Brandkommando — Pytania O…..
Brandkommando is a Polish unit, and I believe “Pytania O…” translates as “Questions about…”; but since the lyrics are growled in Polish (I assume) and the track titles are “I”, “II” and “III”, I haven’t got many decisive clues as to the themes explored in the cdr, really. As the artwork is based around the image of the cross, and the first track starts with a choral loop, I could hazard a guess that there was a religious theme to “Pytania O…..”; but it would remain a guess. Since lyrics are such a defining element in power electronics, I’ll admit now that I can’t properly do this cdr justice…
The cdr opens with that choral loop, and then adds a discordant “beep” which provides the rhythm for almost the entire track. Its a great sound - it has an eerie, distressed, sci-fi quality to it; the kind of thing you’d expect to hear in the loading bay of the Nostromo, from the film “Alien”. Over this is layered some shrieking feedback noise, and buried in it are the heavily distorted vocals; which are aggressive but not hysterical. Its an impressively brooding first track.
“II” has a similar construction - a dirty rhythm loop, feedback noise and vocals - but it has an amazing sheet of harsh metallic feedback, moving around the speakers about halfway through. “III” forgoes any insistent rhythm and instead drifts uneasily into the ears; with vocals and clangs on a bed of unsettling, whistling drones. At points, the vocals are put through chorus or something similar, which normally makes me recoil in pain; but here it does achieve a fucked, oppressive character. Its a great track, really disconcerting.
“Pytania O…..” is certainly very noisy and harsh in places, but its power lies in its restraint - opting for a sinister stalking of its victim, rather than an all-out assault. This tension makes the outbursts of violent noise all the more powerful.