This year, just like for the 2006 countdown, our "Best of" came a bit late.
Slightly different than last year's, this counting kicks off with the Top 20 Polish albums, with the first 10 albums having a small review.

These choices reflect some of the records I've listened over the past 12 months. Pop, rock, hip hop, jazz, experimental and electronic music, among others. This year there was room for all genres. Hope you enjoy my choices and let me know what you think about them.

Top 20 Polish Albums

20. Plum - Witness of Your Fall

18. Motion Trio - Metropolis

17. Mosqitoo - Black Electro

16. Psychocukier - Malpy Morskie

14. Lachowicz - Za Morzami

13. Karolina Kozak - Tak Zwyczajny Dzien

12. OSTR - HollyLodz

11. L.U.C. & Rah - Homoxymoronomatura

With two albums out on the streets, the 2002 Makowiecki Band and 2005’s Piosenki Na Nie, Tomek Makowiecki decided to drop by this year with Ostatnie Wspolne Zdjecie.

Within its 11 tracks, we are taken into a world lying under pop sunlight, where streets are painted with delicate melodic colours and bathed with melancholic breezes, whispering tiny little stories as well walk through this album.

Ostatnie Wspolne Zdjecie is pop; a rich, varied and cinematic pop album that blinks an eye, here and there, to other trends. Within it, rich arrangements, catchy chorus, nicely played guitar chords, deep heart warming vocals, full-bodied textures and melodies…. melodies that flow smoothly, embracing us and making us dream of those beautiful and colourful autumn evenings…

Ostatnie Wspolne Zdjecie [Listen @ MySpace]

A 10 track album by a 10-piece electronic orchestra.

This Wroclaw-based collective has just released DigitAllLove, their self-titled debut album. A collection of songs that breathe sensibility, intimacy, warmth and relaxing tempos; majestic arrangements, fat downtempo beats, subtle and inspired electronic backgrounds; all served together with live instruments and the sensual and delicate vocals of Natalia Grosiak.

Once we step into DigitAllLove, we get face to face with the likes of Bjork, Massive Attack, Portishead or Goldfrapp. The inspirations are obvious and the album does not intend to hide it as well. Putting aside this detail, DAB deliver an album that is close to being perfect. I say close, for they lack something new here that could take them to another league.

Led by the voice of Natalia Grosiak, the superbly arranged tracks, filled with passionate string melodies, darkened moods and energy, create a very special aura around this release. Listening to DigitAllLove will take you on a journey of discoveries, many emotions and colours. As you go by the aesthetic atmospheres of Run Away, passing through the more jazzy and soul ambients of Candy Castle, the loops of Skinflower, the many contrasts and flavours of Matulu, the saturated beats of Don't Expect Too Much, I U Could and I Learn 2 Be into the angelic, Icelandic cold Navel, you find yourself looking away, widely, into the vast!!! You grab the remote and hit play!!! It is time for the second journey!!!

Run Away [mp3 Preview]


07.Hey - MTV Unplugged

And we come to our number 7.

Kasia Nosowska, Marcin Zabielowicz, Pawel Krawczyk, Jacek Chrzanowski and Robert Ligiewicz got together on the past 10th of September, at the Warsaw’s Teatr Roma, to perform their repertoire, now totally disconnected from the power. After Kayah’s performance on the MTV Unplugged series, Hey are the second Polish band invited to record an unplugged session with this network tv.
With only previously released tracks and two versions (P.J. Harvey’s Angelene and Iggy Pop’s Candy), Hey Unplugged makes it to the top 20 with its songs, completely reviewed and shown here dressed with brand new clothes and incredible arrangements, sounding as fresh as they did the first time I heard them.
String and blow instruments section, percussion, accordion, keyboards and lira, among other instruments, together with Kasia singular voice, the artists’ enthusiasm, the guests’ contribution (Agnieszka Chylinska and Jacek "Budyn" Szymkiewicz (Pogodno) on Angelene and Candy, respectively) and the audience create during these 17 tracks an unique atmosphere and several moments where you love these tracks so much you forget about all the rest; if not, listen to Dreams, Missy Seepy or Mimo Wszystko.

Mru Mru [Listen @ MySpace]


06. Muchy - Terroromans

“…Maximilian Carl Emil Weber was a German political economist and sociologist who is considered one of the founders of the modern study of sociology and public administration…. He was influential in contemporary German politics, being an advisor to Germany's negotiators at the Treaty of Versailles and to the commission charged with drafting the Weimar Constitution….”

This was the German Max Weber; now, it's time for the Polish Max Weber.

Artur Chmarzynski on drums, Kamil Strzyzewski on guitar, bass and vocal and Tomasz Jacak on guitar, bass and vocal are three friends that decided to have a band of their own, after years of playing together sporadically.

Hailing from Mazowsze, Sobienie, this trio is responsible for a sound situated mainly within the alternative rock spectrum. This year these three lads decided to release their debut 4 track demo. Recorded in one evening in a studio over in Warsaw, this reflects their work for the past few months, since they got together back in 2005.

With characteristic, melodic and, yet sometimes, raw vocals, Max Weber sound to dirty guitar riffs mating with melodic, loose guitars, in a room packed with saturated bass lines. There is, as well, space for some shoegazin' attitude as it can be heard on their track Crack of Dawn.

Even though Kings of Convenience, Coldplay or even Madlib are among some of the band members' favourite artists, as you go through their demo and live recordings, you'll unveil other bands that inspired these guys. We're talking mainly of Sonic Youth, Placebo and Smashing Pumpkins.

Do not forget to visit their MySpace where you can find some tracks not available on their demo. The latter can be found here, as free download.

Meanwhile, check them in concert this December:

2nd of December, in Otwock, @ Klub Smok.

I really do not know where to start with this compilation. Lost Lands, Tribute to Rospuda River Valley, was the way several Polish artists found to alert us on the drama Rospuda River Valley started facing early this year.

Lying in the heart of Poland, this valley captured public attention some months ago, when several Polish youngsters and Greenpeace supporters stood still in front of several machines that were treatning to destroy this natural sanctuary.

In the name of progress, or greed, local deputies and governament wished to build an highway where today, lies one of the most beautiful and untouched natural areas in Poland. House to several animal species and other unique treasures, this valley got not only public attention but, as well, that of several Polish musicians. Among these are Blue Hand, Comx, Enes & Pinknoise, Krypton, Mr. S, Quantifier, Stealpot and The-One. They all said yes and willingly stepped into this noble action.

Lo-fi ambient textures spiced with rockin' breakbeats, cutting edge bass, industrial and minimal techno. This is Rospuda River Valley's heartbeat. While machines still roar on this record as to remind of this iminent danger, other soundwaves take you deep inside Rospuda. If you have never been to this valley, this music will definitively take you there. I've flown across it a couple of times already.

Get this compilation right here. Discover Poland's electronic music cream and some of their new, remixed and revised tracks. Discover Rospuda River Valley.

Support GreenPeace & Rospuda.

"...Lost Lands album is our private interpretation of things happening in our region, by our homeland, inside our life. We are the part of the nature, so let nature be the part of us..."