EX UAJ ZED - 4 (2015)

The last post was of a Hungarian band and in said post I took the time to wax on a bit on my fixation on Eastern European culture. After looking around a bit more thoroughly in the submissions I have noticed bit of an increase in bands from this region and so I suppose I will take this opportunity to share some of the highlights I’ve founds amongst them. So today is EX UAJ ZED of Poland.

I don’t know if anyone is calling their music garage metal, but if that’s not a traded term I should like to suggest it as an ample descriptor of EX UAJ ZED. Undoubtedly lo-fi with all its fuzz and striped down instrumentation it seems like a garage rock album, which is indeed what they billed themselves as. Yet there is no confusion in the use of overly powerful cords and intensity that this album largely expresses the angst and rage of the very best post-metal albums. Mainly an instrumental affair, with lyrics ever so scarcely entering the picture and even then they’re in what I assume to be Polish, so I can’t elaborate on their content. The real emotion of this album comes via the guitar playing, it takes center stage in every track, to such a degree that the drumming in delaying in introducing itself in several tracks. The drumming does serve as a wonderful guideline throughout, making what would otherwise be a guitar drone into a fleshed out composition, albeit of a minimalistic nature. Now, this might or mightn’t seem like your thing, but if you trust me insofar as lo-fi music goes I will say it is pretty good and I think they’re capable of producing a phenomenal album, and I need to spend time hearing the prior releases still. In the meantime I will really be heavily digging this one.

To be had here:
EX UAJ ZED - 4

Micromelancolié - Ensemble Faux Pas (2014)

Here in the California Bay Area, a large storm has hit forcing me to bundle up in my cave rather than brave the highways. As the rain pelts my window and slips through the cracks, I find myself looking for some meditative music to help conjure the old gods that once inhabited this earth. You can see them reaching towards the dark sky from the nearby woods, and one of my new favorite cassette labels has brought just the right soundscape to pull them closer.

A Giant Fern is a Portugal based cassette label well versed in the minimalist experimental genre. Sadly, I was not quick enough to get the physical tape itself (tapes being the best format for conjuring old gods and demons), but the digital file will suffice. Two long, drone-like tracks from this Polish artist great the cold like an old friend, then collaborating to bring a fear and wonder to my already tired existence. It is hard to decipher what is coming from the music and what is bleeding in from the storm outside. I slip deeper into the mix, and now find myself lost in its design. There is no escape.

Get it here:
Micromelancolié - Ensemble Faux Pas (2014)

Judas Equus - Pilgrim / Infidel (2014)

All week I've been commuting from my hometown, some sixty miles outside of Detroit, as I am watching the numerous dogs at my parents' house. The extra chores and fighting rush hour traffic has made for a good deal of time to listen to music, but very little time to write a word about any of it. On top it all I'm taking antihistamines just to stop my eyes from burning and to breathe through my nose with all these damn dogs here, thus I'm loopy and drowsy. Not sure my pitiful English skills can be relied upon.

Pilgrim / Infidel was sent into SRM by the fella that runs the Polish label, Resonating Wood Recordings. Seems he and the man known as Judas Equus were in the band Frank's Hard Drive together, whose EP I post a while back. Pilgrim / Infidel will to be familiar sort of album to close followers of the blog, falling into the lo-fi, unpolished folk style that I'm incredibly drawn to as evidenced by posting of Twin Man, Joshua October and The Wool, and even the fine indie pop/folk of Arvid. They're all, Judas Equus not least of all by any means, extremely talented musicians that have sat down and made something then chosen not to fuck around with it too much. And leaving it raw makes it endearing and relatable to someone like me, that hasn't the energy to see most projects through to a refined state. I'd argue things really don't need to be, especially as far as 'folk' music goes. The songs are remarkably catchy to listen to, and I think much of it is due to the unevenness and the strange lyrics as anything else. Judas Equus hooked me deep with "Prayer by Proxy" and "Wall of Screens" in this manner, and the instrumental "Si dormieris, non timebis: quiesces, et suavis erit somnus tuus" really shows off the bizarrely pleasant tone he's capable of invoking. Also, if you wonder why he sings such fine English in Krakow, it's because he's an expatriate, which  say only to explain the accent and as a counterpoint to what I must assume is my poor writing.

Lastly, I am gonna recommend you keep an eye on Resonating Wood Recordings as they're gonna be working with one of my favorite musicians, A Big Silent Elephant (a.k.a. A Man and His Broken Piano) who'll have a release via the label next month.

To be had here:
Judas Equus - Pilgrim / Infidel

Przyzwoitość - Być bezużytecznym (2014)

Another late night post, trying to sneak these things under the wire before I get to sleep after hauling books all day for shit pay and then hauling my own shit for no pay after.

Przyzwoitość is a veteran Polish musician that was the drummer in a psych band that went defunct back in 2002. Now he's got a new project, with a moniker than means "Decency" according to what he's told me. It is an experimental release with lo-fi guitar, altered vocals and produced effects mingle. Straight from the first strange vocal looping track you'll get the sense of how far out this short album is gonna be. Very much a Jad Fair or Moe Tucker 80s oddity thing going on, but from fucking Poland so it has really deep and awesome Slavic words on top of psychedelic guitar. It's totally worth it, guys, trust.

To be had here:
Przyzwoitość -  Być bezużytecznym

1926 - I don't want to be with U (2012)

As we approach Thanksgiving here in America, many of us are taking long drives to reach our family and/or hometowns. I have a rather scenic drive ahead, but in some parts of the country, the drive can be bleak and seemingly endless. Before the advent of portable music, you would simply switch to whatever local radio station you could pick up, and hope for some interesting tunes to keep you company and your mind from turning to mush from boredom.

Thankfully, we live in an era when just about any sound is at our fingertips at the drop of a hat, and Poland's 1926 has produced a fine soundtrack to at least part of your journey. The group has created a long, expansive track that melds the shoegaze fuzz of Slowdive to the post-rock leanings of bands like A Silver Mt. Zion. This is well recorded stuff, with nice builds and crescendos that will have you head banging as you cross your own desolate landscape.

Get it here:
1926 - I don't want to be with u (2012)