Polish Music on the Internet

I was sitting in Bar Lidia, watching VH1 – international music - on the TV and thinking how old I am: all the KAT pop videos just seem repulsive. Surely, thirty years ago, seeing a girl with her legs wide apart showing her knickers would have turned me on. Pop music remains dull and formulaic, but nothing much changes. Suddenly on came Kazik's “Cztery Pokoje” at http://teledyski.onet.pl/10173,790739,teledyski.html

The main Polish “upload you own music" site is http://mp3.wp.pl/p/index/ and the most popular downloads are listed at http://mp3.wp.pl/p/lista/ . Its in Polish, but all pretty obvious. The download icon is a little yellow square with a downpointing arrow. In some cases you have to click on “Ściągaj” to download.

DiscoPolo is light, inconsequential music designed to hop around to. A delight for Polish country weddings where you just want to get up and dance with , after several vodkas, that incredibly sexy girl/boy next to you. Its recent comeback is marred by rap but give it a try at http://www.discopolo.info/ or, for the latest tracks: http://www.discopolo.info/nowe-mp3-disco-polo.php where “Ściągnij wszytkie mp3 w jednym archiwum” means download all the mp3s in one archive.

All tracks are with the agreement of the artist or downloaded from their websites. Sceptical? Try http://www.discopolo.pl/Mp3 or http://www.discopolo.com.pl/download.html for output by groups Focus and Skaner.

Rather different is http://www.jimmyjazz.pl/ekstrasy.html This is a site specialising in Polish Punk and related music. I came across it in a CD magazine, where the music was provided by the company. Some of the music is really good. Again, they do seem to be a legitimate promotional site.

Back in 2003/4, a new pub opened in Kielce and I decided to try it out. I went into the Galeon, as it is called. Suddenly, from the backroom came the tune “What do we do with the drunken sailor”, although the words were in Polish. The Polish folk music site is http://www.folkowa.art.pl/

I was staying in a spa resort in Southern Poland where there was a local festival. Onto the stage came a gypsy family troupe (aged about 7 to 70) of musicians, singers and dancers. Good fun music. The next day I passed them in the car some 5 kilometres away walking to the next town. For wider interest in “New-Europe” folk music, try http://www.dunav.org.il/ and http://folkdancemusic.net/. For those of you who remember English Folk music of the sixties and seventies, but never really thought it was “folk”, discover the roots we never had.

There are, of course, many Polish artist sites with music. I recommend Incrowd's music from the Sidney Polak site http://www.polak.pl/?go=audiovideo. Sidney Polak's current music is at http://sidneypolak.mp3.wp.pl/

http://musicplpt.blogspot.com/ is a site promoting Polish and Portuguese music. It is in English and picks up downloads from the labels' or artists' own internet published works. Largely progressive electronic, although I recommend Pink Freud, which has had some international blogspot exposure Their music is on the WP site, although I can no longer find Pink Freud in the catalogue. There used to be a lot there. Electronic avantgarde is also celebrated in 40 Years of Polish Experimental Radio Studio Warsaw http://www.ubu.com/sound/polish.html

Piotr K has a musicblog with Polish rock music.

Finally, if you have an interest in World music generally, try http://music.topdownloads.net/mp3/. Nothing particularly Polish, but some fun music anyway. Belly dancing anybody?