On a very sunny and windy spring day in April, this reviewer had the pleasant task to listen to the new CD of the Polish band Newspaperflyhunting. Their musical base is in Bialystock and they have released an EP, Storytelling, in 2008 and a full length CD, No 12 Listen, in 2012. The five friends, Michel Pawlowski (guitar and vocals), Krystof Sarna (drums), Gosia Sutula (bass and vocals), Jacek Bezubik (guitar and vocals) and Beate Grzegorczyk-Andrejczuk, (Fender Rhodes piano) have played together since 2006. On their latest release, Iceberg Soul, they moved their direction from prog rock to post/space rock with sad and melancholy, dreamy music. My Iceberg Soul is also the name of the first song and yes, it starts with sea breezes! Jacek Bezubik slowly brings you in a lazy mood when he sings about his own iceberg soul. Just before the end of this song, my chair flew half a meter into the air, because of the heavy guitar breaks. Second song, Through The Lurking Glass, has a twinkling guitar lick with the delicate female voice of Gosia Sutula. The English prog rockers Anathema are never far from the mind in this song. After two and a half minute these loud eruptions blast out again. 'Fast and furious' are the keywords in the song The Third Sun. We got a bit of respite in the last song of part one of Side Ice, Stop Flying. It's a nice melting pot of Pink Floyd and Porcupine Tree, but after three minutes the ruthless and violent guitar sounds forced me to turn the sound down a lot. Modern progressive rock again in the song Lighthouse. The overall sound of this band is all very hunted and nervous....so it's time for me to take a break, before I start hitting on my table and kicking my football through the window.... A real surprise is the song Grassmemory. It's very Pink Floyd-ish and in my opinion the best song of the whole CD. In the first part of Looking Through The Glass the main role is for the excellent voice of Gosia. Later, the pumping band develops the song with it's heavy allusion towards a typical Within Temptation song. With a slow start and a heavy ending the last song, Your Iceborg Soul, is the logical conclusion of an interesting Polish experience. *** Cor Smeets (edited by Esther Ladiges) Where to buy? |
