The Kraków's band Bad Light District function on the Polish scene for years now, although I discovered them through their fourth album Lucky Blood Moon. Three years later, the band continues their unique music path with a short release called Brak oczekiwań ("No expectations").
Their music can't really be called post-punk with its complex and artsy compositions. But there is one thing that certainly comes from post-punk (and punk)'s legacy: the anti-establishment and social critique-heavy lyrics. I love the band's creative approach to language: the lyrics in all of their tracks are filled with clever play on words that is not only decorative but also designed to convey messages that are important to understand the whole thing: the most striking being "podstęp cywilizacyjny" in one of the tracks title being a play on the phrase "civilization progress" and "deception". So its chorus that goes "It all looks perfect/ from a distance" makes a fine and unsurprising comment on the world we know around us.
This also means that the almost-spoken word vocals really sound like poetry, especially that the synth-heavy music around it rarely is particularly invasive. There's some of the guitar noise and dark electronica there, but the most important thing for music here is to make the lyrics even more eery and ominous. And it works like a charm. Perhaps only the last track here, Błąd maszyny ("Machine's error"), is more into the instrumental part, sounding like a dark (and eery and ominous) post-rock gem with vocals in ornamental role.
Brak Oczekiwań costs 3.5 EUR (15 PLN).
Check: Podstęp cywilizacyjny
Country: Poland
Genre: darkwave synthpop