Annna — Kwiat Paproci
Kwiat Paproci delivers a feral assault of jarring, harsh kinetic noise. If I had to sum up this album in 2 words it would be “H-O-L-Y F-U-C-K!” Right out the gates and it’s on as Annna pummels your senses through 12 tracks (and 3 hidden tracks) of unrelenting sonic warfare. Take a deep breath because you won’t be surfacing for air anytime soon. From start to finish it’s a ubiquitous maelstrom of static wash, crackle and crumble, sonic blasts, stuttering synth, quick stops and starts, high-end to low-end feedback, samples, machine gun juddering, glitchy bits, laser-like whizzes and whirs, explosive dive bombs, and many other crushing tactics. If you can approximate the sounds of continuous car crash collisions mixed with the sounds of a wartime battlefield, you’ve got Kwiat Paproci. I don’t mean that as a slight, Anna is just that damn brutal. Even for someone acclimated to the harsh noise environment, I felt pretty wasted after the continuous punishment.
If 12 tracks wasn’t enough audio pain, no fear! There are 3 more track that commence after the proper album ends. As the tracks tick away, 30, 31, 32, 33….we get a brief respite. Then as track 97 clicks on, the ride begins once again. Track 97 (“untitled” for all intents and purposes) is actually the one departure from the core cut-up noise present on Kwiat Paproci. In it’s 6+ minute duration, track 97 is actually a bit on the droney side of the equation with fluctuating feedback. Though this could just be meant as a long intro to the final 2 tracks, which reverts back to the high-speed cut-up formula of the rest of the album. The final track #99, mixes in some old-school cartoon music (sounds like something from Mickey Mouse’s Steamboat Willie or another toon tune from that era) along with the furious noise collage.
I have to say, while I didn’t initially gravitate toward cut-up sounds early on in my discovery of noise, it’s quickly becoming my favorite noise sub-genre. If you’re into artists like Sleep Sessions, K2, and Developer, then Kwiat Paproci is another worthy cut-up album to add to your collection. Recommended to appease the sonic masochist in all of us