Warszawa - Kinetica EP

Warszawa is a fitting name for this project from Ken Holewczynski, a very inspired man who takes his roots from the 1980's, and the founder of the Arts Industria label. The label signed on such artists as Sphere Lazza, Signal to Noise, and Epoch. However, the label just disappeared at one time, and then Holewczynski began writing music under the name of Warszawa, which is Polish for the city of Warsaw.

Now, on the artist's page on Carbon12 Records' website, it states that "Socio-political movements, absurdist art, fanaticism and cultural history are the inspiration..." I found that to be kind of interesting, as it does go along with a lot of the early industrial movements, so I wanted to dissect what this man could be bringing to me. And, well, to say the least, I am enjoying myself, but not too much. I am quite disappointed that this is what an industry veteran brings to the table for my ears to chow down on.

What I have received are six tracks that feed me simplicity. I should have realized that when the description read: Warszawa takes a minimalistic approach to electronic music.... It could have taken a turn for the better, but it has not. I mean, Dscnt has a decent tune going with it, and I appreciated it, for it does make me feel like I'm floating in space. But it doesn't really do much for me except pass time. I don't want that to happen; I listen to music for pleasure, not just because I'm bored and having nothing better to do.

I feel the same way about the rest of the songs, really. The album is inspired by Soyuz 30, which was the first venture into space by a Polish cosmonaut, Miroslaw Hermaszewski. And all of the songs definitely remind me of space in some way, but they feel like they loop repeatedly to me. And, what else is that there aren't very many moments where I can point out anything brilliant.

But, there are those few moments that I can point out the brilliance. Take into consideration the beginning of Wostock. It has this really awesome synth going on, very minimal, but it's extremely atmospheric, and I can imagine a film of a space shuttle first breaking into space being played with this intro. But, then, the majestic tune of the song dissipated when the electronics kick in.

Interkosmos was pretty bland to be the first track of the album, but the gulag lockdown mix of the song made it more tangible and fun as it became more club friendly. Though, the dpspcmx version of the song just didn't do much besides putting in a sound that sounds like a dying tug boat honking for the last time. And, well, the only song that I have yet to touch upon would be SpaceTimeDb, but there's nothing that can be said about it that I haven't said about the previous songs; it's boring.

And, once more, I come back to what I was saying before: I am still quite disappointed that a veteran of the industry has released an album so disappointing. Yes, it's okay, and it has it's moments, but in the end, it's just not worth it. And I was quite excited about picking up the album, the limited edition version of it, as it came with a Soviet-era Interkosmos pin. I still might pick it up, but mainly for that awesome looking pin. Sep 04 2013