Skalpel
Skalpel is the premier Polish group in this genre. The duo, comprised of Igor Boxx and Meeting by Chance, teamed up in 1998 and were seriously into Polish jazz and fusion vinyl records from the very beginning of their existence. The next step was chopping classic LPs into samples and spending months and years assembling their cut-and-paste mosaics, morphing dusty jazz pieces into fresh nu-jazz tracks.
Skalpel's music is a perfect combination of their fascination with the past and the future. Their highly original and extremely creative approach toward the rich-but-unknown improvised musical heritage of their country resulted in the creation of albums that were the subject of rapturous acclaim and popularity.
Two of the group’s studio albums, Skalpel and Konfusion, peaked inside the Top 20 on the Polish charts and they have a handful of solid EPs, including Simple released in 2014. During Skalpel’s 6-year hiatus in the late 2000s, Igor Boxx and Meeting by Change released several side projects that are well-worth checking out.
Night Marks Electric Trio
Night Marks Electric Trio consists of DJ Spisek Jednego (a.k.a Piotr Skorupski), bass guitarist and keyboardist Adam Kabaciński and Marek Pędziwiatr, who also plays keyboards and occasionally sings. They have played together since 2010.
The latter duo’s roots go back to the Jazz Institute in Katowice, while Skorupski used to play in the band Spisek. They first became acquainted when they attended local improvised jazz jam sessions in Wrocław. As a band, they combine hip-hop, jazz, soul and electronic music.
Their debut album, released in 2014 and produced by U Know Me Records, comprises of six tracks, including Leki (Medicine), sung by Natalia and Paulina Przybysz of the locally renowned duo Sistars, and Glorious Tune, featuring Raashan Ahmad. On the band’s Soundcloud channel, one will find their interpretation of pieces by Envee (Love Theories) and by Robert Glasper (Move Love).
Sotei
Sotei is composed of two well-known personas from the Polish electronic scene. Sobura plays the drums, Teielte uses samplers and they are both producers. Their self-titled debut album, on which they featured singers and rappers, was released in February 2017.
Teielte’s real name is Paweł Strzelczyk and he is from Płock in central Poland. Prior to 2010 he had released 4 solo EPs and LPs. His trademark is prominent bass and glitches, as well as extremely scrupulous work on cutting and mixing samples. He started off with hip-hop but with years his music became more electronic, less rhythmic. Wojciech Sobura is a drummer for Skubasa and Nosowska. He also played for Maciej Trifondis Bielawski, Pablo Hudini, Hey (on Hey in the Philharmonic) and KDMS. He also worked with Galus, a producer from U Know Me Records, where both members of Sotei record their music. He also released a solo album, Organic Lo-Fi, in 2012. He is inspired by jazz, which he merges with electronic music.
Kixnare
Łukasz Maszyński, better known as the producer and DJ Kixnare, was born in 1982. Originally from Częstochowa, he presently he lives in Warsaw and is involved with the label U Know Me Records.
Over the years, Kixnare has made his way from classic 90s-style hip-hop to modern electronic club music. In 2007, he self-released his first album, Class of 90s, and homage to the classic sound of the 1990s with soul, funk, and R’n’B influences. His 2013 album, Red, however, represents his turn towards almost pure electronic music.
The artist from Częstochowa has kept his love for intense, penetrating bass from his hip-hop period. He eagerly makes use of keyboard synthesizers. He also uses short vocal samples which form abstract words or sentences but also polyphonies and melodies. From these samples, he often constructs specific calls and responses. The human voice is just another instrument to him.
Mr Krime
Mr Krime was born as Wojciech Długosz in 1978. As a DJ and producer, he has been present on the musical scene since the mid-90s and was a pioneer of Polish turntablist.
Mr Krime constantly releases new mixtapes which consist of songs that he selected, compiled and combined into unique DJ sets. His best-known mixtapes include Krime Story and Music for Night People (created together with Daniel Drumz). On his mixtapes, one can hear the author’s liking for the swaying, pulsing 70s – a lot of soul and funk.
The first record containing Mr Krime’s original compositions, the EP Feel This Way, was released in the spring of 2014 by the label U Know Me Records. The 40-minute-long record sounds funky but also modern and at the same time organic. Mr Krime eagerly makes use of synthesizers and adds acoustic instruments, organs and drums to his compositions.
Daniel Drumz
Daniel Drumz was born in 1985 in Stalowa Wola as Daniel Szlajnda. As a teenager, known at the time as Taśmy Trzaski, he recorded scratches of recordings by artists such as Grammatik and Eldo's solo projects. He has opened for De La Soul, Jay-Z and Rahzel. He works in Kraków as a DJ. He plays sets at parties as well as on the Kraków internet radio radiofonia.fm.
Daniel Drumz's natural environment is hip-hop. His excellent mixtapes from the Electric Relaxation series (three have been released in the past few years) reveal extensive interests – from French hip-hop, dancehall, to calmer jazz, soul and electronic music. This was the direction he took with his second EP, Sleepless State Of Mind, released on vinyl in November 2012 by U Know Me Records.