Tobie

Dagadana’s fifth studio album should be given kudos as an attempt to provide ‘cheerfulness and generosity’ in our often gloomy, mean and antagonistic world. The album features radical reworking of carols, which they point out were often originally sung throughout the year.

Their last album included Chinese and Mongolian elements, which often worked, but this time they focus on their original Polish-Ukrainian roots, while joyfully pillaging all kinds of global influences. Daga Gregorowicz and Dana Vynnytska’s East European vocal styles are not so dissimilar to listeners familiar to Bulgarian choirs or DakhaBrakha, Ukrainian fellow global magpies. In ‘Do Ciebie Kasieńko’ after a stirring a cappella intro we are soon plugging into jazzy grooves, enjoyable experimental electronics and even the type of keyboards you might find on a Doors album. The slightly more stripped down numbers work better on the whole than the psychedelic avant-jazz sections, which can be messy. And there are points at which it might get too prog-rock for some, but it seems against the spirit of the album to critique a band for having too wide a palette – klezmer? Jethro Tull? 70s synth music? – and being so open to outside influences. One thing does come through: they seem to have enormous fun doing their adventurous music and they sound like they could be a blast live on the festival circuit when it kicks off again.