We’ve had Bay Area Dubstep, The Romanian Eesti Dubstep, French Dub System, Mary Anne Hobbs’ Bristol Showcase, Her visit to the West Coast of the US, and no doubt numerous other compilations from various places in the world. Well it’s time for Poland to step up, and give us what they’ve got. ‘Us’, meaning the rest of the world, and ‘what they’ve got’ meaning – a brilliant selection of producers.
Lowfreq Poland, is an 11 track release on Apparition Recordings, featuring exclusively Polish producers (as far as I know). I’m not going to review every track on offer here, but I’d like to highlight one or two of the best.
FusionArt presents a beautiful spacial track called “Wind Up” , where percussion, shakers and chimes all collectively work together to bring us something far great er than the sum of its parts.
Hansollo’s “Victory Over Babylon” takes the reggae side of things, but beefs it up with a large slab of wub. I think this is one of the stand out tracks in terms of production value – there’s a really crafted sound to this one. I normally shy away from the overly reggae influenced tracks, but this one has staying power for me.
Kaosbreed’s wonderfully inspired “The Bell” rings true with the sound of strong techno influences, much like Playing Heads’ “Less Cocaine” and Paranoises “Sleepless Shadows” which not only takes techno influences, but works in wonderful film-like samples, a growling bass and some excellent percussion work.
Substacja’s “The True King” has some inspired head-nodding moments, verging on the neo-garagey goodness of the likes of 2562 or Martyn, but for me – the highlight here is SUbstep Infrabasses “The Unstoppable”.
The Unstoppable seems to be a manifesto for this wonderful collection fo producers. Clearly they’re all on a mission to have Poland recognised on the dubstep map – and what better track to lead the way than this. Incredibly filthy bass-work, that the likes of Skream or Benga would be proud to slay a crowd with, alongside sublime techno stabs that really round-off the top end of the sound. A smidgeon more weight on the snare is my only criticism, and it’s a small one at that.
All in all – I’d say at least give this a chance. There’s some real gems on here, and there’s bound to be something for most people. I’d normally have not bothered, but I’m glad I took the time to check this out, as it’s more than just a try-hard stab in the dark. Far more.
Lowfreq Poland will be available excuslively on Beatport from 12th March – be sure and find out more on the MySpace
