Over the past few months, five young musicians performing under the name Omasta have taken the Polish and European jazz scenes by storm. Having gained recognition for their intense live shows, they are now ready to deliver their debut studio effort. “Jazz Report From The Hood” a collectively composed album immersed in the textures of city streets and everyday urban life.

The name Omasta comes from a regional Krakow dialect word meaning “fat added to food for flavor.” It’s a fitting metaphor: the group’s music is saturated with thick drums and deep, heavy bass. Hailing from Krakow, the band took shape over several years, officially launching with a J Dilla tribute concert in February 2024 at the city’s Paul’s Boutique.

Since then, Omasta have performed at venues and festivals across Poland and Europe – including The Jazz Cafe and Ronnie Scott’s in London, AB in Brussels, Gent Jazz Festival, and more. They've shared stages with Slum Village, Aquiles Navarro (Irreversible Entanglements), long-time Astigmatic Records collaborator Tenderlonious, and Polish free jazz legend Leszek Żądło. Along the way, they’ve also paid tribute to the music of Madlib through specially curated live shows. All of this, notably, before even releasing their first single.

References to J Dilla and Madlib are no accident. Omasta’s music walks a fine line between the smoky, off-kilter beats of Detroit and Los Angeles, live instrumental hip-hop, and the jazz-funk sound of the 1970s – drawing inspiration from icons like Roy Ayers, Donald Byrd, and Lonnie Liston Smith. What binds it all together is their distinctive voice and unmistakable Polish roots.

“Jazz Report From The Hood” is a universal tale of life in the city – not a moral sermon, but a raw, resonant soundtrack for the everyday hustle, resilience, and rhythm of the neighborhoods that shape us.

TRACK LISTING

1. Cornerstone
2. Burner
3. Mandem
4. Who They Was
5. What's The Point?
6. Dead End
7. Ankle Breaker
8. Falsehood
9. We Gonna Make It
10. Kazimierz

It has been over a decade since Anthony Mills created his most celebrated project, Wildcookie. Filled with joints like "Heroine" and "Serious Drug," the project broke into numerous radio playlists, including Gilles Peterson's show, turning those tracks into underground hits. The Cookie Dough album captured listeners' hearts worldwide, and even after all these years, it remains a favorite on streaming platforms. Fourteen years after that success, Anthony Mills makes his long-awaited return, teaming up with Marek “Latarnik” Pędziwiatr to create Crack Rock—a bold evolution of the Wildcookie legacy.

The warm, jazzy beats centered around the Fender Rhodes sound, a hallmark of Wildcookie, have given way in Crack Rock to compositions rooted in the 1980s, crafted by Marek Pędziwiatr. The keyboardist of bands like EABS, Błoto, and Zima Stulecia, Pędziwiatr fully utilized his extensive collection of synthesizers. Together with Anthony Mills, Marek Pędziwiatr delved into the nuances of the yacht rock genre during their studio sessions, drawing inspiration from icons like Fleetwood Mac and Michael McDonald. They retained the genre's essence: high production quality, clean vocals, and a focus on light, catchy melodies. Eventually, their love for experimentation has led them into unfamiliar territory. The final result turned out vastly different from their initial vision—yacht rock began to crack and fray at the seams. Thus, Crack Rock was born, accompanied by a clever play on words.

A multilayered play on words is Anthony Mills’ hallmark, and the band’s name not only nods to the genre but also delves deeper into the themes found on the album. As the vocalist shares: “I listened to the song Crack on repeat. It brought me to tears more than once. Growing up in the crack era was incredibly painful. The PTSD I endured has now become a powerful source of inspiration for me.”

The challenging backdrop against which Anthony Mills paints his stories gives the songs about love and human relationships a far-from-perfect edge. His music embodies a sense of “cold love”—a unique kind of feeling that lures you in with its charm and splendor, only to reveal itself as destructive. Yet, you keep coming back for more. This love is contagious, intensely addictive—just like another hit of crack.

Exploring this addictive state also became the central theme in the collaboration of the Crack Rock duo, transforming into a multidimensional sonic landscape. Beneath the surface of light, catchy songs lie serious, pain-laden themes hidden in metaphor. “I see this album as therapy, as well as a testament to the magic we create in the studio. Our creative process is a mysterious blend of musical mastery and deep, layered conversations about life. For me, it feels like soul cleansing,” says Marek Pędziwiatr.

TRACK LISTING

A1. Inviting
A2. Crack
A3. Ratchet
A4. C
A5. Passive Lover
A6. Neck
B1. Candy Apple Red
B2. Glue
B3. Le Jardin
B4. Stay Ready
B5. Lurk

If one was to interpret the whole output of EABS in general, an inquisitive listener would notice that each subsequent album stems from the previous one. The overtones are similar and they can be treated as variations on the same theme. The only thing that changes is the background of the story. It is all about life and death, the beginning and the end of the world, and the role of human beings entangled in all this existentially. Following the futurism lessons from Sun Ra, the band travels to the year 2061, continuing their mission in space in the company of a living legend, Jan Ptaszyn Wróblewski.

