Yass and Other Related Music
 

What is yass? Yass is a type of Polish music that I think of as being fundamentally a jazz subgenre—and it carries a lot of DNA from both free jazz and third stream—but it also pulls from a pretty wide pool of influences outside of jazz. Krautrock is a big and noticeable one, but there are a lot of elements of film scores, electronica, pop, post punk, lounge, tropicalia and exotica in there as well. Usually, but not always, it’s instrumental. It typically has a quirky, fun sort of vibe and tends toward odd or improvised compositions. The end result sometimes sounds very free jazzy—or not. Sometimes it sounds almost new wave-ish, but more experimental, or like a cousin of post rock, but with less guitars and less moodiness. At any rate, I like it and no one here seems to talk about it so I figure it deserves its own thread.

I should also mention, as a person who isn’t Polish, has never been to Poland, and can’t read Polish, my knowledge of yass unfortunately is basically that of an illiterate ignoramus trying to puzzle together the tiny scraps of English-language information available on the internet. So I apologize in advance if I have my facts wrong about anything. If anyone has any further information about any of the bands I’m talking about here or yass in general, I’m all ears.

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Baaba—Easter Christmas (2014)
I’ve been listening to Baaba for a few years but just recently got this album. Each one of their albums is a different experience and this is no exception to that rule. There’s sort of an 80s pop sensibility here, bit of 60s Brazilian flavor and dash of afrobeat but its all fractured in unusual ways. Jagged synth stabs and constantly evolving compositions abound, but it maintains an overall innocent, poppy tone.

A live performance of the track "Sobota":


The album version of "Ręce zmęczone i pot na czole":

That genre description sounds right up my alley, and those videos were as good as I suspected. I'll keep an eye on this thread.

Reminds me of Jaga Jazzist.

so what you're saying is that this is the best music

I thought you might have some input on this and I'm glad you did. Thanks!

Jaga Jazzist was one of the bands I was thinking of when I added the "...and Other Related Music" to the title of the thread. :)

Wow I love this.

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Sing Sing Penelope—This is the Music Vol. 1 (2012)
This one is a little more on the free jazz side of things. It's atmospheric to the point of sometimes seeming like ambient music, very textural and kind of hypnotic. This is wee hours of the morning, zoning out on the couch with the last ones standing from the after hours party music. This is music to contemplate the invention of couches to and to marvel that someone ever created the first one.

"Skarb":


"Mini Song":

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Robotobibok—Nawyki Przyrody (2004)
I can’t say enough good things about this album—and in fact I’ve already written about it more extensively in one of my journals—but for a short description think Kraftwerk and Mingus and Tortoise and Matmos and early Flying Luttenbachers all swapping genes with each other. Or maybe just think of the kind of music the mad scientists on the cover would make. Anyway, just give these tracks a listen:

"100000 Lat Gwarancji"


"Jurij"


"Skipping C"

I know them and love them. Their first album was actually going to be my next little write up, but I like both of those albums as well.

Thanks for sharing Janz and others.. Like what I listened to so far, unfortunately I have nothing to contribute here.

Glad you're enjoying it. :)

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Mikrokolektyw—Revisit (2010)

Like rostasi mentioned, these guys are a duo (“Microcollective”, get it?) formed from the ashes of Robotobibok. Though there’s a little stylistic overlap between the two bands, Mikrokolektyw certainly have their own distinct sound. That sound is somewhat minimalistic, usually focused on percussion and trumpet with some electronic flourishes. This particular album is isn’t quite as minimalistic as the two rostasi posted though, and I think it finds a nice middle ground between Robotobibok and their later material.

This track, “Rocket Street”, is atypically dense for them, but also one of my favorites of theirs:



This one, “Lipuko”, is more low-key and typical of the rest of the album:

Definitely getting some post-rock vibes from that last one.

Do you mean the Mikrokolektyw album or from the last video in the Robotobibok post? Because I've always thought that Robotobibok track was super post rock-ish.

Honestly, a lot of this stuff is pretty post rock-ish. Even Jaga Jazzist delves into that territory every once in a while.