One of the strands to do with Eastern European
bands was that it used to be physically dangerous,
even life-threatening, to just get up and play
some rock music. While the officially sanctioned
bands played a mixture of sacharine love songs and
over-blown pomp rock, the others ranged as wide as
the imagination would go. Quite often they weren't
overtly political but their view of life went to
somewhere else - dadaesque, art-punk, grind groove,
and sometimes accompanied by grainy Super 8 footage
cut to be art rather than a record.
Quite often though, it wasn't so much the content
of the concert that counted, it was the fact that
the concert took place at all. Both the musicians
and the concert goers were brave to an extent
that is quite humbling for a Western musician -
OK, if you wipped out your willy like Jim
Morrison did in Miami, you could expect some
hassle in some parts but of a different order of
magnitude entirely. Being disappeared and tortured
or killed wasn't and isn't on the menu. We're
talking about music here, not George Bush, his
ugly henchmen, and their foes.
Maybe we might have expected those bands to be
so out-there as to be from another planet, freed
as they were from ordinary commercial constraints,
and, just as in the West, there were some. But
mostly the whole point of the thing was to play
Western-style rock music because it was that that
was censored and forbidden - information wants to
be free!
Now things are mostly completely different although
there is a different form of censorship at work -
economic necessity. In the old days pretty much
everyone was guaranteed the basic necessities of
life and there was time to make music. Now,
frequently there's not. That, and the general order
of things have led, at the least, to a certain
nostalogy, and a wish that the thieving scum who
steal the very roads from the people will be
dealt with in a particularly nasty way.
It's a long way from there to here, even if the
macro-view inclined might say 'same as it ever
was!' with power concentrated in a few hands and
a great disparity between rich and poor (which is
beginning to describe some countries in the west
quite well) but music is part of the detail and
that detail is rich with imagination and skill...
proto-punks might say there's too much of that
and that the construction can outweigh the
message. Sometimes - for sure. It wasn't unknown
that conservatory trained musicians would (sort of)
rock out as an act of rebellion.
From the Plastic People to Lollipops! The Plastic
People played in the Czech republic in the old
days and organised quite large concerts which were
treated like ... raves in modern Britain! ...
except more so. There are various tracks around.
Or you could go and see Groma and his group
Eternal Rest play their sophisticated music with an
occasional tinge of Industrialism in Sevastopol.
This stuff is great for people who absolutely must
be listening to things that no-one else has heard of.
Or, somewhat more easily you can check out a label
like lollipopshop which specialises in Eastern
European music and has a fair proportion of Polish
acts. Run by Henning Kupper in Berlin, this is an
indy label par excellence - an expert guy who wants
to get good stuff out there where people can hear
it. Sending money his way doesn't pay for PR droids
or private jets: it pays for more of the same, food
on the able and a few beers at the cafe. The sort
of band names you might come across are Magic
Carpathians Project, Oranzada, Volga, NU, Korae
Orom, Uzgin Over, Trottel Monodream, and many more.
(thunderfinger)
Mstation Pop etc Commentary, Reviews
pre Dec 04 reviews are here
Sat, 03 Feb 2007