"ALL THESE WORLDS ARE YOURS – EXCEPT EUROPA. ATTEMPT NO LANDING THERE." – this was the ominous message from the mythical Monolith of Arthur C. Clarke's 2001: A Space Odyssey. The quote became a metaphor for the situation the EABS crew found themselves in when the pandemic hit. It was not only Europe that became inaccessible, the whole world shut down. A reflection emerged that only empathy and cooperation could save humanity. We will not be able to face the greater threat that may come from the outside together by fighting wars among ourselves on Earth. A similar analogy can be seen in Arthur C. Clarke's book series, which was made even more famous by Stanley Kubrick with his iconic screen adaptation, 2001: A Space Odyssey. Released in 1986, the third part of the series has served as an inspiration for the fourth EABS album titled 2061, a soundtrack to the film that hasn't been made yet.

Collaborative work has always been the domain of EABS, which is even more audible with their new album as most of the instrumentalists brought their own compositions to the recording session. As a result, the album oscillates in orbits of many genres such as jazz, electronica and hip hop, in such mutations as Miami bass, trap and drill. It might come as a surprise that the role of the spiritual guide and mentor here is played by Jan Ptaszyn Wróblewski who has taken part in all the quests in the history of Polish jazz, just like Dr Heywood Floyd traversing the galaxy aboard the Universe spacecraft.

The year 1986 is symbolic for EABS. Poland was then visited by Sun Ra with his Arkestra carrying a prophecy: "We are living in End Time, all right, but in the last daze. It’s after the end of the world. Don’t you know that yet?" – these words of the Saturnian alien were hovering over the group's previous project. That year Halley's Comet flew close to Earth, inspiring Arthur C. Clarke to write the third installment of A Space Odyssey. The next time we will be able to see this celestial body is not until the eponymous year 2061. In his book, the author envisioned the current decade as full of crises, scandals and disasters. Having been in space for years, Dr Heywood Floyd would observe cities in flames, a nuclear war outbreak, and all the other horrific events from his monitor window. With the nightmare unfolding on Earth, the cultural and linguistic differences that had arisen over the millennia began to disappear, and the appearance of a new sun named Lucifer only accelerated the process. The superpowers, destroyed by warfare against each other, achieved reconciliation and reunification, making the outbreak of further wars of this kind impossible. At last, the existing peace machinery began to choose life over death. The disintegration of the enormous parasitic military business resulted in the acceleration of world economic development. The moral equivalent of war has led to the undoing of centuries of damage and neglect caused by it. This latest EABS album stands for the time when Halley's Comet will again fly by very close to Earth. We should hope that in the light of recent events, the utopian vision of the author of A Space Odyssey will come true and peace will come to our planet. Fortunately, there will be no need to wait another 40 years for the album.

TRACK LISTING

1. Global Warning
2. The Mystery Of Monolith
3. Ain’t No Mercy
4. Dead Silence
5. Conscious Breathing
6. Human Hero
7. Lucifer (The New Sun)
8. The Odyssey Of Dr Heywood Floyd
9. A Farewell To Mother Earth (ft. Jan Ptaszyn Wróblewski)

Błoto’s bold 2020 debut brought forth three albums in just twelve months. This prolific creative burst, followed by an ongoing tour and involvement in other projects, meant that fans had to wait over three years for the next release. During this time, new ideas took shape, and the vision for their fourth LP crystallized. The wait for Błoto's new album is nearly over. As always, autumn signals the arrival of Grzybnia (Mycelium).

The idea for the album had been simmering within the band since the release of Kwasy i zasady and finally took shape in late January 2023 at Warsaw's Studio Pasterka, under the careful guidance of Piotr Zabrodzki. It was by far the most fruitful session in the group's history, with ideas flowing in abundance. The chosen tracks not only resulted in two well-received singles, Szlam / Ścieki and Bakteria, but also provided enough material for an EP set to drop next year.

The seemingly chemical title of the album Kwasy i zasady (Acids and Bases) ultimately referred to interpersonal relationships, describing traits that prevent harmony. The album embodied the polarization of societies in the 21st century. The metaphor of Grzybnia (Mycelium) goes a step further. It emphasizes the importance of cooperation as a fundamental skill that can yield various results (fruits, fungi)—both good and bad. Above all, it underscores the power of collective action beyond divisions.

In a complex, unstable modern world that is breaking apart into pieces, the concept of mycelium offers a powerful model. Mycelium thrives in degraded, seemingly lifeless environments created by humans. A key aspect of the broader significance of mycelium is that cooperation benefits all involved parties, where each contributes something and receives something in return. Mycelium is a symbiont, meaning it forms a symbiotic relationship with certain tree species through mycorrhiza, where the roots of the trees and the mycelium exchange essential life-sustaining substances. This results in mutual benefits. The world of mycelium exemplifies cooperation.

A single mushroom, like a person, dies, but mycelium endures, much like humanity itself. Thus, similar to culture, it is immortal. Błoto operates in a manner akin to mycelium. It undoubtedly belongs to the underground realm, embodying the essence of the underground. It is also a destructor of music. In what sense? The Polish Nobel laureate Olga Tokarczuk noted in her book Primeval and Other Times that “[...] Mycelium thrives by drawing the last remnants of life from what dies, decomposes, and seeps into the earth. Mycelium is the life of death, the life of decay, the life of what has died.” In the same way, Latarnik, Cancer G, Wuja HZG, and OlafSaxx, through their collaboration, process cultural products to create entirely new and surprising combinations. The result of this work is both edible and poisonous mushrooms, manifested in the form of fat beats, house, spiritual jazz, improvised music, illbient, organic techno, and genre-defying electronics.

TRACK LISTING

A1. Łysiczka
A2. Kozak
A3. Shiitake
A4. Boczniak
A5. Prawdziwek
B1. Podostroma
B2. Muchomor
B3. Szatan
B4. Zasłonak