To listen to audio on Rock Paper Scissors you'll need to Get the Flash Player

Sample Track 1:
"In the Forest" from Uprooting
Sample Track 2:
"Fishie" from Uprooting
Buy Recording:
Uprooting
Layer 2
Technobeat

Click Here to go back.
The Beat, Technobeat >>

Uprooting by the Warsaw Village Band (World Village) is so astringent, doctors should prescribe it for cuts, bruises, minor burns and mental fatigue. Don't let the ensemble's home country of Poland lull you into expecting polite polkas. For anything approaching the dark, medieval intensity here, you'll have to look north to Finland and Sweden, probably because the Scandinavians have clung to their pre-Christian roots more tightly than elsewhere in western Europe. The Warsaw female vocalists are like the evil twins of Varltina's peppy Finnish gals after a harrowing initiation into a Bulgarian mystery choir cult. Meanwhile the droning, sawing, violin-led instrumentation recalls Sweden's Hedningarna in their doom-and-gloom glory years. Although deft and precise to a turn, the musicians here are never slick, not even when introducing turntable scratching to the ganged sonic discord of the opening salvo "In the Forest." Song after varied song is pleasingly rough-hewn, thanks in no small part to drummer Maciej Szajkowski, who bashes his tinny cymbal for all he's worth. Also endearing is the strategy of introducing a composition with a purported snip pet from a crackly folk music 78 rpm record followed by the Warsaw Village Band's updated Black Death skeleton-dance rendition. This pairing is particularly effective on "Grey Horse," which features a kind of jazz vocal by husky-voiced songstress Maja Kleszcz. A plague on you if you don't like it. 05/01/05
Click Here to go back.