Ever since Mogwai enjoyed international success, instrumental pop music with electronic facets has lost its reputation of being just a pet subject for jazz-loving college students. Nevertheless, the rising generation of such musicians is - compared to all these innumerable vocal newcomer bands - rather visible at a glance. Even Tortoise, Boards Of Canada and the aforementioned Scotsmen, and also the better known German representatives of the genre (e.g. Contriva, SDNMT, F.S. Blumm) were eventually tempted to include some vocals in their music.
But the Polish trio GASOLINE, which has its base nearby Warsaw, trusts absolutely in the narrative strength of its musical dialogues. On the GASOLINE debut album "The New Discipline" each of the nine instrumental pieces is, in its structure, comparable to a multi-layered, but always comprehensible story. Usually, they begin with a certain (mostly electronic) mood which is supplemented and modified in layers by electric guitar, bass and drums. These songs allow the listener to reminisce about landscapes, colours or personal encounters, without being interrupted by commenting lyrics. The song titles give some clues, but never rob the listeners of their own associations - even if „The Day When Everything Started To Make Sense" becomes a kind of ballad with its returning guitar theme and subtle ambient sounds.
One of the main attractions of GASOLINE's music is its transparency. Each instrument gets its spotlight without ever running the risk of having to occupy space as a solo in a jazz manner. The two brothers Tomek (electric guitar, modular synthesizer, loops) and Maciek Dawidowski (electric bass guitar), as well as their sandbox buddy Darek Gosk (drums) have played music together since childhood days. They've build up a kind of blind understanding in their musical communication, but they haven't unlearned the ability to surprise each other. Every idea contributed by each member during rehearsals - may it be a loop, a beat, a bassline or a certain guitar picking - undergoes several modifications during a session, so that in fact every piece on „The New Discipline“ can be called a collaboration.
With the exception of the pastoral intro and outro „Bat Song“ and „Faces“, every track on „The New Discipline“ was recorded in the analog Electriceye Studio nearby Bydgoszcz which is pursued by the jazz anarchists of the „Contemporary Noise Quintett“ (a kind of Pomeranian relatives of the German Kammerflimmer Kollektief).
Postrock from Poland – that’s not just a pretty alliteration, but could be also a high quality rating in future. All the things which are currently going on in the field of independent pop music in Warsaw, Krakau and Bydgoszcz let you think of Chicago circa 1993 or the German "Weilheim Scene" at the end of the Nineties: numerous young bands don't content themselves with adapting the usual patterns of Britpop and Emorock, but seek for means of expression beyond familiar song structures.
But even in such a vital alternative scene, strictly instrumental-based pop groups in the tradition of Tortoise or The Tied & Tickled Trio remain exotic. In this respect, the name of the GASOLINE debut „The New Discipline“ can be understood programmatically, as this "special discipline" hasn't been explored yet by most of their local generation group/peers (Tomek, Maciek and Darek are all in their late twenties). And even the (distinctly older) Polish postrock pioneers Kristen use english lyrics from time to time.
Unlike the Anglo-American representatives of instrumental emocore (Mogwai, Explosions In the Sky etc.), GASOLINE's beautifully crafted song structures lead rarely into an aggressive eruption, but show through polyrhythms and varied colourful guitar tones diverse perspectives. To this extent, GASOLINE's bright pastoral creations have indeed more in common with John McEntire and the Acher Brothers. Just listen to the title track!
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