The wonderful thing about music is its ability to cross national boundaries and yet still appeal to the listener. Since writing for Listen Before You Buy I’ve reviewed music from Romania (The Pixels), Belgium (Hermanos Inglesos), Germany (Malente), Italy (Herr Styler), Sweden (MF/MB/), Mexico (Colateral Soundtrack) and Turkey (Fuji Kureta) as well as the good old US of A and homeland UK. Who’d have thought I’d been doing that when I signed up?
Today it’s Poland’s turn and the fabulous L.Stadt. Incredibly they’ve been around 8 years and I’m ashamed to say that I’ve only just discovered them. The four members Lukasz Lach (vocals & guitar), Adam Lewartowski (Bass), Andrzej Sieczkowski (Drums), Piotr Gwadera (Drums) released their debut album back in 2008 and another album “EL.P” last year which I’ve just been listening to. Their style is an interesting mix of old school rock and roll and modern rock. One French critic had so much trouble labelling them he ended up describing it as “alternative-pop-garage-noise-rock”.
Whatever you want to call it this is good old fashioned guitar and drum driven rock that is going to sound just as superb at a gig as it does on record. The use of two drummers gives the music a nice twist fusing the songs with an energy that you just can’t help nodding along to. Lach’s vocal range has him sounding at times like Prince, Damon Albarn and Billy Idol! They’ve travelled just as much in their 200 gigs as I have in my reviews including sharing the stage with White Lies in the USA and appearing at the 25th anniversary SXSW. I think we’re going to see more of this band over the coming years.
I’ve included the first track off the album, “Death Of A Surfer Girl” as a little taster. Right I’m off to grab my passport to see where I end up next.
Connect with L.Stadt: Website | Facebook | Jango | MySpace | Last.fm
