Musical Obsessions- Zimna Fala -or- Polish Post Punk (part I)

A lot of you were interested in a post about Polish post punk, yet I only got myself familiar with bands from the genre a short while ago, namely exactly after Return To The Batcave festival, and felt like if I to do a post about the genre I would still miss out of a ton of bands which I am yet to be familiar with (fearing to piss off a lot of you Zimna Fala experts! :x )

So instead I have decided to write about my occasional musical obsessions, making this into a sort of post-series. This way you would get a small portion of bands every post and could (and should!) recommend me on additional bands.
As probably said before- we are all here to learn...

I shall bravely disclaim this by saying that I am indeed nowhere near knowing all the classic Zimna Fala bands, the mentioned here are just the ones I have been obsessing about the past time, as the title suggests ;)

So if you know about other Polish post punk bands which you believe I will like, please do share and educate me on them!

1. Maanam

Courtesy to Ra The Luppensammler for introducing me this band! They have been everything to me this past week. Maanam make very catchy new wave music, oftentimes very popy with occasional melancholy tunes that make my heart sink. I can guess that their singer is like a star ever sine the 80s? Correct me if I´m wrong.

Maanam/ To Tylko Tango

Unfortunately I wasn´t able to find my 2 favorite songs from youtube with the blogger app, so if you are interested to hear more please visit the following links:
1. One of my favorite songs is of course Lipstick On The Glass. It is on repeat practically every day.

2. Another one is Luciola, a very touching song (minute 2:27 in the song is when I really melt down)

For some reason, these 2 songs make me veery nostalgic, throwing me into a feeling as if I am trying to remember something that never took place, or fail to remember a time in which I have never lived. It is a very special sensation which is hard to express with words. I have no idea why Maanam´s music makes me feel this way, but they somehow found a very deep place in my heart and I totally recommend them! I am yet to find a website to download their music from....

2. Republika

Another jewl introduced to me by Ra, thanks girl!

I found Republika to be heavy and ska sounding at the same time. The piano parts are so awesome, which makes into very unusual compositions, in my opinion. In comparison to a lot of Russian post punk, I have noticed that Polish post punk is a lot better produced and recorded, and it seems like a common thing in East European post punk to mix instruments like piano/ sax/ flute in their music, which is the exact kind of stuff that I like.

Republika / Smierc w bikini (Death in a bikini)

I have yet to explore all their stuff, here´s another song which I have posted before:

Republika / Biala flaga (white flag)

3. Siekiera

Unlike the mentioned above, I have been aware of Siekiera since last year after being introduced to them by 2 very good polish friends who live here in Berlin. I have sort of ignored the band until a few months ago, and I was so overwhelmed by their music I cursed myself for not listening to them properly before!

When it comes to Siekiera, I have noticed a similar tendency in Polish post punk to repeat words during the song, and not singing really lyrics, rather making a cluster of words which builds a certain atmosphere within the song. I find this very mysterious, I´ve never encountered this sort of thing in other post punk bands (aside from Belgrado who have a lot in common with Siekiera in my opinion).

Siekiera / Bez konca (no end)

Siekiera (translated as ax, btw) have their early punk period and the late new wave period. I haven´t listened to their punk period, but from people who love the band I understood that you either love this or that.

Siekiera / Ja stoje, ja tancze, ja walcze (I stand, I dance, I fight)

Here is another favorite of mine from the album Nowa Aleksandrija.
I am waiting for the day I can DJ this song:

Siekiera / Ludzie wschodu (people of the east)

I really recommend listening to the entire album Nowa Aleksandrija, as every song there stands out. You can listen it on youtube here.

This is all for now, till the next Zimna Fala post, as there are some more gothy and even dub inspired post punk bands which I would love to share.

N. Finsternis