Digging up (and editing) Polish lost grooves, funk, soul and psych

September 19, 2015 3:21 PM

The Very Polish Cut Outs is a label/ collective/ collection of that has been busy bringing Poland’s lost grooves to a new world audience, everything from disco, funk, soul, electronic and psychedelic for the past few years. They're active on Facebook, where you can get previews of new releases and hear more funky fun music, or you can go straight to the source with their Soundcloud and Mixcloud accounts. Of course, there's even more, if you're down to dig.

In the Test Pressing write up of Kenny Wisdom's experience and history with the label, Kenny cites Barış K's similarly themed edits as an inspiration for the Very Polish Cut Outs. His Soundcloud page doesn't have too much, so here are his three Eurasia mixes: Eurasia Mix - An Introduction to Turkish Cosmic Space (the original); Baris K Eurasia Mix Part II - Advances in Turk Kozmik Space; and Eurasia Mix Part III - Turk Kozmik Space Masters.

For some original, unedited Polish funk, there is at least one series of releases with that obvious name, and from a proper Polish label no less. For a taste of those records, here's the also honestly labeled Polish Funk Mix, which was made to promote the Polish Funk series.

Thanks to the success of The Very Polish Cuts, there is at least one effort to duplicate the theme of focusing on lost grooves from a particular European country, with the LBD (Little Beat Different) Collective covering obscure releases form 1970s Czechoslovakia.

posted by filthy light thief (9 comments total)

What? No polka? Color this Cleveland boy shocked.

Wonderful stuff! Thanks, flt!
posted by mondo dentro at 3:39 PM on September 19, 2015

Andy Votel's Finders Keepers label also has some rereleases Polish rare groove, including electronic film scores from the likes of Andrzej Korzynski (I believe he did the score for Possession)
posted by acb at 3:45 PM on September 19, 2015 [3 favorites]

While I love polka (sample track - warning abusive breakcore), I was happy to share some Central European music that wasn't what folks consider to be traditional. Dig deep enough, and you're bound to find something funky, soulful and/or psychedelic anywhere you go.

Andy Votel's Finders Keepers label also has some rereleases Polish rare groove, including electronic film scores from the likes of Andrzej Korzynski

Sweet, thanks! Searching for "polish" things on the site turns up quite a nice selection.
posted by filthy light thief at 3:48 PM on September 19, 2015 [2 favorites]

Two specific picks from digging further: Dogu Civicik's "Donende", which is a heavy, heavy edit of Barış Manço's proggy "Dönence", and you can find a slightly shorter version of the re-work on Ostra Discos' Turkish Delights EP/comp; and the next track Soundcloud played was Oceanvs Orientalis - Das Modelll (Rework), but I don't know who did the "original" cover of Kraftwerk.
posted by filthy light thief at 5:42 PM on September 19, 2015 [1 favorite]

Thanks! :-D
posted by evilDoug at 6:09 PM on September 19, 2015

Thanks! This is INCREDIBLE!!
posted by Philby at 6:37 PM on September 19, 2015

Welp, there goes the rest of my weekend.

I heartily second the Votel/Finders Keepers recommendation above. Sublime Frequencies is another great source for stuff in this vein.
posted by palmcorder_yajna at 7:41 PM on September 19, 2015 [1 favorite]

Thanks filthy light thief, this is fantastic.

I've long enjoyed the gems shared on Soviet Groove ("Funk, jazz, psychedelic, progressive, disco, electro, shake and the rest cool music from USSR of the 1965-1985"), such as Ukrainian Groove Part 1.

And then, there is this.
posted by Kabanos at 8:21 PM on September 19, 2015 [3 favorites]

If you don't know it already, filthy light thief, Finders Keepers' Well Hung: 20 Funk-Rock Explosions From Beneath Communist Hungary is another gem. Thanks, this is a fantastic post.
posted by mediareport at 3:39 AM on September 20, 2015 [2 favorites]