[this is the fifth in a continuing series, exploring the music i discovered when travelling in europe last fall]

To Poland!

We arrived in Warsaw before dawn. We walked to our hostel through the worst snowstorm that Poland's seen in decades. But that was okay. Warsaw is a heavy city, almost oppressively post-communist in feeling, everything squatting concrete or, like the Palace of Culture, top-heavy and looming. The old city is handsome, but even there I couldn't escape the knowledge of the sprawl all around us, the people packed into coats, the endless stretches of sidewalk.

Krakow, meanwhile, was one of the most joyous experiences on my trip. Wawel Palace and the older districts are individually characteristic, elegant, but then there's the sense that as the city extends, so too does a vivid cultural life, arts and individuality. We ate cheap pierogies for breakfast, lunch and dinner. We saw posters for the Cool Kids of Death. I bought music.

Siekiera - "Ludzie wschodu".

Siekiera's fantastic 1986 album, Nowa Aleksandria, was entirely unknown to me, and it comes to my hands because of Paulo's comment on this blog. Thank-you, Paulo, wherever you are.

"Ludzie wschodu" is icy and hot, it quickens the blood. It's cold wave from communist Poland, both awkward-hip and disorientingly alien. They sing in Polish, but amid post-punk keyboard stabs or the growl of the guitar, it's easy to understand the simple human noise of "hey!", "da da da" or "hey-ha". Joy Division is certainly a major touchstone (especially in the drums), but there's a greater fury here - unlike the Manchester boys, these Poles are expressing some of their pent-up feeling. A train-car rattles and then we're off, soles on a pavement, the arc and flare of street-lights, the long lure of an alley. 'Siekiera' means 'The Axes'. There's violence in the music, but also the ache of violence unexpressed. It's a chill that you shake off, a rage you vent spastically, in a basement. (And, like the whole of the album, it's awsesome.) [buy]

On the other side of the spectrum - ROBOTOBIBOK.

ROBOTOBIBOK - "Skipping C". This is a contemporary Polish alt.jazz combo, and "Skipping C" comes from 2004's Nawyki Przyrody. It's a wheeling mix of horns, drums, and a boiling vibraphone, energy and flowing feeling, then the skittering human fade-out of vocal sounds and song. Instead of being bored by the track's circular energy, I love it - there are brave stabs amid the repetition, streaming impulses that make each repeat a renewal, a reincarnation. It's a city's flow, the silver threads of streets, dawn's burst of population, swirling lanes, then the fade-out of sun, the emptying-out of those valleys. It's no surprise to me that the band's played next to both Fennesz and the Chicago Underground trio. Visit their website to buy the album, and to grab some more mp3s.

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Elsewhere:

John at the Tofu Hut is looking to try something new. He is one of the hardest working mp3bloggers, spending countless hours on research and composition, far beyond the average amount of writing and scavenging. He is soliciting donations - regular donations - to see if he can't make a micropayment go at Tofu Hut full-time. I applaud his decision to resist advertising, and so too do I suspect he's the mp3blogger most deserving of financial support. Please head on over there and consider helping to support the work he does. (While you still can, you must also download Xn.'s glittering, stunning live cover of Sufjan Stevens' "Vito's Ordination Song".)

Also loving this track at Stereogum, by (sixeyes faves) the Akron/Family.

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After yesterday's total silence, could someone comment today so that I know that the new comment system is working? (Thank-you!)