Brutality Garden presents its first V/A album featuring Erva’s batida-driven hyper-pop, Ostrowski’s improvised meditation on juke and gqom, Clinamen’s and T’ien Lai's polyrhythmic frenetic afro-house. Artists define their distinct yet diverse musical style as „konk"

Erva - Teleskopowe

T'ien Lai - OntO

T'ien Lai - Kafar

Erva - Dwa Kilo

On "WoKa. Vol.1” Ostrowski expresses his affection for the freshness and clarity of gqom and afro-house. What had captivated him was the use - typical for this type of music - of sounds from the early digital instruments like Yamaha PSR600, which instead of being used solely in wedding bands were appropriated by young and bold producers making highly original and modern variation on house music. During recording of this album Ostrowski focused on simplicity in the selection of means: he built almost an entire album with samples from only one instrument Kurzweil PC3K8 which perfected the digital sounds of the late 90s and early 00s. 

The end result is a surprising departure from baroque complexity of fractured and deterritorialized rhythms typical for Ostrowski’s earlier albums. Minimalistic approach led the artist close to the very core of this music while maintaining the touch of deconstruction that is characteristic for his entire career. This search for simplicity and clarity is a breath of fresh air for Ostrowski, releasing him from compositional ADHD without losing his identity.

In the words of the artist himself: „I have often imagined something like a rave party in a tropical forest, slightly narcotic, psychedelic, but in a modern, not hippie, way, with lightly turned up colors, digital fractals… something like a positive Predator in the tropics, Predator that loves people, parties with them, joins Nyege Nyege shows, comes down after ibogaine, experiences communion with everybody, gives himself to trance and music. These moments of deconstruction in my tracks are just little trips when the drug swallows you in his own fractal, but a moment later spits you out so that you continue dancing with everybody.

This is by far the best definition of konk, a musical style developed by Ostrowski and the rest of Brutality Garden crew.

Ostrowski - Moro

On their new album Polish group ||ALA|MEDA|| (known as Alameda 5) leaves behind rock esthetics for good and fully dives into the influences of African and Latin American rhythms that were already present to smaller extent on their previous albums „Duch Tornada” and „Eurodrome”. The key word here is „batida”, musical style originated in Angola and famous for its euphoric and syncopated rhythm. Alameda 5 expands this musical idiom it their own novel way, adding the influences of industrial music, post-punk, gqom, dub and vaporwave. It leads to a unique tropical-industrial combination where avant-garde meets afro-house, complex sampling and granular synthesis are incorporated into frenetic live rhythm section. The main idea of the band’s new direction is a total fusion of electronics and live music and obliteration of all divisions between high and low arts, sublime and vulgar works, avant-garde and entertainment, music „for the soul” and music „for the body”.

||ALA|MEDA|| - echo•atom

||ALA|MEDA|| - sonicas

MONIKÉ is a naive musical legend recording the fate of all the homeless dogs that have evolved from immigrants to tourists. It is also a mocking of earlier pseudonyms and alter egos of Robert Skrzyński (Mikrodepresja, Micromelancolie, 3HDSafxri). The artist for the last 17 years has been working with cassette tapes, microsamples, prepared field recordings, feedback techniques and Roland samplers. MONIKÉ is a memory of intriguing dreams of individuals coming from small, coal-mine settlements. Skrzyński released numerous albums of such labels as Aurora Borealis, Instruments of Discipline, Natural Sciences, SEAGRAVE czy Where to Now? MONIKÉ is music travelling the peripheries of imagination, interweaving dreamlike notions of rhythm inspired by traditional music of Egypt, Greece, Tunisia, as well as genres such as hard drum, global bass, kuduro, funk neurótico czy changa tuki. Robert Skrzyński had the pleasure of working with Antonina Nowacka, Mia Zabelka, Zofia Hyjek, Bartosz Zaskórski, Boris D Hegenbart, Jean-Sébastien Truchy, Jerzy Mazzoll, Krzysztof Topolski, Mateusz Wysocki czy Michael Bjella. MONIKÉ is a sum of experiences, that allows to reflect on the past with a smile and a distance. It is a confidence resulting from the awareness of one’s limits, an energy flowing from the inspirations, a courage allowing the turning of weaknesses into strengths, virtues and advantages. It is a hymn about building one’s identity.

Moniké - Undo The Horse

After daringly raw EP from Ostrowski, Brutality Garden presents „Natury. Vol. 2” - second and thrillingly bombastic part of sonic experiments conducted by an enigmatic group T’ien Lai, which also deeply delves into sounds of African and South American club music. Their new material bordering on industrial gqom and improvised baile is a strong psychedelic experience, which attempts to bring digital music to life. 

T’ien Lai dubbed their music „konk” - an Eastern European longing for rhythm, trance and authentic feeling of community. They find desired sonic qualities in the musical worlds of Angola, Tanzania, Brazil, Mexico, Portugal and South Africa with their complex polyrhythmic structures, non-obvious syncopations and reckless sampling techniques. In T’ien Lai these qualities meet with inherently punk attitude of the band’s members. Despite the electronic nature of their music, it is mostly created during live rehearsals and improvisations on stage as a result of performance clashes, feedback loops and mutual inspirations. T’ien Lai’s experiments don’t focus on meticulous analysis of the sources of their fascinations, but rather rely on permanent stimulation and bodily sensations.  

