Trupa Trupa is psychedelic post punk band from Gdańsk, Poland.
According to Metro, they are combining post-punk and psych with skill. “The Beatles sing Joy Division oversimplifies them but doesn’t misrepresent them”. According to The Guardian, “the band’s music blends off-kilter melodies, dense instrumentation and lyrical explorations of the darkest side of the human condition”. The Times compares them to Sonic Youth, Radiohead and the Manchester scene in the 80s. According to Mojo, their “gripping and energetic record packs a serious punch”. KEXP highlights “ominous guitars, stern rhythms and haunting melodies” and The Quietus agrees. As Pitchfork describes, “Trupa Trupa are the rare dystopian post-punk band to embrace optimism and levity as necessary survival mechanisms. They may not have the perfect prescription for a better world, but they welcome you to imagine one together”.
Trupa Trupa are Grzegorz Kwiatkowski, Tomek Pawluczuk and Wojtek Juchniewicz. They made their first international appearance in 2015 with the album “Headache” published by a British label Blue Tapes and X-Ray Records. A year later they signed to French Ici d’ailleurs, to release a remastered version of “Headache” on vinyl. In 2017 the band recorded and put out “Jolly New Songs” published additionally on a Japanese label Moorworks. In 2019 Sub Pop released Trupa Trupa’s single “Dream About”. The same year the band was also featured on a cassette split with a Texan alternative legend The Suspirians, published by an American label Whited Sepulchre Records. In September 2019 the group published “Of the Sun” album. The release was a result of international cooperation of Glitterbeat Records (Europe), Lovitt Records (USA), Moorworks (Japan) and Antena Krzyku (Poland). In March 2020 the labels published the band’s EP “I’ll find”.
Latest album B FLAT A was released in February 2022 by Glitterbeat Records and Antena Krzyku (Poland).
Trupa Trupa has been featured in line-ups of a number of significant festivals worldwide, including: Primavera Sound, Desert Daze, Rockaway Beach, SXSW, and Iceland Airwaves to name just a few.
TT also took part in a legendary NPR Tiny Desk session and BBC Radio 6 music session.
Their tracks were featured on BBC 6 Music, played by Iggy Pop, Marc Riley, Mary Anne Hobbs, Steve Lamacq and Gideon Coe. Henry Rollins presents TT on his shows regularly. The latest Trupa Trupa releases got some notable airplay also on The Current, WFMU, KEXP and NPR.
On February 21, 2023, the experimental and limited cassette “ttt” was released, which was very well received by critics: “One of the most important bands to emerge from Europe in the last decade.” (Monolith Cocktail), and which has been broadcast many times on BBC Radio 6 music.
On September 5, 2023, Glitterbeat Records released the single “Thrill” along with the accompanying video by visual artist Adam Witkowski. Also in September, BBC 6 Music announced the second Trupa Trupa LIVE session on Riley&Coe show, which will take place on January 8, 2024.
On September 5, 2023, the movie “Green Border” directed by Agnieszka Holland premiered at the Venice Film Festival. It featured Trupa Trupa’s ”Headache” as part of the soundtrack. The film was awarded the Special Jury Prize in Venice.
PRESS
B Flat A, is made of dour post-punk tones and clashing rhythms that recall Joy Division, Can, and Sonic Youth — the kind of reference points that make you understand why Iggy Pop and Henry Rollins are among Trupa Trupa’s fans. Dark, impressive stuff. […] Trupa Trupa come bearing a message that resonates. Naive? Maybe so. But that’s what they always say about dreamers.
Simon Vozick-Levinson, Rolling Stone
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The first album was great, but this one, I just think, is even better.
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The Polish band’s latest shows that they don’t make protest music so much as process music, indulging the ugliest aspects of post-punk and post-hardcore as a means to protect what’s good and beautiful in this world.
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Trupa Trupa look to confront evil. This is a very strong band.
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It’s a tense and explosive listen brimming with heady ideas. Perhaps appropriately, the album’s baseline sound calls back to the Cold War era, the bridge between that old uncomfortable history and now.
