Release year: 2024
Label: Zoharum
Music is a universal language, they say. And most of the time they’re right – whoever they are. But there are times when music isn’t universal enough; times, when not understanding the lyrics will make an album fall flat.
And, yes, you guessed it: Polish Złe Oko’s is one of these. Xenos, the project’s debut album, relies so heavily on vocals and lyrics that are entirely in Polish, that it almost feels redundant for me to review it.
But I’ll bite.
The artists describes her music as feminoise, drone and punk. Less surprisingly, it’s really not any of those musically. Rather, it’s slightly dirty sounding, minimalistic and largely abstract industrial synthesizers over which slowed down hip hop style rhythms are layered (illbient, I heard someone say).
Some of the sound design is pretty nifty, and there are odd moments where the music itself engages the listener. For example Las Intro – the intro of the album – features a pulsating bass that sounds pretty impressive. That, combined with the slow lurch of the beat, sounds very good. Sadly, it doesn’t go anywhere from there.
The same applies to the rest of the album: the music is essentially devoid of melodies, or anything expect beats and abstract synthesizers that mainly work as background sound. Possibly a proper bassline is present. One cannot help but feel that the lyrics, mostly recited in spoken word, play a pivotal role here.
And I can’t understand jack shit of them. I get the feeling I’m missing out on more than 50% of the point of this album. To reiterate, I question the point in me reviewing this album because I’m obviously unable to comprehend a major part of it. But on the other hand, that’s a valid warning to everyone who doesn’t speak Polish: your experience too will be crippled by the same reason.
All this being said, and with the major, major caveat mentioned above: I found Xenos to be extraordinarily dull. The music has no grab or staying power. It’s all rather samey: slow beats, industrial noises and drones, vocals I understand jack shit of. Now, were that last part of the equation changed, things would certainly be different – maybe a little, maybe a lot.
So, bottom line: droning industrial beats for people who understand Polish. Not much for anyone else.
Only Death Is Real 