Bexa Lala — Liquid Krell Metal
Seemingly Bexa Lala is a Polish post-punk band who started in 1983- and has since sporadically released work that dipped into jazz, electronica, and post-punk- the project's key songwriter/sound maker is Cezary Ostrowski. Liquid Krell Metal is the band's first album since 2017 Hande Hoch! Here Comes The Wrath Of People…though whether you’d call it a full album is debatable as it only rolls in at the 30-minute mark.
The CD album appears on Germany label Psychofon Records- who largely release more quirky & avant fare. The disc comes packaged in colorful red, yellow, and green 7-inch sleeve featuring a cartoon illustration of a female face screaming as a blocky yellow monster with the labels name on it advances towards her - the release is ltd to just 150 copies.
We go from the downbeat retro IDM of “New 23” with it snapping beats, simmering synths & eastern European man talking about who took the sun. Onto the wayward sinister Techno meets simmer wonky electronics of “Fly Away”. Though to chugging electronica meets wavering piping jazz tones of “Bexa Bexa” & “HeShe”,which both feel like a darker mid 90’s take on the easy listening/ chub tunes on The Residents album Tunes Of Two Cities. Towards the of the CD we go from the dramatic PC action game soundtracking of “Passion”, onto the simmer retro synth meets jiggling electro-funk & old man moody spoken word of “New Toy”, before finishing on the longest track here “Lorette For Pigs”- this runs for just over six minutes and finds often Residents collaborator Nolan Cook laying down some nice moody wailing & avant darting guitar over a backdrop of slurred jittering beats, electro pig sounds, and twitching post-industrial texturing.
On the whole, I was impressed by the number of ideas & moods crammed into Liquid Krell Metal’s half-an-hour runtime- and I think most of the tracks are timed perfectly- never overstaying their welcome, but embedding the listener with each's own vibe & mood. Head over to Psychofon Records here to pick–up a copy of the CD before they all slip away.