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Very much an authentically Polish take on rock history, this is a fascinating and unique record, driven by a real sense of urgency.
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Trupa Trupa do not shy away from the hard topics, and they put them in music that has edge, art, and a lot of good noise. […] They are in the committed, experimental spirit of Radiohead, with their own sound palette, poetic reach and an activist edge. […] You can go to see it now! And you should.
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Gdansk rockers add fresh pre-punk ingredients to their Baltic bouillabaisse.
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This is just a gloriously noisy gritty rock band from Poland, Bob Boilen and I love very dearly. They have a new record out today called B FLAT A.
Robin Hilton, New Music Friday cycle, www.npr.org
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This is pretty neat.
Anthony Fantano, The Needle Drop
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Trupa Trupa’s sixth album favours often lovely, mysteriously ritualistic sounds.
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The band’s music evokes both the darkness of Eastern European art and its surreal humor. In the Polish world view, life is both a struggle and absurd. It’s not a cause for tears, but for the wry grins of a skeptic. Trupa Trupa’s songs aren’t preachy. On the excellent new Trupa Trupa album “B Flat A,” a song such as “Uniforms” suggests a catchy yet wickedly ghostly nursery rhyme about conformity.
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That is fabulous. They are really great, loving that. […] They are the loveliest people in the world.
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This Polish band’s sixth album is a well-crafted set of ominous rock ranging from driving, tension-filled post-punk to atmospheric psych-rock, with often-dark lyrics for these troubled times.
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Visceral komische and post-punk inspired rock.
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Their steadfast commitment to setting their own course and remaining firmly out of step with any other scenes or genres makes them a vital band all around the world, especially as its so rare to find a record of this calibre that isn’t easily compared to another.
Jimi Arundell, Under The Radar
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With ‘B FLAT A,’ the group has taken another step towards solidifying their wholly distinctive sound. A tar-black marriage of poetry, politics, and powerful rhythm. With each release growing in confidence, we look forward to seeing what they give us next.
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Imagine the Beatles and Velvet Underground reading Hannah Arendt while in the studio with film director Michael Haneke. That’s Trupa Trupa in a nutshell.
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Channeling a wary mixture of dread and hope, the Polish indie rockers tighten the slackness of previous records into a potent fusion of post-hardcore and shoegaze.[…] More than just revel in the tension between medium and message, Trupa Trupa are the rare dystopian post-punk band to embrace optimism and levity as necessary survival mechanisms.[…] Trupa Trupa may not have the perfect prescription for a better world, but they welcome you to imagine one together.
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Songs that feel like dreams, charged with spasms of noise, gut-punch bass lines and hypnotic melodies.
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“A clever and strong group Trupa Trupa!” says the one and only Iggy Pop on his BBC Radio 6 Music show.
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With shades of Sonic Youth, Radiohead and the kind of rainy, overcoat-wearing bands that Manchester was so good at producing in the early Eighties, Trupa Trupa jump from hypnotic trawls (Satellite) to shouty angular stomps (Turn), while bringing some indefinable quality that can come only from their lives. As revitalising as it is odd, Of the Sun is one of those curios that is really quite exciting, through sheer character and energy alone. 4/5.
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Off-kilter melodies, dense instrumentation and lyrical explorations of the darkest side of the human condition.
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Just really dug them a lot. Trupa Trupa. A band that is at once very experimental but also deeply commited to the kind of noise that gets you out of your seat. You can get the sense that there is a lot of social protest, a lot of noise on behalf of the issues that matter. This is Trupa Trupa. The new album is called Of the Sun out in September. This is a track that really has a great sort of heavy metal Radiohead vibe about it and I really dig it. Keep an eye of that record.
David Fricke, Rolling Stone, SiriusXM
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Henry Rollins says our “Of The Sun” album is fantastic and we are featured in five of his KCRW shows!
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Trupa Trupa Convert Historical Trauma into Post-Punk Catharsis on Of The Sun.
