“Insane!? Much more than that! Deformator is a huge mosaic of psybient electronica wrapped of Berlin School's primary elements”
1 Consciousness Mill 7:53
2 Guards of Silence 9:31
3 Nude Lips 6:14
4 Love Daughters 8:13
5 Totalitarian Engineering 6:08
6 World Great Slogans 8:30
7 Wife-Beater 9:35
8 Slaves of Mythology 3:58
9 Deformator 8:16
(CD 68:18) (V.F.)
(Experimental, Techno and IDM)
Definitely, the sound universe of Władysław Komendarek is woven in originality! We would be led to believe that the wizard of Polish sounds, since he nests on the label Ricochet Dream, would make an EM style worn on the model of the Berlin School. It's nothing like that! DEFORMATOR continues where Chronowizor left off, in the land of borderless music. A rebellious EM where the very experimental, techno, Ska, Drum'n'Bass, Hip-Hop and IDM spicy with psybient sauce invades our ears and makes neighbors shout. Certainly, there are flavors of the Berlin School, especially for the sequenced rhythms and the countless and very good synth solos. But for the rest, this last album of the Polish weirdo is admirably aptly named with disjointed rhythms, and melodies that are just as much, which nestle in an impressive collage of percussion, voices as annoying as attractive and dense orchestrations that curb the fury of rhythms. It's an album with a Komendarek even more stripping, more biting and incisive. A Komendarek who likes to wear Frank Zappa's clothes to distort his satirical visions of society and its current events with totally aggressive and crazy music where structures are lost and distorted in allegories which refuse any form of aesthetics.
Percussions and bass pulsations as agile as the sequences. The Consciousness Mill movement is pounded in a lively and fluid way. It jumps from ear to ear with a series of 5 steps which stumble at times. It's big up-beat, almost speed-beat, with curt and felted knocks where the murmurs in the background and the clicking of tssitt-tssitt gasp in our ears. If the rhythm beats of its minimalist pattern, the melodies which come and go display a good diversity and contrast in this rain of sound effects and of iconoclastic stammerings which feeds the very psybient side of the album. We like these structures of frantic rhythms where we lack breath after dancing and jumping like crazies? We are going to love the very fast and voracious Nude Lips, which is a real rhythm marathon for the ears. The voice annoys a little, but it goes perfectly in this decor where excessiveness is required. Slaves of Mythology is a little more nuanced and its up-beat approach is drowned in a form of jazz-blues unique in the world of Frank Zappa. It's a title that the neighbors will hate! After an ambiosonic intro tinged with layers of angelic voices, some more belligerent, Guards of Silence bludgeons our ears with jerky pulses that make symbiosis with others more organic ones. Divided between its ambiences and its rhythm which becomes technoïd, Guards of Silence embraces an approach which reminds me of that of Prodigy in Music for the Jilted Generation, in particular on Break & Enter. Władysław Komendarek is like a mad horse and kicks in its structures with a total absence of commercial filter. The sonic effects are invasive and disruptive with large twists painted with reverberations and large sonic regurgitations. Here and like everywhere around the crazy rhythms of DEFORMATOR, Władysław wisely uses layers full of prisms and orchestrations, giving an ethereal feeling to his indomitable structures. Rhythms which sometimes seem to us a little more of the lounge style, a little more peaceful, like in the Arabic charms of Love Daughters and its samples of percussion, flutes and clan songs aromatizing a structure which jumps like those scratches on a vinyl playing on a turntable.
It can be annoying to some, but it could remain attractive for others. Especially if you want to make the visit freaking out. A heavy beat that hammers our ears with sitar chords in a structure as elusive as an oiled pig, Totalitarian Engineering brings a techno approach (tssitt-tssitt) drowned in countless collages of distorted voices and motley noises. It's pretty indigestible, but fans of the psybient smashed with hammering and break-dance effects will be delighted. The Persian flute and the bongo-style percussions bring a very eclectic tribal dimension to this title which demonstrates that the Polish musician has no boundaries and succeeds in injecting effects and arrangements that will captivate your sonic curiosity. Crazy and disjointed! World Great Slogans is by far the most accessible title here. The approach is very Berlin School with a good line of hypnotic sequences which loops in clouds of tones' radioactivity. The title delves into a moment of ectoplasmic atmospheres before returning with a more musical structure. There are good synth solos, quite discreet. I liked. We hang on to the first listen. Wife-Beater is done in zombies-style techno with clubbed pulses with the regularity of a metronome, finally for its first part, before the rhythm becomes a little more unstable in the second half. Riffs, voices, shouts and other sonic elements are on the menu of this title which is undoubtedly the least creative. It gives you an idea of what the rest of it sounds like! The title-track offers a panoply of unusual sounds, crackling sounds, voices from beyond the grave and psychedelic sonic effects on a soft rhythm. On pulsations that pulsate timidly in order to leave plenty of room for these swarms of samples that perfume the very avant-garde, bizarre and crazy artistic vision of Mr. Komendarek.
If you approach DEFORMATOR in a single listen, you may be running away and leaving your shadow puzzled behind. It takes more to tame this sonic canvas steeped in audacity that is this latest album by Władysław Komendarek. Techno-trash or IDM molded in high-level of psybient! We are far from the Berlin School and even its derivatives. Yet the sequences, the arrangements and the synth solos cannot deny the paths unearthed by Komendarek to get where he is. You just have to dare. Get your ears used to something crazy. And sometimes it feels good. DEFORMATOR is to be enjoyed in small doses. Even if sometimes we judge that we can get through without too much difficulty. A big A for the originality.
Sylvain Lupari (March 17th, 2015) *****
Available at Ricochet Dream Discogs