered phrases provide a backdrop for the snakelike melody and a plethora od dusted sounds. The cassette ends with a noisy, heavily electric “guitar” treatment and ominous, calm notes from an old-timer synth.

Piotr Kurek proves once again that he’s one of the masters of Polish trippertronic scene, constantly one-upping himself into new levels. He’s one of those guys who don’t get lazy and fucked up because of the hype they get, but rather get even better and feel the need to create some new exciting shit in order to pursuit their singular Vision. Let’s support those fuckers.

Blast from the Past: Andrzej Korzyński - Tajemnica Enigmy (Secret Enigma - 1968-1981)

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(Vinyl LP, Finders Keepers, 2012)

For some reason, Polish composer Andrzej Korzyński is not that much known in his home country than in some western countries, like the United Kingdom. As Bartek Chaciński pointed out in his article on the work of Andrzej Korzyński, most of his records (that is, the film soundtracks he has made over many years) are easier to obtain in, say, London, than in Warsaw. Thanks to the Finders Keepers record label, the often intense, experimental and out-of-the-box thinking (especially in communist Poland at the time of their creation) soundtracks of Andrzej Korzyński are finally available as a high-quality compilation/retrospective of his works for movies of Polish filmmakers.

„The Secret Enigma” compilation came from a label specialized in such music-related investigations, namely Finders Keepers. Actually, the detective skills of Founders Keepers members is a material for a whole book, the guys manage to find information on things even the musicians themselves don’t have any idea about. This time, the Finders Keepers crew managed to collect and/or salvage several tracks from the soundtrack of this Polish soundtrack maverick, created for both Polish and foreign movies. The orchestral arrangements meet the dense psychedelic rock interludes and early electronic soundscapes (Korzyński himself was one of the founding members of Arplife, possibly the first [or one of the first] Polish electronic music groups). This proves Korzyński’s compositional talent, he could work with both a “live” orchestra or with studio equipment alike, pushing all his agents to the limit, often pushing the envelope of music itself, especially when it came to fantasy/horror creations.

Korzyński moves with incredible ease and grace through a plethora of wildly different musical genres and styles. The compilation is organized in such a way that tracks often provide sharp, sudden surprises with totally different tracks which sometimes gives an impression that we’re dealing with different composers. But it’s Mr. Korzyński all the time - whether he’s stumbling through some lysergic acid rock trip or designing disciplined and sublime tango miniatures. This compilation is a perfect album not only for fans of movie soundtracks of Mr. Korzyński himself, but also for any fans of Polish music in general. Because it proves that despite being in the Soviet camp for a long time, Polish music wasn’t behind the Western countries - actually, sometimes it was ahead of them.

Review: Suaves Figures - Nouveaux Gymnastes

(Cassette, Sangoplasmo Records, 2012)

With his previous cassette on Sangoplasmo under the alias Piętnastka and an outstanding Heat tape on Digitalis Ltd under his real name, the Warsaw based sound artist Piotr Kurek bought himself a special place in the heart of many aficionados of psychedelia. His ornamental, sample-based deconstructions of psychedelic folk and ambient music might remind some of Amon Tobin or Four Tet, although going into the more eclectic, mystical areas than the two aforementioned producers, however retaining the same level of attention for detail as those two, creating rich and pleasant sounds.

If you know Piotr Kurek from this side, the newest casssette of the brand new Suaves Figures project, which is Piotrek’s collaboration with Lyon based dronescapist Sylvia Monnier, might take you by surprise. The trademark rich sample-based retrodelia is gone, instead replaced with minimalist prog synth structures that rely on simplest means for maximum impact. Instead of filling every free space with sounds and small details, the duo decide to stay economical with their compositions almost to the point of becoming avaricious. The minimalistic synth impressions glide forward with almost no after-effects added, save for some gentle reverb or delay here or there. Suaves Figures aren’t trying to break any new ground with this release, they aren’t trying to deconstruct or invert anything: their music is merely a homage to their ancestors an an extremely simple, yet effective exercise in analog electronics.

