Review Summary: Even though it's about coca-cola and mustard at times, these Morphine-esque-meets-John-Zorn-and-invite-jello-biafra-for-the-kicks is another elemental album in fusion-rock discography.
If music has one representative characteristic above anything, it has to be the fact of its universality. No matter the place or time it is being performed, it can be understood regardless of its origin. There is something about mechanical wave transmission that makes it so easy to understand, and yet evoke the sentiment, the flow and the vibe they were constructed from in the beginning.
Approaching Swietliki i Linda's "Las Putas Melancólicas" may come off as a weird experience for some. While the thickest connection to music is mostly due spoken word (since it's easier to link to a person's life, rather than the music that accompanies it), the music itself is just a passage to make the whole experience richer. If that weren't the case, would it make as much sense if you asked a girl to dance if the rhythm of Sixpence None the Richer's "Kiss me" was based on french horns rather than just acoustic guitar? Would little girls be peeing their panties if Iron and Wine's "Flightless Bird, American Mouth" didn't sound like a guitar-based waltz? Well, maybe. Who knows. I would get hot if I danced to a glitchy dubstep beat and a girl would follow along... But that's just me.
As some would say "you can't judge a book by its cover",
Popatrzcie (1) and
(2) aren't exactly representative songs of the album. With an upbeat, punk-esque guitar riff and loud, obnoxious vocals on one hand, and a programmed beat on the other, you can't have anything else but a huge "wtf" in your head as the first song pours into
Znowu sie kloca, a soft song that is reminiscent of the best mellow
Morphine's moments, such as most of The Night. The wind section of the song is what makes it so brilliant for us the least educated music fans, because it makes perfect company to the mellow vocals of the singer (the vocal section is conformed by at least five different singers, including Swietliki and Linda, but I can't tell the difference between one and other);
Las Putas continues the idea behind the previous track, but removes the wind sections and bases its sound on a rather loose, improvisational piano vibe.
Filandia, apparently a very well known track from this band (since it's the only one there are available lyrics for) starts with a rock-influenced guitar riff, and build upon that idea with layers of strings that create a very warm ambient. The lyrics are kind of off-throwing, though: While online translators give a terrible approach to the idea itself (because it says something about flying around, the police, mustard and coca-cola), it makes you wonder "wait, is this about cokes and mustard"; it could even be about hot-dogs!
Czwartek,
Delikatnienie and
Opluty follow the same line of Morphine-esque music. Mellow strings and wind sections here, slow-paced drumming there. And then,
D# comes with what sounds like programmed drum-beats, but rolls into a downbeat, smooth guitar-driven tune.
Ziemnioki sounding like an 80's electro-pop band guitar chord progression, and swiftly pours to
Ochroniarz among spacey sounds, which go along the whole song, with a nice bass line to give a fuller sound.
Lalka Tadzika distorted guitar (reminiscent of Omar Rodriguez's guitar playing at times because of the tone, and because of the general sound of the instrument itself, probably), followed by a complex drum beat along the song.
Gigli gigli has a great upbeat feel, which counterposes with
K and
Bóstrele and their ambientful melodies:
Jowejek with its weird guitar leads, and eastern-like sound, bleeding into the downbeat
Incipit, and into the 2nd part of
Popatrzcie I mentioned in the beginning.
The biggest thumbs-up reason which I have to applaud has to be the variety of sounds and vibes it starts with... nonetheless, it sometimes leaves the listener wishing the whole theme would be followed even further. The vocals all seems to be las dynamic as the way they are presented in the first couple tracks after a while; Even though it's not necessarily bad, sometimes it leaves with the question "Are all the songs supposed to be vocally the same? Because they sure sound altogether the same." Thematically the album doesn't fail to impress: All the moods it evokes and how it develops them is majestic. The album is pretty much the perfect amount of John Zorn to make it a classic among the fusion-rock fans, but the vocal department seems promising in the beginning, but ultimately is just the only flaw I could find in the album. Probably it's the lack of understanding between the content and what I could understand (or what google and babelfish allowed me too); in the end, what matters the most is the universal property of the music: No matter how little we understand about the song itself lyrically, the music itself is beautiful and that's all that matters in the end.
Personal favorites:
Filandia
Maloncólica
Bóstrele
D#
