SBB

In the year 1978 SBB got a lot of praise during their tour in Scandinavia. After a 3-month break in the spring of 1979 the band played in Poland, Germany and then returned to Scandinavia, to Esjberg (the longest North Sea Port) in Denmark, at a local hotel, the relaxed setting was a real boost for the musicians. After a classic set of pieces in the first part, they filled the second set with improvisations, including a short one by a technician from the band on the Polymoog! The line-up was Józef Skrzek (vocals and synthesizers), Apostolis Antymos (guitars) and Jerzy Piotrowski (drums). These recordings on two CD's are from May 1st, 1979 in Esbjerg, Denmark (total running time 97:29).

On CD-1 you can hear that in 1979 the band has turned into a tight and experienced unit, due to extensive touring. Jozef Skrzek surrounded himself with a wide range of keyboards and synthesizers, inspired by Keith Emerson. On several tracks he delivers exciting work on the Minimoog with sensational use of the pitchbend, especially in Walkin' Around The Stormy Bay and Mountain Melody, apart from delicate play on soaring strings and the distinctive electric piano. The composition 3rd Reanimation contains a catchy mid-tempo, with a dynamic rhythm-section, strong interplay, and a long and fiery guitar solo, finally a mellow atmosphere featuring soaring strings and spacy sounds. And Loneliness - Theme delivers a slow rhythm, with soaring strings, and a moving electric guitar solo with howling runs. The final track Improv: Esbjerg Run showcases the awesome interplay from the trio, in a swinging rhythm with a funky sound, embellished with fiery guitar, dynamic drums and bombastic synthesizer layers, the crowd loves it!

CD-2 features 7 improvisations, I am pleasantly surprised that it is not too freaky or too experimental, and it showcases the varied sound of the band, from electronic or soaring strings with tender guitar, to a funky rhythm or rock guitar.

My rating: 3,5 star.

In 1978 SBB had never before been so many days on the road, just ahead of Christmas the band did gigs in Germany (the Follow My Dream tour), now released as a 2-CD entitled Live Cuts Köln 1978. The line-up is Józef Skrzek (vocals and synthesizer), Apostolis Antymos (guitar and drums) and Jerzy Piotrowski (drums). Incredible, how unique this bands sounds, almost epitomizing the eclectic approach within progressive rock, so adventurous, creative and daring. On stage SBB were even more eclectic, surely during their improvisations. The one moment spacy synthesizer flights with soaring strings, or sensational pitchbend driven Minimoog soli (Mountain Melody and Chimery II) like Jan Hammer from Mahavishnu Orchestra. The other moment swinging rhythm guitar with fiery bluesrock like Eric Clapton (in Improv: Przy Okazji), or a long drum solo (in Drums-Battle). And even a beautiful version of Silent Night (Cicha Noc), indeed, Christmas time. The long composition Improv: Snow And Rhine features SBB in its full splendor on stage (and why SBB was named the Silesian Blues Band) : first a swirling mouth-organ solo, then a funky rhythm-guitar and growling bass followed by a fat synthesizer solo with pitchbend, and finally a fiery rock guitar solo, wow, what an unique and adventurous sound, by excellent musicians!

My rating: 3,5 star.

In May 1979, SBB gave five concerts which have stirred great emotions among the band's fans to this day. The short Danish tour, whose parts would later be broadcast by the Polish Radio, opened a new chapter for SBB. The musicians returned to tried and tested solutions and along with their highlights (including "Going Away" suite or "Follow My Dream") again went on to play long and extended improvisations.

The two-disc album features the recording of the full concert which took place on 1 May 1979 in Esbjerg (Denmark), reconstructed and remastered based on original tapes from the band's archives. The release cover artwork is previously unpublished graphic by Marek Goebel, known from the LP project "Ze słowem biegnę do ciebie". The booklet includes a new liner notes, photos and memorabilia.

This is a funky rock record with fusion moments with an Eastern European slant. I can see why other proggers don't have a feel for this sort of album from the late seventies. With that said, I find it a curiosity and I really like it. It's a step up from background music for me, I can turn it up really loud and it doesn't seem loud enough. I like this better than the previous Jerzyk, and if you are as likely to spin a Parliament record as a Focus record I suggest giving this album a try. Excellent guitars and keyboards, definitely get the version with twenty songs

An extremely important band for the history of Progressive Rock, especially in the 1970s. There are no bad albums and all of them are worth listening to. The band are clearly very talented with their instruments and have a liking and focus on experimental solos with organ, piano, bass, electric guitar and a sublime contribution from percussion. Of all the fantastic bands to come from Poland (and there are many fine examples), SBB are the forerunner of the Eclectic mix of symphonic and experimental jazz fusion.

