Polish underground music pre-1989

crofton

crofton

Well-known member
I've become curious about this stuff and I'm wondering if anyone here knows about it. I've had a trawl through ebay/popsike ... there's lots of jazz obv, but I'm more looking for Cold War era psychedelic stuff, punk, ska. So far after a quick look I've come across maybe 15-20 albums or so. I've been told that relatively little was pressed on vinyl and mostly this sort of thing circulated on tape. I'm wondering what sort of figures we're talking about tho ... would it be dozens of vinyl LPs, or several hundred, or what? Any ideas? Any helpful resources for this sort of material? Thanks!
 
nomos

nomos

Administrator
no idea but let us know what you find. i've got some family links there so i'll see if anyone knows anything ;)
 
N

Ness Rowlah

Norwegian Wood
MY knowledege is limited, but here you go.

Guess you already heard of SBB (Search, Break and Build) then?
Got one of their albums (but think it's rubbish). But just in case you haven't -
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SBB_(band)

There's also Andrej Nebb, a pivotal figure in Norwegian and Polish (post)punk

First in De Press (the original balkan-punks and so much better than
that current outfit I can't remember the name of right now) (and feck me:
everything makes its way to the net eventually).

Note Andrej's three-fingered bass-play:
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and later with Holy Toy
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crofton

crofton

Well-known member
That's interesting, cheers ... actually I hadn't registered SBB although I'd come across Breakout whom I see Skrzek started with.

Which is the album you have that you think is rubbish?
 
echevarian

echevarian

babylon sister
You might want to check out the band Klaus Mitffoch.

Their first self titled album is pretty good.




I guess ethnically speaking I'm mostly Polish, well German speaking Polish/Prussian.
 
M

martin

----
The only Polish punk band I'm remotely familiar with is Dezerter, angry early 80s punk / HC. I have some of their early EP stuff on C60 somewhere. Sourced through an ex-Polish soldier called Vit who I met at a Camberwell house party in the mid-90s, who delivered us all an excellent drunken lecture on why communism must be destroyed. If you're looking for post-punk / jazzy sorta stuff you might find it too lumpen for your tastes tho...

EDIT - some here http://www.mediafire.com/?2otajx4qzmg
 
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STN

STN

sou'wester
Weren't Kult the big Polish post-punk group? I know nothing about them, sorry.
 
padraig (u.s.)

padraig (u.s.)

a monkey that will go ape
on the punk rock tip

Of the bands listed I've only ever heard Armia and Dezerter. and Post Regiment, who were absolutely f**king great, but they're not really a pre-1989 band in the way you mean. Homomilitia is another fantastic Polish punk band (on the crusty tip) from the 90s, if you're interested.

for anyone else, that Kill From the Heart website has tediously thorough listings of 80s hardcore/punk bands from all over the world (tho mainly the United States, U.K., Sweden, Japan, Finland, etc.)
 
philblackpool

philblackpool

gamelanstep
I was gonna say Dezerter & Kult too. My aunt is Polish, so we've had for years a fairly dire sorta beat album from the sixties/maybe early seventies. From having a Polish flatmate a few years back, I would say their best style is hip hop - I would actually rate them as having the best hip hop I've heard outside US artists (with the possible exception of the UK stuff I'm just personally fond of). Sometimes nice reggaeish stylings, sometimes relaly bleak & minimal...
 
N

Ness Rowlah

Norwegian Wood
crofton said:
That's interesting, cheers ... actually I hadn't registered SBB although I'd come across Breakout whom I see Skrzek started with.

Which is the album you have that you think is rubbish?
Click to expand...

"Welcome" from 1979. I'll give it one more listen and then
probably give up on it? Haven't heard it for years, but I rarely
change my mind.
 
crofton

crofton

Well-known member
Cool. I'll have a dig through this stuff and see what comes up. Thanks all.

I recently bought this:

120px-Niemen-Akwarele-Czy-mnie-jeszcze-pamietasz%28CDcover%29.jpg


in a second hand place, but haven't got round to listening to it yet (no record player to hand right now).
 
N

Ness Rowlah

Norwegian Wood
jeez, Spotify really is getting there. There's a little bit of Skrzek (solo), SBB and Holy Toy's essential (for me anyways) "Warszawa" on there. And Armia as well (not sure if this is the right one, but their titles looks Polish to me).
 
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C

Cyberbear

Wild Horses
Polish Post Punk!

Try to find torrent or something for the compilation album "Polska Nowa Fala", or search for groups like Made In Poland, Madame, Variate or 1984. And of course Kult's early stuff! According to my knowledge Poland had a strong post-punk / cold wave scene in 80s. And of coure the progressive rock! The YouTube seems to be down at the moment, so I can't post any videos :(
 
M

mms

sometimes
a workmate who is polish played me some great polish synth stuff, kinda klaus schulze like, there were some clips on youtube any idea i can't remember ...
 
D

DannyL

Wild Horses
You might want to go over to verygoodplus.co.uk and ask your question as quite a few people there go over to Eastern Europe for digging expeditions and return with ludicrous numbers of records fairly frequently. I know nowt about that sort of music, I'm always put off by the names. Not Poland but this... http://www.boomkat.com/item.cfm?id=122262 ... might be of interest.

As well as the bands mentioned above, I know that

Omega (esp. "10,000 Lepes")
Illes
Lokomotiv GT
Czerwone Gitary (The Red Guitars)

get a lot of love, but I have no idea what their stuff is like.

If you are going more generally Eastern Block though, you NEED this in your life:

http://krishnasgoldendopeshop.blogspot.com/2009/02/plastic-people-of-universe.html

Heavy heavy heavy record.
 
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