How much they progressed, can be heard in the opening track „Sangue e Pele de Cobra” featuring Crizin da Z.O. Distinctive baile funk rhythm is immersed in the sonic ocean of rich textures, glittering with each drum beat. Brazilian rapper’s resolute flow in a beautifully musical Portuguese language combined with a blaze of sounds, gives almost synesthetic sensations enabling to experience the touch of the snake from the song’s title on one’s skin. 

Music’s live quality is emphasized by a smooth transition into „boRdo”, a melodic gqom track traversed by unexpected glitches, full of background noises, reverberations and dark, night-like depth. The track’s powerful drone hums ominously against sonic insanity unleashed among synthetic smudges, cracks and vortices. Musicians themselves explain that to reach such an intense state of rapture, they use masks during live performances, which help them forget about their identities and social hierarchies. In this way they turn into avatars rummaging through some non-existent digital land. This track constitutes center of the record along with „HoL”, second gqom piece, which in turn juxtaposes sonic eeriness with euphoria and elevation connected to dance. Almost angelic voice hovering over the song gives the listener a feeling of katharsis worthy of the greatest titans of post-industrial music. It also reminds of the beginnings of T’ien Lai, a project that has always been focused on searching for „a positive darkness”. In the hands of T’ien Lai euphoric gqom quickly transforms into a totalistic wall of beautiful noise. 

Album’s closing track „Lustra” instead of relief brings a whole constellation of short circuits and defects woven into afro house structure, thus still maintaining a state of tension. Ceaselessly grinding and interweaving various rhythms T’ien Lai finish the second part of „Natury” working up an appetite for more, since each of the album’s motifs could easily last for hours.

Album’s fluid and live nature is not a coincidence. New T’ien Lai is not only a new sound, but also once again a new line-up. At the moment band consists of the group’s founders: Jakub Ziołek and Łukasz Jędrzejczak as well as a new member Qba Janicki - well-known jazz and experimental improviser. Since the droning debut released a decade ago on which musique concrete met with kosmische electronics, it is yet one another change of style in the history of the band that used to be one of the pillars of Milieu L’Acéphale collective along with Stara Rzeka and Innercity Ensemble among others, while today along with Ostrowski and Alameda is shaping the sound of Brutality Garden.

music & mix: Łukasz Jędrzejczak & Jakub Ziołek
mastering: Jakub Ziołek
gfx: Piotr Bukowski

T'ien Lai - Lustra

T'ien Lai - HoL

T'ien Lai - BoRdo

T'ien Lai - Sangue e Pele de Cobra (feat. Crizin Da Z.O.)

New album in Brutality Garden’s catalogue is a particular continuation of T’ien Lai’s "Natury 02". Erva’s "Virtual P." is on the one hand, a direct response and extension of that album, and a dislocation and a shift of emphasis on the other. While T’ien Lai centers on trance and integrality of experience, Erva tends towards fragmentation and mutability. Utilising familiar musical tropes of gqom, batida and baile funk, the artist creates an ephemeral hybrid that he calls "hyper afro-house". 

On his new album Erva proposes songs-meteors, which are both massive and intensive, as well as transient and fleeting. Giving in to the internal logic of evolution of the compositions, the author follows capricious and momentary impulses, which make him modify and actualize almost every new musical idea. Whether it’s energetic and pop-influenced batida of "Zenit" and "Robota", nocturnal and aggressive gqom of "Matka" or modern experimental IDM and UK bass of "Lokale" and "RZCZWSTŚ", the author is always presenting his unique idea of sketchy, variable and unstable dance music. It is, however, dance which is not about total immersion of oneself in the rhythm, but rather about an effortless oscillation between different moods. The album closes with fiery baile funk of "Po nas" and "Barak", which features Crizin da Z.O., a Brazilian rapper known from "Natury 02". 

Erva is a pseudonym of Jakub Ziołek, a musician from Bydgoszcz, Poland, known from such projects as Alameda, Stara Rzeka, Innercity Ensemble, T’ien Lai as well as from collaborations with such artists as Wacław Zimpel, James Holden, Richard Pinhas, Mauricio Takara and Krzysztof Ostrowski.

mix & mastering: Jakub Ziołek
gfx: Piotr Bukowski

Erva - Barak (feat. Crizin Da Z.O.)

Erva - Po nas

Erva - RZCZWSTS

Erva - Robota

Erva - Matka

Erva - Zenit

murmur

genet

uchoko (feat. swrcfx)

dom os (feat. Marek Pospieszalski)

Maciej Maciągowski - Śfix

Maciej Maciągowski - GLDWERK

Maciej Maciągowski - 23 Skibidi Dop

Maciej Maciągowski - Dadadhd

Prod:
1, 5, 8 - Erva.
2, 4 - Ostrowski.
3 - twe.exe.
6 - IFS
7 - Maciej Maciągowski
9 - Avtomat
10 - paszka

Blaq Bandana - Whisky (paszka remix)

Blaq Bandana - Swear (Avtomat remix)

Blaq Bandana - Whisky (feat. Maganda Shakul)

Blaq Bandana - Alone

Blaq Bandana - Real Talk (feat. Big Zed)

Blaq Bandana - Bad

Blaq Bandana - Where They @

Blaq Bandana - Xenophobia

Blaq Bandana - Swear

Blaq Bandana - Neighbourhood Watch

Welcome to Brutality Garden. Art of the peripheries. On the edge of capitalism. Molecular music label. Konk factory. Est. 2020. Booking/inquiries: acphale@gmail.com

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