Uprooting

Warsaw Village Band – Uprooting (World Village)
Reviewed by Sadie O., 10/7/05
Tradtional Polish strings and big drums, raw female vocals, scratching and sheer energy. These guys are getting a lot of attention these days, and I’m glad to say it’s well deserved. They’re among the best at combining their musical traditions with modern production and effects and coming up with something new and exciting without sacrificing anything.
FCC – dunno, it’s all in Polish. I dig 3, 6, 10 the best.
1. Drum and wild vocals – all 19 seconds worth
2. *up tempo, variety of stringed instruments, urgent, and building, then drumming, female vocals, scratching.
3. **slower, in-your-face vocals, snakey groove. Song about woman who goes to hell to cheat the devil.
4. sweeter vocals, slow violins and mandolin, rather dreamy, switching to rather frantic sawing midway through – about lost love. Vocals convey dispair and confusion.
5. traditional – starts with dueling violins, into fast drums and dulcimer – quite exotic in effect.
6. **female voices in close harmony, loping rhythm of a work song, very bluesy
7. vinyl crackles and intimate-sounding female vocal – sounds like an ancient record of a traditional lullaby (35 secs)
8. *slow and very mysterious sounding – sad song of a girl leaving home to marry. Lipsk women’s choir guest. Builds in intensity and then falls off to quiet violin and bells.
9. *big drums start, then intense strings, big energy. Great solo vocal, second vocal interlude has close harmonies.
10. **starts with sawing on violin, then almost middle eastern tune on bass strings, drums come in about a minute into song, then bluesy solo vocal. Loping rhythm, song about horse and rider.
11. trad dance, tamborine, hurdy gurdy and rough vocals
12. *crazy! Martial drums with laid-back tempo, jazz vibes and jazzy vocals, scratching, sirens. About what a lousy idea war is.
13. solo vocal lament, extremely emotional, pretty distressing. About a dying man calling for his sweetheart.
14. strings building in urgency and intensity, raw solo vocals. About how the oppressed fight back when they can’t take it any more. Little rhythm but lots of pent up fury.
15. scratchy violin melody that you probably have to be Polish to be able to follow (46 secs)
16. *starts out with gently plucked strings, solo vocal, instruments join one at a time, echoes of mysterious voices. No drumbeat but plenty of quark and strangeness.