B Flat A

\*\*With B FLAT A this much acclaimed quartet from Gdansk, Poland have produced their most epic and visceral statement to date. A universe where echoes of Can, Syd Barrett and Fugazi lovingly collide. \*\*

In the 1963 introduction to his dystopian novel, Bend Sinister͕, Vladimir Nobokov talks of how the book’s plot – one of subterfuge, betrayal, imprisonment and death – “starts to breed in the bright broth of a rain puddle”. This oblong pool, “shaped like a cell that is about to divide”, reappears throughout the text as an ink blot then an ink stain, spilled milk, an image of ciliated thought, a footprint and the imprint of a human soul.

Nobkov’s mpuddle could be the perfect metaphor for the music of Trupa Trupa. An entity that shapeshifts and documents different circumstances, but music that still reflects a single, inevitable truth. The band’s make up is key here; Trupa Trupa consists of “four friends and captains” with different personalities: something that creates, in the words of singer Grzegorz Kwiatkowski, “troubles”, which lead to “both a democracy and a polyphonic situation.” We could also look to their formidable back catalogue and sift through a body of work that can often sound hard, or blunt; akin to the offhand and oblique stories of a backwoodsman. But this bluntness is carefully couched in abstractions or clever patterns, courtesy of suggestive phrases and the imposition of tonal or rhythmic moods. It is also set off against the most beautiful and uplifting pop music. A conundrum, of course, but then one doesn’t look into Nabokovian puddles for ‘likes’.