Here I focus on their first studio album Nowy Horyzont (New Horizon). It's a magnificent album from start to finish and is predominantly an instrumental album, but there is some spoken Polish in the sublime "Ballada O Pieciu Glodnych" (Ballad of the Five Hungry), which is the fourth track.

The opening track (Na Pierwszy Ogien) has some fantastic memorable riffs and a very exciting blend of guitar and organ; all the way kept in rhythm by the quite extraordinary drumming. Fast paced and experimental, it really showcases what is to come from the band throughout their career. Interluded with beautiful piano, it really beholds the listener.

Then "Blysk" immediately continues on the fast track theme and hugely impressive showcase of progressive rock. Comparisons can be made with ELP's early work here.

Third up, the title track where the band provide continuity of experimental music and they can once again demonstrate fully their playing abilities. An incredible understanding between the sounds. Another special mention to the drumming by Jerzy Piotrowski who keeps everything perfect. A beautiful piano finale as well.

The fifth and final track is a long one running to 20 minutes. Very experimental and what is to become very typical of this band in the 1970s. Wolnosc Z Nami. Beautifully crafted and meandering between differing moods.

What a tremendous album. But it isn't over if you happen to have purchased the remaster CD, because there are four excellent bonus tracks. These are equally impressive and, as with all the SBB back catalogue remasters, they are important contributions from what must be a huge amount of recorded music available. Unlike most bands who remaster their projects, SBB bring full length and new music to the listener with these bonus tracks. Nothing out of place, no fillers. The listener is spoilt.

Easily a 5 star album. But it doesn't stop there with SBB. Live albums and studio albums; the vast majority are 3+ stars minimum. Just a great band and a very important one for Poland and for Progressive Rock. Nowy Horyzont is a good studio album to start with and I hope you won't be disappointed.

It doesn't get much better than this. SBB left Poland for a tour of Sweden back in May of 1975 and they played some of the most amazing music I've ever heard on that tour. I consider their "Karlstad" live album as my favourite from them and it was recorded on this tour, as was this archival release "Hofors '75". Hofors was a small industrial town in Sweden at the time which may account for the song titles. This might be the most impressive power trio of them all when it comes to live music and yes RUSH is my favourite band.

We get two long suites starting with "Works In Iron I" an almost 21 1/2 minute tour de force. It starts off innocently enough as sounds come and go until the organ starts to come to a boil as the drums pound. So good as some vocal expressions come and go. Guitar after 1 1/2 minutes. Crank it up! The vocals kick in at 2 1/2 minutes as the organ floats in the background and the drums pound. The organ comes to the fore when the vocals step aside. Love the drumming here after 5 1/2 minutes as the organ continues to run at will. The tempo picks up some around 6 1/2 minutes and check out the determined rhythm 8 1/2 minutes in as that becomes the focus. Some nasty organ runs return after 9 minutes as we get a yell from the singer. The intensity is rising at 10 1/2 minutes and the guitar starts to light it up. It then slows down as the organ boils and the drums pound, vocals before 12 minutes. It starts to pick up after 16 minutes as the vocals stop. Check out the guitar around 17 minutes. The organ starts to rip it up 18 minutes in as the guitar continues.

"Works In Iron II" is the 20 minute closer. The organ is on a slow boil as a beat joins in. Some guitar too then vocals a minute in. The vocals are bluesy. The guitar becomes more prominent after 4 minutes. It's so powerful and repetitive after 6 minutes with vocal melodies. A calm after 7 minutes but check out the fast paced drumming. Some organ joins in briefly then intricate guitar followed by more vocal melodies then bam! We're nailed to the wall with some killer organ, drums and guitar all after 10 minutes. Nice. The tempo picks up a minute later and I love when the organ joins in after 12 minutes. So freaking good! A change 15 minutes in to an almost doomy vibe briefly, so dark and intense here. The drumming is mind blowing 16 minutes in along with those filthy organ runs. The guitar is back! It's building in intensity again before it starts to wind down late with keys ending it.

The power on display here gives me goosebumps. They do contrast passages well but man the drumming and organ especially create mass destruction throughout. Not worthy!

