"a beautiful album: deftly arranged, inspiringly performed" But, please, I’m begging you: don’t bring it to Womex with you next year!īooking: Mariusz Kús at 4 Events Music Agency ( And just to show that I really haven’t got anything against fusions in world music (good ones!), this next album proves my point: Mosaic - “Ludo Va Va” Maybe Folkoperacja make a killing recording and selling this type of stuff in Poland - maybe it even supports their ‘real’ music, who knows.
Go to any charity shop in the UK and you will see racks of cassettes of this type of stuff, usually next to the cardboard box full of old vinyl - you know Classical records, 1970s TOTP compilations and Val Doonican. No, I’ve never been to a family do like that either, but I’ve seen it on the telly. I get it now! Have you ever been to a family do at Christmas and someone gets out one of those mass-produced, Tesco checkout CDs of ‘Brendan O’Somebodyorother’s Irish Christmas’ and sticks it on to get everybody ‘in the mood’ - a few standards, a few singalongs, some dreary laments. Maybe you have to be Polish to know the tunes, understand the history and culture and to appreciate the lyrics in their new ‘world’ settings. I’m all for mixing it up and seeing what happens. Don’t get me wrong, I am not at all a ‘purist’. Oh, deary, deary me! I’m guessing they are supposed to be traditional carols and songs and I can hear a penny-whistle somewhere, but it’s all set against a background of cheesy rock, funk-lite, electro, pseudo hip-hop, africanesque guitars, and quasi-Chris Rea mood music. But fair enough, some traditional Polish Folk Carols for Christmas. No I don’t know either (good old Google Translate!). The CD titles translate as: “Festive Folkoperacja. The guy on the left looks like they’ve brought their old science teacher along for the photoshoot. Like a 90s boy band with a dodgy manager. Against a background of computer generated snowflakes our six heroes come wading through a waist-high computer-generated snowfall in black shades, white shirts, black ties and black leather jackets. The omens aren’t good: it’s a Christmas CD. But then I realise I have been given a second CD by Folkoperacja. I’m slightly confused as to whether they are in fact the same band as “Bartnitzky” - the musicians all look the same and have the same name, have the same management. Competently enough played, quite enjoyable, probably a good pub band and be fun for festivals. Some tunes are very much in an old school rock vein, others with a more middle-european folk feel and some a mixture of both with ska and reggae undertones. Overall it sounds like 1980s folk-rock - nothing wrong with that (anyone remember South Yorkshire’s “Oscar The Frog”?). This is a 7 song sampler as they’re are still working on their album. Folkoperacja - (7 song sample r)įolkoperacja are a 6-piece band (drums, bass, guitar, vocals, accordion, flute, violin) from Slaskie in Poland. And please don’t engage me in the old world music definition debate. Why, oh why do agents persist in sending us stuff that is not relevant? Just because you live in the world and record music, doesn’t necessarily make it ‘world music’. Very enjoyable album.ĭark rock/metal stuff. Dreams do come true!”), but there’s lots of lovely pictures of children’s toys like plastic dinosaurs, a wind-up crocodile, a wooden tortoise, a child’s windmill and Thunderbirds dolls to go with the sight of Daga, Dana and Miko rolling about on the floor hitting each other with a plastic mallet and having a lot of fun! And that shines through the music. Sadly I can’t understand any of the sleeve notes (apart from the only lines in English: “Friendship can cross borders and overcome obstacles. If this is the new face of Poland, then I want to kiss it. It’s almost pop music sometimes, at others art house, with warps and wefts spun from jazz, tango, hip-hop, film noir, funk, samba, traditional musics, classical. This a confident album full of beguiling, quirky tunes from these three young Poles/Ukrainians, mixing a seeming endless amount of genres and influences into wonderfully accessible music. "If this is the new face of Poland, then I want to kiss it."
This is a round up of some of the CDs, DVDs and samplers that I picked up or have been sent to me.įirst out the bag is: Dagadana - “Malenka” (Offside Records 005 2010) At the globe’s leading world music trade fair, Womex, last year, Polish artists were well represented by agencies and musicians.
Over the last few years Poland seems to have come out of the cold and entered into the World Music market with some vigour.