Kurws-Powiez/Fascia; Gusstaff Records, 2022

 

The first thing that attracted Disaster Amnesiac to Powiez/Fascia, Kurws 2022 CD, was it's cover art. I saw it and pondered the map contours of its image. Where is this this region that's being represented? Is it some sort of intelligence communication? Are those dots representations of military battalions? That a poster sized insert of the region displayed on a cover does not clear up the mystery to any sort of degree. Just what are Kurws trying to communicate with this release? As for the music and its message, the group cooks up seven tracks of percussive, Maximalist din that really moves. This Maximalism is achieved through what sound like Minimalist approaches to instrumentation: small drum kit, guitar, and bass played mostly without effects. Kurws play their tunes in locked step grooves that surround the listener; as these grooves evolve over tense durations, often several minutes in length, they get ever more jittery, and the pay off for listening over those minutes arrives when suddenly they find themselves within dense maelstrom of airtight metallic guitar/bass/drum trio dynamics. Drummer Dawid Bargenda often sticks to the sparest of eighth patterns on closed hi-hat or snare drum, around which guitarist Hubert Kostkiewicz and bassist Jakub Majchrzak spin tightly wound phrases that hammer home the collective riff voice of their songs. It's thrilling to hear how the group moves together as they wend through these patterns and their resultant riffs, building upon the sparse foundations toward funky grooves that are actually quite dance-able. It would be very interesting to see what affect a song like Foot Chase, nine minutes and change in length, would have on a live audience. A person seeking traditional songs may be somewhat bewildered by Powiez/Fascia, with its lively sonic attacks (occasionally enhanced by astute overdubs of waterphone and echo), but fans of amped up and Post-Punk instrumental exploration should be able to find much to love from the music that Kurws pounds and cranks out. Its high octane charging would be perfect for driving some sort of armored vehicle across the plains of Eastern Europe, or in Disaster Amnesiac's case, rolling down I-10 West on my way to work, just outside of Tucson.