I think maybe SBB could have learned something from CAN who released a recording called "The Lost Tapes" but limited it to three discs. We get nine discs here! I'm going to focus on what I consider to be the best disc of the lot called "Impresje" which is disc one. This would be close to 5 stars on it's own, maybe 4.5 stars but overall 4 stars seems fair for this mammoth box set. I have to say that this power trio might be the best I've ever heard. Jerzy on drums, Apostolis on guitar and Jozef on keys, bass, harmonica and vocals.

"Dla Egona" features some amazing drum work and check out the rhythm section when this gets cooking with harmonica over top. Heavy stuff. "Impresje" sounds incredible with the guitar soling over top of the dark soundscape. This is a mid-paced slow burner. "Pamietnik Rudigera" is more uptempo than the previous track but the guitar solos over the soundscape like on that one. A calm a minute in. Great sound! It kicks back in at 3 1/2 minutes. Nice. "Kala" is a short piece with intricate guitar but not much more. "Dziwne Zwierze" is a rare vocal track that is catchy and kicks ass. Some monster bass and ripping guitar as well. Love it! "Szalony Grzes" has some great atmosphere to it early on. It's picking up before 3 minutes but then before 5 minutes it's heating up big time. The next two songs are both18 minutes long.

"Wyjatek Z Wolnosci" open with sounds that come and go including cymbals and piano then we get a change after 2 1/2 minutes then the drums kick in. Synths join in after 6 minutes. Drums only after 9 minutes but then the synths return. It slows down but turns heavier late to end it. "360 Do Tylu" opens with a guitar solo that lasts 2 1/2 minutes then the drums take over and eventually the guitar returns soloing once again. Drums only after 6 1/2 minutes then it picks up after 8 1/2 minutes. Synths after 11 minutes then the guitar starts to solo late once again. "Motyw Popoludnlowy" opens with chimes and piano as other sounds help out. Synths eventually come to the fore in this laid back number. "Zwiastun Dobrej Nocy" reminds me of the vocal track but without the vocals although it's not as good instrumentally either in my opinion. "Obciety" has heavy guitar and drums in this slow to mid- paced slow burner.

Hard to believe but there's another big box set that has been released by this band. If you can get the "Impresje" disc seperately don't even hesitate.

Final concert by the first incarnation of this legendary Polish band.

Stunning, largely instrumental, long tracks I've never heard before took me by complete surprise. Like their excellent "Karlstad" album, the material here is unique and atypical of the band's better known style.

It's sad to see them disband afterwards, due to drummer Jerzy Piotrowski's retirement, but at least they go with a grand finale at the peak of their careers before reforming with new drummers a few years later. But that's another story.

There is nothing to indicate that the band was getting tired at this point, rather the opposite. High intensity, spirited performance throughout this 2CD-set is but a pure delight from beginning to end. To call it jazzy could be somewhat misleading. It's more like groovy dressed with some sexy jazz chords on the Fender Rhodes. Rhythmically it often reminds of Santana minus the Latin approach! Strange, but that's how it feels.

Soaring guitar and Moog solos - not heard since Mahavishnu, or Brand X - add to the overall pleasure. Long time friend and occasional collaborator Slawomir Piwowar (g, k, b) is guesting here and what a great addition he is!

At first listen I ended up leaving the album on repeat for the rest of the day, only to hear it again in the next two days. It's that good. The best Christmas present I got this time and heartfelt thanks for Metal Mind Productions for the release. Highly recommended.

I got to admit that when I first heard this album I was expecting an older more seventies type of sound, but on hearing it I had to think again. Yes when reading about the band and reading about infuences like King Crimson and Van Der graff Generator etc, I was expecting something in that style (obviously I can hear the influence behind some parts), but when Moja Ziemio Wysniona starts it was a more modern sounding style of sound that I heard - possibly the more modern keyboards helped but wow I did not predict that and the song just got me fired up for the rest of the album. The next three songs just put me in a trance like state - and that is why I think this album works so well, it's literally an album especially Memento Z Banalnym Tryptykiem - which accomplished everything I wanted to hear but without going to Spacey sounds I usually like but to a seemingly new type of space sound - as I said a more dreamier trance like sound than atmospherical distortion I had in mind at first.

I believe SBB put their heart and musical souls into this album and possibly ahead of their time - that sounds Ironic with Progressive music, but I just expected something different and instead got a faster more of an upbeatish sound but with its fair share of slower sounds but keeping a complexity of which I am looking forward to exploring whithin more of their albums and to check if there are layers of which I am missing. I remember listening to other Eclectic Prog and the versatility of instruments make this type of Prog and especially this album just another reason to express my ongoing journey into music which SBB and bands like them keep creating, and this mind blowing album is an extraordinarily example of this genre.

