Mucha na Dziko

Hey, I'm back, and I thought maybe it's time for something more modern.
So strap your seatbelts ladies and gentlemen, because we're going for a ride!




Łąki Łan is a band formed in the early 2000s in Warsaw, by a couple of friends from high school. The last addition to the squad was Włodzimierz Dembowski, who became the bands lyricist and lead vocalist.

They consist of a vocalist, a guitar player, two keys/synth players, a drummer (also a singer), and a bass player/secondary vocalist/synth player. So all of the weird electronic stuff they make on the albums, are easily transposed to a live environment, as it's all being played by humans (nothing is programmed, not even the drum beats, which often sound like they've been quantised or made in Ableton or something, but they're not – the dude is really a machine when it comes to drumming).

All of the band's members have stage nicknames, that are all based on nature or animal kingdom. Like Dembowski is known as Paprodziad (which is a non-existent word in polish, but it's created out of two words that mean "fern/bush" and "grandpa/old dude"), the drummer is called Mega Motyl (Mega Butterfly), the guitarist is Bonk (which means "Gadfly", bu. it's written with a typo), and my favourite one – the bass player/secondary vocalist – Zając Cokictokloc (which is one o the most absurd things, I've ever heard: Zając means "a hare", and "cokictokloc" is a combination of words, that when read on paper don't mean anything, but when you read it outloud, you realise it basically means "One poo every bounce").
They also always dress up as various bugs and plants for their live shows.

The English wikipedia translates the band's name as "Meadow's field", but it just doesn't sound right to me. You see: Łąka means Meadow is polish, that's true. But "Łan" is a unit of surface o a meadow/field. So much closer would be "An Acre of a Meadow" or something (though "łan" does not equal "acre", it's much smaller).

The band is notorious for it's pro-environmental, ecological message and actions.
Their music could be described as a melange of funk, rock, rap and electronic dance music. They themselves call the genre they're playing "Łąki Funk" (so..."funk from the meadows", or rather "funk made by the meadow").
They're best known for extremely energetic concerts (some might say they're better live than on record) and Paprodziad's enigmatic/nonsensical/avantgarde lyrics. I myself saw them live about 5 or 6 times, and I love them with all my heart.

Paprodziad's lyrics are so absurdly written, and relying on
onomatopoeias, neologism, and overall weird choices of words, that even polish people have a hard time understanding them, and often don't even realise the guy is singing in polish.
So I won't even try to translate this stuff...well, maybe with a couple of verses here and there, so you can understand the ****edupness of them.
No matter though whether someone understands what is it that e's talking about, Paprodziad's lyrics are a true showcase of what the polish language is capable of. I mean, the way he sounds when singing, sounds to me like someone mixed Portuguese with Czech or something. It's just...well, wow, I don't know wha else to say.

One of the coolest things the band does, is a five days music and arts festival located in the town of Kazimierz Dolny, aptly named Kazimiernikejszyn (just like "caliornication", but with Kazimierz instead of California, and the "cation" suffix written phonetically).
Kazimierz itself is an amazing town: it has about 2000 people living there, but the whole thing looks like an idyllic medieval remnant, with an old monastery, some castle ruins and really sweet architecture. Also it's placed on the banks of the river Visula, which also flows through Warsaw, and Cracovia, and Gdańsk. So that's some serious ****.
Most of the concerts are being held just outside of Kazimierz, in an abandoned quarry, but there's also concerts at the city marketplace, and all of Kazimierz has some actions and animations to attend. The whole town turns into one, big, chilled out festival.
Paprodziad has a second band, formed in Kazimierz Dolny, called "Dziady Kazimierskie" ("Grandpas from Kazimierz"). And they made a song about how great Kazimierz Dolny really is:

Keep in mind, this is not Łąki Łan (there's really no connection in musical direction between these two bands), but I wanted to link this song, to give a gist of what the Kazimiernikejszyn festival feels like:



And now, without further ado, let's get to Łąki Łan themselves:

Łąki Łan released one debut EP, and four studio albums. I've never heard the EP, so I'll be focusing solely on the first three studio albums (because I utterly dislike the new one).




