Mucha na Dziko

REPUBLIKA
PART I



Similarly to Klaus Mitffoch, Republika had a musical mastermind of it's own – writing all the songs and pulling all the strings – Grzegorz Ciechowski. After Republika disbanded Ciechowski started his solo career, that was at least as popular as Republika in it's glory days, if not more. So, this post is going to be about both Republika, and Ciechowski's solo efforts (released under the pseudonym "Obywatel GC" [Citizen GC]).

Formed in 1981, Republika was a New Wave/Art Rock formation, with it's music being characterised by compositional complexity, Ciechowski's extremely characteristic vocals, and the often used western concert flute (Ciechowski being the bands flautist).

They had a very distinctive visual style, that is just as associated with the band as it's music. The picture above is a quite good representation of it: the colours being only black and whites, all arranged in stripes, flags sometimes, etc. All their album covers featured similar style, and when playing live, the band would recreate these visuals on stage.

They disbanded in 1986, during the recording of their third album. The rest of the band was unhappy with Ciechowski's leadership and a big argument arose, because of which they never finished the album, and the songs went to be released on Obywatel GC's debut record.

During the communist days in Poland, the most popular musical festival was held annually at the city of Opole. In 1990 (a year after the "first free elections"), during the Opole Festival the organisers thought of doing a sort of summary/recapitulation of the greatest polish music from the 80s, and asked Ciechowski and the other members of the band to play a gig. And so the band reconciled and afterwards actually went on to record four more albums, before definitively ending the career after Ciechowski's death in 2002.

Now, to the songs:

Republika 1981 – 1986


"Kombinat"




"Biała Flaga"

"The White Flag'
This is probably Republika's best known song:

Try to find a better piano solo. The hell's he doing.
It's like he's playing microtones on that piano

"Śmierć w Bikini"

"Death in Bikini"
The lyrics are literally untranslatable
(at least by me, so I won't attempt it

They're great, btw)


"Na Barykadach Walka Trwa"

"There's still fighting going on on the barricades"


It's like when you listen to these lyrics, you're either like "dafuq's he talkin about" or "oh, damn, that makes sense", or the mix of both

And to my personal favourite from this era:

"Moja Krew"

"My Blood'
There will be a separate post about this song.

Now that I think of it, it's a shame that Janerka and Ciechowski have never collaborated with each other. The style is so similar, yet coming from another point o view (thus being complementive to each other).


OBYWATEL GC



Now, this era of Ciechowski's career was best known for Obywatel GC's second album titled 'Tak! Tak!" (Yes! Yes!).

This 1988 album contained two of the most popular and substantial songs:

[as to the lyrics: I'm trying to make sense of all of this:
Ciechowski is a master lyricist. When it comes to the lyrics, few can match him in his linguistical prowess in songwriting. My translations will always fall flat on the poetic meaning / language awareness of the original thing.
1. Having fun/playing a game/Please Yourself/having a ball are homonyms in Polish (there are other synonyms for each of these words however)



Nie Pytaj Mnie o Polskę
"Don't you dare to ask me about Poland"




and



Tak! Tak!
"Yes, yes It's me..."


****, seriously, about these two songs:
When was the last time you've heard something as good as this?


That's it's for today: a briefing of Republlika's first run, and a Sneak Peak for Obywatell GC's solo career (his two greatest hits).

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