I salute another masterpiece from the Prog archives - Thanks again for getting these albums noticed.

Shivers

Before I venture into the northern pastures of Scandinavia for my upcoming reviews, I'd like to make a short trip to Poland to highlight an album, I personally rank among the very best live albums ever made. I may even prefer it over King Crimson's The Great Deceiver, and part of the reason for this is the 'imminence' of this concert - the overpowering urge to play music you sense from the musicians involved.

Back when SBB started out as Czeslav Niemen's "backing band", and indeed all throughout their heyday, Poland was under a Communistic rule. Everything was under wraps and music should preferably consider itself with anything but the thriving reckless prog rock sneaking in from the decadent west. SBB, or Silesian Blues Band, were as a consequence basically outlaws during the first leg of their existence. In spite of this, they continued to play what they wanted - developing a distinct style of their own based around the close bond between the jazz and blues rock world. What came out at the other end though had both of these music styles completely bend out of shape, sounding like a fiery take on The Mahavishnu Orchestra teaming up with Gong, Secret Oyster and a couple of the more melodically inclined RPI acts of the day.

Coming from a country as iron-clouded as Poland, and then travelling across Europe to play gigs, must've felt like freedom. - I am talking about the very essence of the word here. The amount of artistic relief these guys suddenly felt is beyond immeasurable. The group said so themselves; they were overwhelmed with the freedom they experienced coming into Sweden in 1975. Anyway, you don't need to read any of this for you to understand - all you need to do is listen to this awe inspiring release.

There's an emotional power running through this recording equivalent to a couple of Hiroshima bombs - and then some! Main man Józef Skrzek actually instigates the gig by stating, in his slightly tainted English, that the show will be a special one "it will never repeat" as he so aptly puts it. Taking care of bass guitar, piano, moog, Hammond, synthesizers and vocals - he is a real poster child of music eclecticism. With only 3 band members, one could be lead into thinking that a live album like this could suffer from underdeveloped musical ideas and whatnot, but that is so far from being the case - it literally defies belief.

In many ways this Karlstad release features SBB in both a highly familiar dressing, and then quite the opposite. There's an exuberance here shrouding everything they do in a superman like zeitgeist. Add to that, guitarist Antymos Apostolis, who normally tends to reside in shadow, is right up front and fully in charge on this baby. It's a welcoming pleasure to hear him going all out. It really is. Whether the band is going through the more fusion based blues pieces, or they're just throwing out these incredibly fiery jams - he's always there. On SBB's studio albums you almost never get to hear that, and may I just add, what a damn shame, because this dude can cook! Boy does he ever cook on this album!

Last but not least, we find one of my drumming idols: Jerzy Piotrowski. Hell, he may just be my all- time favourite drummer. With his imaginative poly-rhythms and orgiastic tom usage, this guy is perhaps one of the rare percussionists out there who understands the subtle beauty of mixing insane complexity with improvisational power. He genuinely sounds like a mix between Billy Cobham and Area drummer extraordinaire Giulio Capiozzo - that is without ever losing his endearing melodic feel. I can listen to this man's drumming for days on end - he's got a natural understanding of the beat that you just can't learn. It feels like it emanates from the very pores of his skin. I bet his mom went to some proto-stomp classes, back when he was bobbing around inside her belly oven.

The entire Karlstad gig seems to float together as one unassuming fluid piece of music. The different tracks all weave together in a seemingly uncomplicated fashion. The opener, for instance, called Pretty Face - with all of it's speeding fusion vibes, ferocious beat and loud guitar screams, still manages to die down to a mere whisper with a soulful yearning organ, before slowly setting sails on the serene waters of Born To Die. With a frail and goosebumps inducing feel to it, the tune develops vocals - and you suddenly get to hear just how beautiful of a singer Skrzek really is. This bridging between the first two tracks makes the small hairs on the back of my neck stand on end. If I were a girl I'd probably find a comfortable place to sit down and cry happy tears for a week.

I find countless of these moments on Karlstad. Small odes to the rare glimpses in life that send shivers down your spine and makes your soul orgasm. I'd recommend this facet of sonic life to everybody with ears, yet we all seem to find these life invigorating jolts in different parts of the musical world. If you're into classic prog though, then this might just turn out to be the mistress of your life.