Gore (Burning)

RUTA is an anarchic project that reveals a little-known violent aspect of Polish history. The album's sub-title Songs of Rebellion and Misery, 16th-20th Century gives a clue. The terse, powerful lyrics date from various periods of Polish history and express the resentment of the peasants against their masters. They are set to music of punk-like aggression, accompanied by various scratchy medieval fiddles and other assorted instruments and percussion. The title-track begins with a shout of ‘Fire!’; the words are yelled, not sung, over repeated fiddle phrases and heavy percussion. ‘Hey, what's burning?’ goes one of the lyrics, collected by Oskar Kolberg. ‘If it's the tavern, let us know we'll go and save it. If it's the manor, say nothing because they beat your ass black and blue in there.’ The following song, ‘Gallows’, has spectral fiddles evoking the sound of a corpse swaying on a gibbet before lyrics, from 1885, come in about the hanging of a despised overseer and steward. Perhaps most powerful is ‘Throw a Priest from a Pulpit’: in Polish (Ksiydza z Kazalnicy Zrucic), its ‘k’ and ‘z’ sounds are so explosive that the words could lacerate your face as they are spat out. The wild flavour of Warsaw Village Band is here – the group includes two members of that group and musicians from other Polish folk and punk bands, including lead vocalist Pawel Guma Gumola from Moskwa.

Live performances in Poland have caused a stir – and a right-wing party tried (unsuccessfully) to get one of their concerts banned, claiming it was anti– Polish and anti-Catholic. For non-Polish speakers it's a shame the background to the lyrics and music isn't written up in clear English. But I can imagine theirs is a very powerful live show indeed.