Trupa Trupa are an alternative rock band from Gdansk in Poland, which makes them a very belated first Polish band I have reviewed. Having spent some time working on the music and developing a distinctive sound, Grzegorz Kwiatkowski, Tomek Pawluczuk, Wojtek Juchniewicz and Rafal Wojczal have just released their debut LP.

I can recall dear old Maggie Thatcher, who despised Unions- vowing to destroy the National Union of Miners becoming a fan of Lech Walesa – leader of Solidarity. At the time there was the Cold War – while not the first time I was struck by the hypocrisy of politicians, it sticks in my mind.

The good news is that as a result of the movement which emerged in Gdansk, bands such as Trupa Trupa now have the freedom to breathe. All the Eastern European punk music used to appear in the UK via John Peel, during that period and much of it was absolutely breathtaking.

Enough I hear you cry, I don’t want history lessons, so let’s cut back to Trupa Trupa – influenced by their home-town, the music is a claustrophobic industrial electronic rock, it is impossible to listen to the out-put without visions of urban dereliction. The somber tracks are replete with strong direction and a sense of the foreboding, an effect which overall is pleasing to the ears.

Mechanistic sounds draw images of a factory life entrapment and Trupa Trupa need not move from the core of their work, which they project with a flourish. This a path ploughed by OfeliaDorme from Italy, with considerable success.

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