Four new items from the Polish Zoharum label which arrived 25 October 2024.
Królówczana Smuga “presents” as a band from Biłgoraj in Poland, but might turn out to be one person Adam Piętak doing everything in a very confident and talented way. Many musical approaches and styles found on his Konwulsanki (ZOHAR 324-2) album, including heavy industrial beats, mutant metal guitar, and a very eccentric form of rapping and growling; when these “weighty” tracks overwhelm the senses, then his quieter mode – a strange species of acoustic neofolk – kicks in. Current 93 might cast a long shadow in this part of the world. Enjoying the dark and menacing subtext of Konwulsanki, which is all to do with repressed inner demons that bubble up like “night dreams…appearing at inappropriate times”. Królówczana Smuga doesn’t flee his demons, but engages with them in all possible ways – including wrestling, verbal argument, and chilli-eating contests.
Heard Larmo’s debut cassette in 2024, now they’re here with a full-length item called Alarm (ZOHAR 322-2). Slightly more approachable than that previous item, but Mirosław Matyasik continues to pile on pounding beats and punchy bass, using them like weapons to assault society, and drives home their messages with shrieks, shouts, and pained groans. Shorter tracks like ‘Separator’ indicate a real talent for more subtle and surprising experiments with electronics and edits, but such moments are uncharacteristic of the brutal whole; seems that Alarm wants to plough us into the cold earth, one citizen at a time. With guests Gosia, IHS, Paula and Pachu, plus remixes by Monya. Cover image is brilliantly executed, in service of an ancient “man-machine” trope.
From the reissue wing of this label comes Conjecture’s 2019 album V, reissued here as V (ext. edit.) (ZOHAR 321-2). This is the Greek musician Vasilis Angelopoulos active since 2013, accomplished in visual arts as well as his chosen mode of audio expression, i.e. a horrific form of electronic-industrial slow-moving gloom that saps the will to live. I like the idea that he collects spirits and ghosts from old buildings with his tape recorders, but he can’t wait to jump ahead to grisly matters, such as ceremonial death and body mutilation. This ultra-depressing sojourn in the land of the swaddled mummified creatures was originally released on vinyl in Bulgaria by Amek; today’s rebake includes many remix forays, by Antechamber, Talos, Flint Glass, and others.
The Xenos (ZOHAR 323-2) album by Złe Oko might do something to restore gender balance to the catalogue of this male-dominated label, although she too occupies a similar region of the industrio-beat-electro-menace genres that are constantly in mutation. Pretty good actually; she sings (or rather chants) in the Polish language, indifferent to the possibility of an imminent slot on Channel Four News, and claims a feminist anti-stereotyping dimension to her stern, implacable raps. We’re also told she’s absorbed a certain “illbient” strain in her musical DNA, which I’m prepared to believe – the whole tone of the album somehow passes on instant discomfort, and the no-nonsense attitude clearly expressed in her voice is the audio equivalent of a withering glance from an unimpressed female who clearly isn’t taken in by any of your masculinist posturing.