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Written in fRoots issue 376, Oct 2014


CHŁOPCY KONTRA BASIA
Oj Tak!
Riverboat TUGCD1081 (2014)

Basia Derlak, Marcin Nenko and Tomasz Waldowski are a Polish vocal, bass and drums trio. Its name, pronounced roughly ‘who-opse kontra basia’, puns on the Polish word for the double bass, kontrabas and means ‘boys against Basia’.
     The ‘boys’ form a jazz-rooted rhythm section setting Basia’s quirky, chatty narratives from Polish folk tale material and her own surrealist images to music that while not traditional is influenced and shaped in that direction, partly by the rhythm of the Polish lyrics.
     It’s a fairly stripped-down sound; apart from Basia’s occasional clarinet, no pitched instruments fill the gap between her light, animated, perhaps slightly cutesy vocals and the deep, inventively swingy bass and drums, though Tomasz’s chuffing ‘futujara’ (a PVC fujara) brings a change of texture to perhaps the most immediately striking track, Jerzy.
     Among signs of CKB’s ascent is and likely foreign touring are that they’re nominated for a Fryderyk ‘discovery of the year’ award and are playing at Warsaw’s next Sounds Like Poland showcase in September.

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© 2014 Andrew Cronshaw
 

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