I reviewed this lot’s last album, Kiedy Wilki Zawyja?, which has only grown on me since. This looks to be the second, and hits much of the same strides as the first. Or perhaps not. Where the first was arguably a vehicle for the (very very good) singer Sylwia Anny Drwal, Threnodies And Ad Hocs is perhaps more of a diverse set of tunes.
I mean, ‘tunes’ – there’s plenty here that harks back to the morass of ’80s business — “Trophy Wives” sounding like early industrial dub nightmare soundscapes with spoken word interludes, a smidge of Spanish. “Future Cartography” a wee opaque narrative over a jazzy rhythm section doing (I think) fast eigths on the snare with a bass playing fives. No real sign of a structure, but the distinct idea it’s not fully improvised.
Drwal takes the vocals for most of the first half of the record, and so we get banging Motown renderings of Northernisms from a Polish singer (“Witches In These Parts”), slow torch songs about some grim business (“Spiked”). Touches of plagal cadences, jazz breakdowns, electronic touches, the kind of choppy songform that might sit next to Canterbury Scene business. Never tasteless, always coherent. There’s a real smorgasboard of players on here – presumably largely pulled from the Discus pool of players, looking at the names: Matthew Bourne, Seth Bennett, Karl D’Silva etc. I imagine Discus is probably better known for the jazz / free business, so Mzyklypop is quite a contrast. Difficult to pin down directly — bits of old pop, bits of industrial, touches of electro-pop, torch songs and the like. Your mum would probably like bits of it and be squirming elsewhere. Depends on your mum, obvs.It’s a wee one too — just shy of forty minutes — so there’s a sense that it’s a cute wee package. I could definitely take a few more Drwal vocals. She’s a vocal teacher (I discovered) and that’s evident — really a top-grade singer with outstanding control. This is strongly in that bracket of “leave ’em wanting more”. As it should be. Najdobziej.
-Kev Nickells-
