Pompa Funebris

The debut album from Polish video artist Folja. This release, the second from the brand-new Polish imprint Sangoplasmo Records, muses on the concept of found sound—quite literally-- each song is accompanied by a music video documenting Folja hiding copies of the CD in lonely isolated woods, cupcake shops, burying them in parks, etc. Each of his songs includes some truly superb field recordings— it's refreshing sometimes to remember that the world itself is a pre-tuned, rosined instrument and that you can do some serious damage with a $40 pocket recorder. I must have listened to this thing a dozen times already—it’s full of midtempo jams with light, airy, sprity/pixyish riffs and complex, intelligent songstructures. Dreamy and coursing but with definite “witch house” and goth elements.

RIYL: jj, Air France, ceo, and that one waaaaaaaay-overplayed riff in the Empire of the Sun song “Walking on a Dream”

*1. (3:37) Sunny, delicate electronic pips. Later slowly gives way to a loose, billowing electronic landscape with some crisp drumbeats and beautiful melodic patterns.
2. (9:00) Collected reprises of the first track. Just about every variation you could think of. Cool stuff, but you also might want to play the first track for context. (Also—watch out for the 4-5 second pauses between each one)
3. (1:32) Witch house chopped and screwed vocals with the sound of fireworks shooting off in the background. Creepy, but also damn cool.
*4. (3:38) Amazing. Literally starts off with a big—a battery of fireworks greets you, it’s later joined by resonating minor piano keys, and some trippy samples. It later evens out to lilty midtempo keyboard-driven electronica.
5. (4:20) Deep, resonating beats in half time. Cool pressurized buzzy synthesizer.
*6. (1:47) Sweet tape loops flipped every which way, breathtaking xylophone lines, haunting samples, a dark woodsy feel.
*7. (5:23) Creepy, sluggish, witchy, gothic. Late-night at the drive in. Night of the Living Dead/Invasion of the Body Snachers double-feature.
8. (4:28) Gentle, relaxing. Dainty electronic but with a deep growling bassline.
9. (1:13) A five year old doing spoken word about a ghost named Charlie over a creepy ambient background. Yeah, didn’t make much sense to me either.