Wlochaty Zmowa 2xLP
This band has produced a ton of material to sink your teeth into in their 30+ years of existence, but today we’re focused on the reissue of their fifth album which originally came out twenty (!) years ago. Zmowa (“Collusion”) holds a massive amount of music and retains many of the qualities I recall from the couple records I’m most familiar with. Frequent intros and outros elongate many of the tracks, and the additional instrumental interludes stretch it out even further, hence the double-LP format. At the center of each song is usually hard-hitting, fast melodic punk, save for a squat-skankin’ ska breakdown here and there. Their style is very long-winded, passionate European anarcho-punk…I think of them as the CONFLICT (UK) of Poland. I can see that as a turn off for many punks these days, which I totally get. I have a deep appreciation for and connection to this style of contemplative and poetic socio-political punk, despite the fact that I typically crave something more direct. This is the first time Zmowa is on vinyl, with a gatefold jacket and insert slathered with photos and all of the anti-state, animal rights, anti-war lyrics in Polish and English.