The tape is short, some might say way too short for such a collaboration. But the final result of seven “Figures” (each track is named “Figure” and a number) is fully satisfying and seems like a perfect balance. More tracks of the same nature would seem repetitive and tiring, less would leave a sense of wanting more; seven tracks clocking between two and four minutes are a perfect deal. It’s a shamelessly simple electronic album that works as a concentration and a repository of progressive electronic ideas - there is a feeling of “been there, done that” written all over this cassette, but one cannot place where it’s been and done before. It’s fresh without being fresh at all. And perhaps it’s precisely what makes it so compelling.

Pustostany - 2012

A collaboration between two brilliantly named Polish bands operating on the verges of noisy guitar music: Gówno (“Shit” in Polish), a hardcore punk band from Gdańsk, and The Kurws (literally “The Whors”), a math-punk-jazz-whatever hybrid from Wrocław. The resulting “2012” tape from the project Pustostany is a blend of both bands’ aesthetics: the spastic bass slaps and heavy rhythmic section of The Kurws meets the damaged, jangly guitar, screaming, un-melodic vocals and the general “don’t give a fuck” attitude of Gówno. 8 short, energetic, angry and noisy songs with a dusted, abrasive feel. Get on it & get it on.

Review: Sultan Hagavik - 8 Przepięknych Melodii (Sangoplasmo, 2012)

Remember that time, dear Reader, when you used to listen to your favorite cassettes in your childhood (I’m assuming the age of the average reader of Weed Temple is somewhere around early to mid twenties) and your player would just go insane (or suddenly become an asshole) and just eat up and mangle your tape in some horrific-yet-hilarious way? The sound of the Wrocław duo Sultan Hagavik is exactly this sound, except multiplied tenfold. And then multiplied again.

If you sometimes have this craving, that drug-addict-style craving for some fantastically, frenetically fucked up anti-music, releases like this come to the rescue and give you a fix of warped sounds that pose a risk of turning your brain inside out. Wait, did I write “rescue”? “Very poor choice of words”, Dark Knight’s Joker would say. The dudes from Sultan Hagavik are pretty much Jokers, they are having a fucking ball while everyone around just try to run from their creations in terror.

Nothing is sacred for them, starting with classical symphonies (the opening and closing pieces) slowing up and down with no remorse, pierced with dadaistic soundbites played at various speeds, continuing with pop pieces warped and bastardized beyond recognition, samples from movies, speech slowed down or sped up according to the authors’ whim, bloodcurdling screams repeating and suddenly cut, Arabic music laced with glitches and noises, compositions with barely any skeleton or structure filled with crackles and tape hiss.

“8 Przepięknych Melodii” (roughly translated as “8 Super-beautiful Melodies”) is a half-hour ride through relentless mutations of sound with a lot of abstract, twisted humor hidden in this haze and maze of distorted sonic madness. The album title is hilarious in itself, considering there is hardly any melody to be found here, not to mention anything beautiful. The titles of the tracks (in Polish) are also very funny, even though most of the humor is lost to foreign listeners, with names like “Uródź Budyń” (“Give birth to pudding”), “Zwłaszcza Grzegorz” (“Especially Grzegorz”), “Biedny Spektral” (“Poor Spectral”) or “Fantastyczna Muzyka Arabska” (“Fantastic Arabic Music”). Hell, even the album’s artwork is some incredible parody - they just took a stock photo of a walrus and ACTUALLY, PURPOSEFULLY left the “depositphoto” watermark ALL OVER the tape’s artwork - not only on the front, there’s actually the watermark creating a pattern on the whole j-card, even merging with the track titles on the back.

Some men just want to watch the world burn.

Review: BNNT - _ _ (Qulturap, 2012)

I wasn’t aware of the existence of the Poznań noise rock (with more noise than rock, definitely) unit BNNT (previously known as Brown Note) until I read a review of their “_ _” album on Polish music webzine Niezal Codzienny (for which I also happen to occasionally write). Taking both the traditions of noise rock duos and guerilla gigs, BNNT suddenly made a lot of noise (both literally and in the blogosphere) during this year’s OFF Festival in Katowice, Poland, after making sudden performances from a battered van touring the city, appearing in balaclavas and drowning the spectators in waves of brutal, bassy noise.

