Quite enjoying the record by Popsysze, called simply ETR (ZOHARUM ZOHAR 327-2) – this is a modern rock group from Gdnask who’ve been around since 2008, and have a clutch of releases on the Nasiono Records label. For this record, the core trio were joined by guest players on saxophone, trumpet and vocals, and elected to re-record some of their greatest hits when they assembled in the recording studio at Radio Gdansk. Popsysze are not only highly melodic and accomplished players, but seem very eager to turn in a good job and not short-change their audience with shoddy workmanship. The inside photo of them reveals a line-up of decent blokes in everyday togs, looking like they’re posing for a photo on checkatrade.com instead of striking a mannered “rock star” stance. You could also say their music is “timeless”, which is another way of saying this album could have been made any time in the 1970s or 1980s. The addition of trumpet and sax hasn’t added the slightest hint of a “jazz” flavour to their playing, and in fact the brass section simply carries the melody lines for these non-syncopated rocksters. Also I woulda liked to hear more of Aga Tre’s singing voice, but too bad for me. Not especially experimental or immediately identifiable as anything art-rock, but somewhat untypical for this label whose preference is for industrial, drone, or power-noise. Good-natured and honest music.
As a writer I’ve run out of adjectives to depict the high-quality drones of Maeror Tri, and I’m quite surprised we’re still being supplied with available product from this German trio which disbanded years ago – around 1996 I think. Ambient Dreams (ZOHARUM ZOHAR 320-2) – a slightly soppy title, but in keeping with this group’s preoccupation with themes of sleep, hypnosis, mental illness, and melancholia – was originally a cassette from 1990 on the ZNS label, which later reappeared as downloadable files, then reissued by Beta-Lactam Ring records in 2007. You’d think all of that exposure might have satisfied global demand for the product, but here it is again, with a new cover. Pretty good actually. The angle here is that nothing we hear is purely electronic, and it was all generated by the treatment of “natural ambient sources”. While I usually half-remember Maeror Tri as being rather Teutonic and sinister, this one has a mysterious charm in its vague, unfinished surfaces.