Year: 2025
Label: Zoharum

Here’s a novel concept. Światłowód is half a (mini)album by Polish group ROD, half a compilation showcasing offshoot projects of ROD. In other words, a farewell and a hello at the same time, as ROD is apparently ceasing activities in favour of individual projects by its three members.

Which is just about the most backwards way to dig into ROD, I suppose, at the butt end of their career with a sort of half-release. But that’s just what we’re going to do.

The promo sheet calls ROD’s music electro-folk. One shouldn’t read too much into the folk part… but on the other hand, not too little either. Let me clarify: ROD’s four tracks on Światłowód are absolutely predominantly electronic music in form – techno, EBM, whatever, we’re well out of my comfort zone here – and in the sound, synthesizers and programmed drums take center stage. The opening track, which lends the album its name, is essentially entirely beat driven electronic music.

But there is folk here, and very much in a traditional sense. On Polterabend, ROD combines guitar, synthesizers and folk fiddle into a weird and delightful mix. An almost post punk bass line completes what is absolutely my favourite track on the album. The prominent folk fiddle also appears on ROD’s fourth and final track Gwóźdź, again adding an intriguing contrast and counterpoint to the decidedly modern electronic instrumentation.

The four remaining tracks, two for each member’s new projects Hansollo, DN and RIP, are surprising in that they go together rather seamlessly, but still have a distinct sound. The weirdest is probably RIP, who incorporate even rapping into their electro sound. Hansollo, producer of ROD, creates stuff that perhaps unsurprisingly is closest to at least ROD’s less folky tracks on the album, with a melodic and sort of old school electronic dance music sound. Or at least it sounds old school to me, but what do I know. DN, which I presume is the project of Loki, responsible for period instruments in ROD, takes a somewhat similar, but perhaps slightly more cosmically ambient approach to his electronics, despite prominent beats.

It’s interesting how one can, at least in this context, hear ROD in all of the three projects, yet upon closer listening, they cannot be mistaken for each other. It also makes Światłowód into a surprisingly coherent listen, which very nearly sounds like an album by a single, versatile artist. And I say this in an unequivocally positive way.

In the end, Światłowód might be a backwards way to get acquainted with ROD. That notwithstanding, it’s a fine little release. Stylistically, it’s an interesting mix of seemingly unmixable styles, and an interesting look into the afterlife of a defunct project. I may not be able to speak very expertly of the styles of music this release covers, but I can tell you this: I quite like Światłowód.

Find out more about ROD on Zoharum’s website