BNNT themselves are more of an art group than a music one, even the instrument played by group co-founder Konrad Smoleński is called “baritone missile”, which literally looks like a missile with strings. Fucking brutal. This brutality is reflected perfectly on their debut studio album, with relentless bass slapping and amphetamine madness on the drums. The songs have little, if any structure, often straying from the main “theme” after a short time into a wall of feedback and random strumming in the vein of Dead C or Harry Pussy, except addled with much more drugs and even more amplified than their forefathers. There are occasional spoken word pieces and vocal samples thrown into the mix and an inexplicable angelic drone will sometimes find its way into the harsh reality (see what I did there?) of this black hole of an album.

The duo come are afiliated with the Poznań label Pink Punk, famous in its home country for their rebellious and forward-thinking take on outsider rock genres, with a special focus on noise rock. BNNT are one of the most extraordinary bands to come from the whole Pink Punk thinktank, both in the image - because you never know what they’re gonna do or when you’re gonna end up in the middle of their gig, it’s so exciting) and the blackened wall of nihilistic guitar sounds ornamented with sound bites from such weirdo movies as Harmony Korine’s “Trash Humpers”. And if you know Harmony Korine because of “Gummo” - believe me, “Gummo” is a Hollywood blockbuster compared to “Trash Humpers”. BNNT ARE the trash humpers.

Review: Kristen - An Accident EP (Lado ABC, 2011)

Until not so long ago, I was one of the many to consider Polish music scene a burned-out wasteland only filled with third-grade, watered-down post-grunge and sung poetry talentless fucks with no vision (or knowledge) of music other than the most maisntream rock music imaginable. Thankfully, it turned out, I was very wrong and gradually I started discovering bands so out of the ordinary and so looking forward it made my head spin. Among many discoveries was a Szczecin noise rock outfit Kristen which exists since 1997 - 15 years of existnce makes them veterans of the scene, doesn’t it?

This review is of a four-track EP I acquired in physical form after their free concert in a small art gallery. It was recorded in December 2010 and released at some point in 2011 by probably the most forward-thinking Polish label (next only to Sangoplasmo Records, maybe) Lado ABC, who also released Kristen’s latest full-length, Western Lands The first three tracks on An Accident follow a similar formula. The initially bucolic and slow post-rock (as in: early, 90’s post-rock, but almost pop in their melodic happiness) melodies are gradually strangled by walls of improvised guitar noise, which can be placed somewhere between Keiji Haino’s brutal workouts and Thurston Moore’s solo work. For example, in the opening title track, the calm baritone guitar line is chopped and slashed by a series of abstract drum breakdowns and feedbacking, droning guitar. The following “The Grid” and “The Mist” build up the tension by layering walls of noise (often played in tremolo) on almost poppy framework of the song.

The whole tension is relieved, however, on the explosive closing track “Hold Me”. An amphetamine monster of a bassline is supported by maniacal, precise drumming and a plethora of noisy guitar effects, ranging from jangly, ear-shattering tremolos to walls of sustained guitar feedback noise, seeminlgy gaining their own will separately from the guitarist. This was even more powerful live, with me thrashing around right in front of the band while the other people in the gallery just kind of stood there semi-interested, bobbing their heads politely, as if embarassed to make any kind of movement that would differentiate themselves from the surrounding inanimate walls. But you know what? Fuck them. Kristen is awesome, and this EP is a document of what they can do live. I just can hope they record more tracks like “Hold Me” in the future. 

Merkabah - A Lament For the Lamb

Brand new album from Warsaw psychedelic avant-rockers Merkabah. A Lament For the Lamb keeps the proggy spirit of the band’s previous effort, Lyonesse. It’s still dark and complex, fusing jazzy drumming, droning guitars and brass soloing into a multi-level, atmospheric monsters and making them one of the most interesting modern Polish experimental rock acts. Highly recommended!