This LP, released in 2009, is the studio debut album of the band, and pretty much immediately made Łąki Łan the rising stars of polish music scene. All tracks are strong on this one (apart from the obligatory EDM/ambient stuff, they put on every record for some reason – but then again, it's just like, my opinion, man). Let me show you some of my favourites:


Big Baton


The łakifunk is strong with this one.
This is the first track by these guys that I've ever heard (I was about 9 or 10) and just immediately fell in love with the band. I mean, apart from the funky groove, the lyrics seemed so mesmerisingly absurd, it was impossible not be sold right away. I'll try to give you a gist of what he's saying (keep in mind, the song is basically the singer talking about different band members playing this song):


Yeah, ok, I'm giving up, we're still in the first verse here. In the chorus he's using the similarly sounding words from English and polish ("who you wanna be" and "chujem wanna be?", and "chuj" is a very vulgar way of calling a dick. So basically he's asking "who do you want to be? Do you want to be a dick?"), it reads as follows:




Here's another song from the album, and it's the first one they recorded together (besides that ep from 2004 or something):

Galeon


This one is pretty much about a Galleon named Funk, that is leaving the port and heading towards open seas of music.




This one's here more of a straight up blues, but with that sweet Łąki Łan twist

Wygon


Also, the lyrics are much more straightforward, so here's the translation:




Here's one in English (their English lyrics are often full of grammar/stylistic mistakes, but I feel like it's not because they don't know how to English, but just that they don't care, it's just there to fit the rhythm):

Love

Well, that's a sudden change of mood...

Ok, enough with this album, check out the rest if you're sold. Let's get to Łąki Łan's most successful album to date, that being their second LP, released in 2012:




There were at least 4 hit songs on this one (two of which are sung by the bass player).
Let's get to them:

Lovelock


This must be my favourite Łąki Łan song. The guitar riff is pure beauty, the thing is just so energetic, and he lyrics are as pro-ecological and absurd as hit gets. Eco Disco at it's best.

The lyrics were written by Paprodziad after he learned of a British scientist and scholar James Lovelock, who had made a theory about how the Earth is truly just one big organism, and not a big rock in space being inhabited by many different organism.
Oh and in polish, the word "core" (like, the "core of a planet") can be synonymous with the word "testicles" (just one "testicle" actually).




This is their biggest hit to date (by that I mean the song that arouses most emotions during live shows):

Jamming

^ that's a live rendition


^ that's the album version

The live and studio versions differ quite a lot, especially in the intro sections. It's quite understandable, as the song originated as jams during concerts, and finally after a couple of years they recorded it for their second album.

Also, this is one of he songs sung by the bass player.


And this is the second one:

Łan for Me


One of my favourites too. Especially when I was in high school. I'd put this song (and the next one) on any party/social gathering playlist (I was always the one bringing a speaker). The other one was:

Łan Pała


The title of the song is read in polish as "One Power", though it doesn't actually mean much (the two words used are "Łan", which I already explained, and "Pała", which means anything that is long and stiff – so it might be a stick, a staff, a rod, a dick, but also you can call someone dumb this way, or if someone does something stupid, etc – but also, there's the verb "pałać", which means "to burn" or "to glow", and "pała" is this verb conjugated in the third person of present simple...so the title basically says "the glowing field" or something).


Ok, one more song from this album, and let's get on to their 2017 release.

Pleń


Just another fine example of the łąkifunk.





This particular record was the first and only I've actually bought in the music store myself. I loved it when it came out, and I still love init to this day, though now – sadly – I believe it was the beginning of the decline of Łąki Łan's artistic values. They turned much more to the pop and electronic side of their music, and began to leave the real łąkifunk days behind them (which resulted tree years later with their last album, which was one of the biggest musical disappointments in my life). But you know, their popularity grows, so I guess it's just me.

