A DJ Mix Across the Borderlands: Polish Music in 2021
Listen as we embark on a journey to Gdynia, Andalucia and even Malawi. From the forest to the city, back from overseas to the Radomskie region, from a party to a concert. How did 2021 sound to the ears of Culture.pl’s Filip Lech?
The tracklist can be found at the end of the article.
As a reader, I have a problem with yearly music recaps. Why do big music magazines and editorial offices hiring numerous journalists almost always limit themselves to a classic top 10-100 formula? And why are these top picks so strikingly similar? Not only stylistically but also geographically. At the beginning of December, the Russian label Klammklang prepared some statistics about the yearly summaries published on the biggest English-language music sites like Pitchfork and The Quietus. Their analysis found that among the dozens of picks by these opinion-forming portals, there were almost no artists from outside of the British Isles and the USA. One exception were the choices of the editors at The Wire – around 15% of their picks were from Asia and Africa (although most of them were represented by Western labels). Unfortunately, even The Wire didn’t notice musicians from ‘our’ part of Europe.
As a person who writes about music, I have an even bigger problem with these recaps. I’ve been writing them for at least a decade now and I’ve always handed them in at the last minute. Once, I clicked send literally minutes before midnight with the sound of fireworks crackling all around, which didn’t help me focus on writing. Every year, I have the same questions racing through my mind. Did I really listen to all the albums I’d be interested in? What about those I’m not interested in at all but which I should give a chance nevertheless? Notes about my music discoveries from January are outdated – everything sounds different after 11 months. Not to mention that I need to listen to music released in December. And why do I keep thinking in terms of albums when the music scene is not all about them anyway?
How do I break a vicious cycle repeated every year that doesn’t let me sleep and drives my editors crazy? ’Don’t repeat mistakes made by the forefathers / We’ll manage in another way,’ said Tytus Szyluk, also known as Młody G a.k.a. Belmondo. Following the words of this Gdynia poet, one can say everyone is a forefather of their own destiny and that’s why I have chosen to change the formula this year.
It’s impossible to fit all the motifs in Polish music from any given year into nearly an hour and a half. The mix below focuses on travel, migrations, the search for one’s roots and the turbulences that come with them. I do tend to digress in the mix too, as is my wont.
Tracklist:
- Echo Deal – ‘Gawęda Leśna’ (Deszczowe Pole, 2021)
- Martyna Basta – ‘Broken Promises’ (Making Eye Contact With Solitude, Warm Winters 2021)
- Belmondawg – ‘Captcha’ (H.A.U. (Hustle As Usual), Poppyn 2021)
- Bogdan Raczyński – ‘Pierwsze Kroki’ (Muzyka dla Imigrantów, Rephlex / Mondoj 2001/2021)
- Bogdan Raczyński – ‘Długa Podróż w Chmurach” (Muzyka dla Imigrantów, Rephlex / Mondoj 2001/2021)
- Ostrowski – ‘PanNA’ (WoKa Vol. 1, Brutality Garden 2021)
- Kust – ‘Wesna’ (Kust, Radical Polish Culture NWO / Unzipped Fly 2021)
- DJ Kainga – ‘Zomba Zomba’ (OO MP3, Digital Indigenous 1000HZ 2021)
- RYTERSKI – ‘Malambo No. 69’ (Tears Are the Diamonds of the Soul, BAS 2021)
- Henryk Debich – ‘Sjesta’ (Zbliżenie, Astigmatic 2021)
- Sentino – ‘Kolekcja Setek Masek’ (Zabójstwo Liryczne Epilog, 2021)
- Szymon Wildstein – ‘Stalaktyty i Stalagmity’ (SSSS, Alicja 2021)
- Anatol – ‘Bydgoska Rezygnacja’ (Ana, enjoy life 2021)
- Phatrax – ‘Woda Raju’ (I’m Jesus Christ, Astrophone Recordings 2021)
- Lighght – ‘Cult’ (Podcast Fatigue / Cult, Destitute 2021)
- Pokusa – ‘Türkish’ (D.W.A., Lado ABC 2021)
- Pejzaż – ‘Pada Deszcz’ (Wyspa, The Very Polish Cut Outs 2021)
- DJ Nabuchodonozor – ‘Muza do Niczego” (cho, 2021)
- Akwizgram ft. Michał Olczak – ‘Nangijala’ (Zamek 1, enjoy life 2021)
- Kust – ‘Zima’ (Kust, Radical Polish Culture NWO / Unzipped Fly 2021)
- Micromelancolié – ‘sufi whirling_19’ (Sufi Whirling, Szara Reneta 2021)
- Michał Górczyński – ‘Radomskie’ (Regions, Radical Polish Culture NWO / Unzipped Fly 2021)
- Micromelancolié – ‘sufi whirling_20’ (Sufi Whirling, Szara Reneta 2021)
- Szymon Wildstein – ‘Puste Jajka’ (SSSS, Alicja 2021)
- Micromelancolié – ‘sufi whirling_21’ (Sufi Whirling, Szara Reneta 2021)
- Bogdan Raczyński – ‘Żegnajcie Ołowiane Żołnierzyki” (Muzyka dla Imigrantów, Rephlex / Mondoj 2001/2021)
- [short TikTok interlude]
- Piotr Damasiewicz & Into the Roots – ‘Mote’ (Śpiwle, L.A.S., 2020)
- Data Animals – ‘Sati (Sarmacja Dub)’ (BOOH EP / Sati EP, Byrd Out, 2021)
- Krenz – ‘Exotic Terror’ (KRENZ REBORN, Astrophone Recordings 2021)
- Belmondawg – ‘P.S.W.I.S’ (H.A.U. (Hustle As Usual), Poppyn 2021)
- Ryszard Lubieniecki – ‘Kompozycja Izorytmiczna nr 2’ (1st version, 2017) (Kompozycje Izorytmiczne, Nasze Nagrania 2021)
- Robert Curgenven – ‘after an epoch – to 30 years Solidarności’ (Beyond Enclosures, 2021)
- Norman Westberg & Jacek Mazurkiewicz – ‘Oxnard’ (First Man in the Moon, Hallow Ground 2021)
- Dola – ‘Wszystko Odrośnie’ (Czasy, Widno 2021)
p.s. If a music label is not indicated, the album was released independently by the artists themselves.
Originally written in Polish, translated by KZ, Dec 2021
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