Zach Schonfeld, Paste Magazine
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Here’s Trupa Trupa for y’all.
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It takes you somewhere without really going anywhere.
Steve Lamacq, 6 Music Recommends, BBC Radio 6 Music
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Plenty of acts are doing post-punk right now, and plenty are doing psych. But few are combining the two, which Trupa Trupa do with tautness and skill. The Beatles sing Joy Division oversimplifies them, but doesn’t misrepresent them. The songs from this year’s Of The Sun album cut to the heart of the dark road down which historical ignorance or revisionism leads. If this doesn’t sound much fun, be assured, Trupa Trupa are above all a cracking rock group, and they played a blinder. 4/5.
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This gripping and energetic record packs a serious punch!
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Torres, Lucy Dacus, Julien Baker and Trupa Trupa! Our song “Dream about” is featured in the new episode of NPR Music’s All Songs Considered – The Week’s Best New Songs! “They’re one of these bands that are super super loud and punky, but then, all of a sudden, it’s melodic” says Bob Boilen!
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Trupa Trupa continue to hit the mark as they experiment with simplification without excising the art from their rock.
Ian King, The Line of Best Fit
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We are in The Times “Best New Music” section next to The Strokes and Neil Young! Trupa Trupa, Fitzcarraldo: „Beautiful, dreamlike tribute to the German film director Werner Herzog’s epic masterwork, from the Polish indie band’s new EP, I’ll Find.”
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“Of The Sun” named “the most unexpected revelation” of 2019 by British daily newspaper The Morning Star!
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“Of The Sun” on NPR New Music Friday – Top Albums Out On Sept. 13! “The band Trupa Trupa has an album out now called Of The Sun. And it is a great one!” says Robin Hilton.
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Trupa Trupa’s Of The Sun takes apparently simple songs and brutally smashes them up. A gripping slog with beautiful, luminous moments that stay with you long after you’ve stopped listening.
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Of the Sun draws on wider strands of what could be broadly called “21st century post-rock”…The epic punch of Trupa Trupa’s songs feels like it has a grimmer edge, one that betrays a sense that things may not be as you want them to be. All too apt for the current times.
Ned Raggett, Bandcamp Daily [Album of the Day]
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This Polish band’s fifth album is a solid set of psych-tinged post-punk with a dark, atmospheric sound featuring ominous guitars, stern rhythms and haunting melodies.
Don Yates, New Music Reviews, KEXP
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The Polish quartet reaches new hypnotic heights… As summer fades and the rains cometh, we recommend grabbing this moody delight and getting lost for a little while. It’s well worth the trip.
Sam Walker-Smart, Clash Magazine
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Can’t wait for trupatrupaband’s new album, Of the Sun, due this September!
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Poland’s Trupa Trupa have a deconstructive approach to songwriting. A group who break guitar music down to its components, they re-assemble these shards of noise into strange pieces of art. New album ‚Of The Sun’ lands on September 13th, and it’s another dazzling dose of invention from a band whose reputation is extending across the continent.
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I am loving the music of Trupa Trupa out of Poland.
Stuart Maconi, BBC Radio 6 Music
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Trupa Trupa’s music mixes elements of so many things I love – bits of psychedelia, krautrock, repetition, noise, melody, and beauty. It can be haunting, harsh, disturbing, meditative – sometimes all in the same track. This year they have made their best album yet.
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The Polish protest-psychedelic group Trupa Trupa tease their (excellent) forthcoming Of The Sun album with the spacey, shimmering Longing.
Stephen Thomas Erlewine, Senior Pop Editor for Tivo. Also Allmusic and Pitchfork.
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Great modern psychedelic rock is alive and well and living its best life in Poland. And leading the present charge of innovative talent from Eastern Europe is Trupa Trupa, who will be releasing their excellent new album, Of The Sun, on September 13th. An early listen to Of The Sun reveals a tremendous amount of growth for Trupa Trupa since their formation over a decade ago.
