Królówczana Smuga — Konwulsanki

Konwulsanki is a ten-track album that’s a jarring-to-dizzying collusion between electro-martial beats 'n' chants, wavering 'n' wonky stringed folk melodies, and off-kilter carnival-like drives into metal 'n' fat electronic beats loaded with shouty vocals. 

Królówczana Smuga is a Polish collective, who have seemingly been active since 2018- to date releasing six albums. This is the band's first release on Zoharum’s Records, and I’m reviewing a card slipcover promo of the album- which features on its front cover an illustration of a tall and strange figure bending over a crib with ( what looks like) a deformed shaped knife. I am not sure how many members the band have- but they do create at-points dense racket 

We open with “Oj Ładna To Je Łada” which begins with elegantly plucked,  and weaving classic guitar work. Before all of a sudden bursting then-sustained rush of electric guitar, beats, synthetic seesaw horns, and growled/ bayed vocals- with the track resolving with a striped back and reversed female vocal chants. As we move through the first half of the album we come to “Żurawinowy Jam” which opens with throbbing acoustic bass strums & rattle ‘n’ shake percussion.  Later bringing in slowly pitch-waving synth stabs, & a discordant string swoon. 

In the album's second side, we move from seesawing guitar harmonics, carnival vibe/  horn weave,  snapping/ hissing beats, and deep bayed-shouty vocals of  “Sidła, Wnyki, Trendy, Nawyki”. The album plays out with the haunting & lightly waving ‘n’ wondering horn/ string work, and slowly slugging electro beats of  “Obierek”.

Konwulsanki truly is a weird & unpredictable ride of an album- where genres very much bleed 'n' blur. If you are looking for something a little different and unhinged this will certainly appeal