Among many electronic music fans in the world, Poland is still considered something of a wasteland with no scene established. Since 2010 a group of close friends based mainly in Poznan has gone to work, slowly proving them wrong. They operate under The Very Polish Cut-Outs name, consisting a successful record label, a strong DJ collective and an influential blog. Their creative hub is a club called WOSK, an intimate place with a hardwood dancefloor, a concrete DJ booth and a rotary mixer.
Launched four years ago in Poznan by Zambon and Kapsa, The Very Polish Cut-Outs focuses on renewing interest in forgotten grooves of Poland’s communist past. With some help from close friends – many of whom play Boiler Room’s showcase – Poznan’s label brought disco, soul, funk, electronic and psychedelic music made years ago in Poland back to the modern dancefloor.
“I started editing old Polish tracks after hearing Baris K mix on Beats In Space in 2009,” says Zambon, now residing in Berlin. “His modern reworks of Turkish pop and folk music came as quite a shock to me and inspired me so much that I decided to do the same with our stuff. A year later the Bumrocks from New York City decided to put my first edits out on vinyl. After I met Kacper Kapsa, a thought crossed my mind: why not release them on my own?”
Over the last four years, The Very Polish Cut-Outs released edits done by creme de la creme of Polish underground producers. We’re talking the half-dozen on our bill, plus other Polish artists such as Eltron John and Old Spice, plus friends from further afield, like Norwegian Sex Tags affiliate Telephones, or Eddie C from Canada.
A long series of digital-only edit EPs attracted the attention of hundreds of diggers and music aficionados around the world. Vinyl releases followed, all of them selling out like hot cakes. Lush sleeves, designed by one of the most talented young Polish designers, and high sound quality helped establish TVPC as a label to follow.
On Thursday December 18th you will meet the extended Very Polish Cut-Outs family. Among label honcho Zambon, we have: the southern Polish don Kapsa, co-founder of the label; Mental and Niemoc, two live acts rooted in no-shit, no-wave sound; Chlopak z Sasiedztwa, one of the owners of WOSK; and Selvy, a young prodigy devoted to the sound of 90’s American house.
Even though you don’t know all of those names, you can trust in them.
Zambon is naturally thrilled at the growth of the label. “Among supporters of The Very Polish Cut-Outs there are some of the most respected DJs of modern scene: Andrew Weatherall, Jamie xx, Todd Terje, Bill Brewster, Soft Rocks and Pender Street Steppers amongst them. I’m really proud this is first homegrown Polish dance music label that had relative success in the rest of the world, but I don’t want to capitalize on it for years. That’s why recently I’ve started another label called Transatlantyk, devoted to releasing original modern dance and contemporary music by unknown or upcoming artists, mainly from Poland and East Europe.“
“Until now Transatlantyk has released well received house records by Naphta and The Phantom, with releases by Selvy and Jazxing coming after,” he goes on. “This winter the label will also release Ptaki‘s debut LP, the duo responsible for our label’s biggest hit to date, and masters of creating sample based collages. Following that, we’ve got a compilation called POLO HOUSE that will be an overview of the emergent Polish house scene.” Ultimately, it all adds up to the same thing:
“Get to know the sound of underground Poland.”
