Album Details

• Artist: Warsaw Village Band
• Album: Infinity
• Label: Barbes Brooklyn
• Year of Release: 2009
• ME Rating:
• Reviewed by: patchen on 2009-05-05

Warsaw Village Band is a group almost impossible to define, but surely impossible to ignore. Infinity is one of those revelatory experiences, when you listen knowing that this is a record you'll still be listening to years from now, a psychic buddy you keep close by just in case.

The band says that the title of this fourth release refers to the accumulated experiences of culture-music, art, local stories, triumphs and tragedies-that are passed from generation to generation in a never-ending cycle. Given that, Warsaw Village Band generously give themselves a wide range of stylistic and instrumental choices to tell their stories, which they do with humor and power.

Over the course of a dozen songs, the band blends Polish folk motifs, chamber music, polka, simple rock and funk lines, and vocals that cover a range from bombastic to humble. Strings anchor most of the songs, with the cello and violin providing a moving and haunting base. Gospel-esque waves of rhythm also fuel some songs, which do not quiet reach the deep call-and response of Gospel, but have that resigned but hopeful vibe; these are songs that display strength and the joy of hard lessons learned.

"1.5 h" and "Is Anybody In There?" are the most powerful for me, though the two polkas and "Skip Funk" are also memorable. Singers Jan Trebunia Tutka, Tomasz Kukurba - Kroke and Natalia Przybysz each take a vocal turn on tunes where their mournful but defiant delivery adds to power of the songs.

"Infinity," then, is a musical buffet of local and world styles, delivered by a powerful band whose working knowledge of those styles is authentic and hard-won. Like Devotchka or Ukraninians, Warsaw Village Band makes music ancient and modern.

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