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The music made by Polish post-punks Trupa Trupa finds a haunting balance between intensity and off-beat melodies, even as the group’s lyrics juxtapose the absurd with the harrowing.
Tobias Carroll, Volume 1 Brooklyn
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You may not think you need an album of abrasive psychedelic post-punk that deals with light fare like Holocaust denialism, but you do – check out Poland’s Trupa Trupa’s new one, Of the Sun, out today.
Thierry Côté, Popdose, Exclaim
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Trupa Trupa are an art rock band from Gdansk. Fusing elements of post-hardcore, no wave and psychedelia, the four-piece exude a restless energy that bears the hallmarks of Fugazi’s uncompromising punk ethos. The band weave absurd lyrics through liquifying guitar riffs, angular bass lines and concise percussion.
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A revelation. ★★★★★
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It is a truly special record that feels like it could never tire and be passed down through generations as an example of..‘Yeah, there was great guitar bands in the 2010s’.
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This is music for an uncertain future, exploring deep in the valley of our disunity, panning mistakes from history’s river.
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Trupa Trupa bring some poetry and subtlety to psychedelic rock.
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One of the best rock bands doing business now is from Gdansk, Poland.
Sasha Frere-Jones, Los Angeles Times
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The band is Polish and the lyrics are in English, but the undercurrent of anxiety and dread that distinguishes Trupa Trupa’s music knows no nationality.
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Paul Simon, Gorillaz, Lorde, Radiohead, St. Vincent and Trupa Trupa. Chicago Tribune lists our SXSW gig in top ten concerts of 2018.
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Newsweek USA puts Jolly New Songs on the list of the 11 great albums of 2017.
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This sound, this song and this band lands perfectly in the nexus of everything I love most in music.
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Trupa Trupa’s debut in the Rolling Stone magazine as one of the best acts at SXSW 2018 Festival. “It sounded like the start of a rewarding friendship” says David Fricke.
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One of a few Polish bands that broke internationally.
Mark Beaumont, New Musical Express
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One of the best bands around at the moment, don’t sleep on these.
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Chicago Tribune sees TT as one of the SXSW 2018 highlights.
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They’ve carved out their own sort of time in their music and invited you in.
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There’s nowhere to go but up for this most unique rock band.
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Definitely watch out for these guys.
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Jolly New Songs were broadcasted on BBC Radio 6 Music (Stuart Maconie, Lauren Laverne, Tom Ravenscroft, Gideon Coe). Tom Ravenscroft described “To Me” as Epic beyond words.
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NPR places Trupa Trupa among the most interesting acts of SXSW 2018.
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Jolly New Songs were broadcasted on WFMU by Gaylord Fields,Clay Pigeon, Mark Reichard, Mary Wing and dj Stan.
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Bands are back in a big way, and Trupa Trupa is hands-down among the very best of them.
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To ingest Trupa Trupa’s Jolly New Songs is to wonder what kind of mushrooms are growing outside behind the band’s practice space in Gdansk.
Ian King, The Line of Best Fit
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Essential listening.
Paul Margree, Lourder Than War
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One album I can’t get enough of is Jolly New Songs from Polish rock band Trupa Trupa. Imagine rolling bits of Radiohead, Mogwai, Syd Barrett, and Explosions in the Sky together, and you might get a sense of what’s in the water in Gdansk.
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This is incredible work. The result is their first moment of true greatness.
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With their fierce guitars, anthemic sound, knack for melodies and sometimes quirky lyrics, Trupa Trupa is becoming one of the most notable new psych-rock bands.
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Trupa Trupa murder rock ‘n’ roll and unceremoniously dump its corpse in the Gdańsk Bay. Their recorded rituals celebrating its demise are, ahem, music to our very ears.
Ryan Masteller, Tiny Mix Tapes
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I listened to the record and not only does it have those elements of Sigur Ros and Radiohead that I like, but they’ve got an entirely different, I would say, even darker character of their own.
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Oh my good God, I have seen the light! How have Trupa Trupa evaded me for so long?
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