Deep Field 2013
Missing
Stretching the skin of of the universe: Warsaw ensemble harness the kaleidoscopic what-if-ness of this world.
Welcome to the multicolored and many-splendored playground of the psyche where time and space collide with melodious clang! One may think they don’t make ’em like that anymore, and the ’60s coat-tail riding usually appears artificial, but this Polish septet cling to the “art” part of it to blow such a concept out of the water and shape their own fair story, where adventure gets propelled by a bright-eyed innocence and dark innuendos. The band’s debut single “Love Songs” doesn’t prepare you for it, as the predatory harpsichord of “Love Doctor” only hints at forbidden pleasures that lie behind the curtain embroidered with the “Lazy Afternoon” and “Hot Rats” cinematic insignia, and “Evening Walk” unfolds a Serge-Jane-esque orch romance. Yet the “Missing” album fleshes it out in sharper hues, hooking the listener on “Arrival” where riffy attack passes its momentum to a pregnant flute passages and letting go, after many a tempo shift, when “Farewell” flies away on an arresting organ airwave.
Love Songs
In between runs an array of enigmatic characters who, for all their proggy alienation, embrace you warmly, so the rise of “The Foreigner” prompts you to join this circus, where Sean Palmer’s voice spins riveting yarns about metaphysical properties and hummingbirds, and to leave the ring with “Clown King” – solemn and sombre as befits a tale of non-slapstick violence. Romanticism never leaves the frame, though, and while “Should You Wait For Me” takes decadence and Renaissance in its stern stride, “Beyond The Furthest Star” rolls on Jakub Lenarczyk’s lyrical piano. And if the twang and strum of Bartek Wozniak and Przemek Pilacinski’s guitars elevates the delicacy beyond the cosmic pale here and in the reflective urgency of “When Will May Return?”, it’s mostly light entertainment, the vaudeville harmonies of “Stowaway Sylvie” kicking the fun higher and higher until it hits the fan in the title track. To devour all the picturesque delights, you need to enter the tent more than once. Satisfaction guaranteed!
*****