Nevertheless this album is a real joy, and especially one of the songs "Pola Ar" still stands as one of their bests. Here's a live version of

Pola Ar


Just before you star to wonder: yes, we have here in Poland a festival called Woodstock. It's a festival organised by a charity organisation called "Wielka Orkiestra Świątecznej Pomocy" ("The Great Orchestra of Christmas Help"). It works this way, that there's one day during the year (usually around Christmas),w hen plenty of volunteers walk the streets and ask for some change, then the money they collect is being given to hospitals, orphanages, or any other such institutions. The money that is left, after buying equipment is being used to organise this big summer festival (every year there are 100-300 thousand attendees), as a way of saying "thank you" to all the people who helped the cause.

But back to the song:
It's a jolly nice thing, especially lyrics wise. You see, as I've mentioned before "Łąka" means "meadow". The songs title is "Pola Ar", which sounds like it was a girl's name (Polly) and her surname (Ar). But actually, "Ar" means "acre", and "Pole" means "a field", so the title means "An acre of a field".

And keep in mind this is a love song, so it's actually a Meadow confessing it's love for a Field.

Also, the English "yeah!", when read in polish sounds like the verb "to eat" conjugated in the third person of singular. So it basically means "he's eating".

Here's my try at translating Paprodziad's lyrics:

This charm of yours, your scent, your inluence
Your spell, your aura's heat
Like always, here, there and everywhere, with all my strength
I love you Pola Ar

There's one way, one way I know, one road I can take
So, damn, who cares, I go down it knees deep
This fate of mine that works out without pretending
Without the tears, the grief, pain, anger, grievances, and fights
Ar!

I love, oh I love you Pola Ar
You're my mainstay, my banner, my fanfare
I love you so, and I believe in us
With every cell I have, with every faith that there is

Oooh, Pola Ar

You and me: two stars, one world
Just one power, one emotional charism
One invigorating vastness of loving waves
I love you Pola Ar

There's one way, one way I know, one road I can take
So, damn, who cares, I go down it knees deep
This fate of mine that works out without pretending
Without the tears, the grief, pain, anger, grievances, and fights
Ar!

I love you, I love you so Pola Ar
You're my compass, my karma, my radar
I love you so Pola Ar
And I believe in us with every cell I've got, and with all the faith in the world

He's from the field, he's eating stuff from the field
He's from the field, he's eating stuff from the field
He's from the field, he's eating stuff from the field
He's from the field, he's eating stuff from the field

Another cool song from the album is

Rozanielacz Dusz


"Rozanielacz" is a neologism, that could mean something in the likes of "the thing that makes you feel heavenly", as "Anioł" means "angel", and if you add the prefix "roz-" then the word means "the process of making someone/something feel/be something", and the suffix "-acz", then you know that this something is an object (that can be used to do something). "Dusza", on the other hand, is the polish word for "soul". So the whole thing is "the thing/machine that makes you feel heavenly".


Bombaj


This song is also one of their most beloved ones in the live environment. The song's lyrics are notorious for intentionally misquoting a song by some ****ty rapper or something. The original lyrics were "Power! Energy! Amphetamines!", while here Paprodziad changes it for a much more positive affirmation of life, that being: "Power! Energy! Endorphins!".

Also, this particular live performance is being held just beneath the Palace of Culture (that big, tall building in the back, in the wide shots). Which is the most famous building in Warsaw, and is placed right in the center of the entire city. It's also infamous for having been built by the communist party in the 50s, and because of that polish conservatives and fascists want it to get demolished, so it won't "disgust and pain the polish patriotic eyes". It's one of the dumbest **** I've ever heard to be honest. Like, would you take town the London Tower, just because it was built by some nefarious people? Or would you demolish the White House, because it has been built by slavers? Come on people...



Anyway, this is
the end
of today's Łąki Łan breakdown.
The albums have some more hidden gems in them, so if you liked what I've linked here, be sure to check them out.

Goodbye for today, and remember we're all just one organism

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