WOJNA ŚWIATÓW - LIVE

When SBB still existed, its leader Józef Skrzek was offered to record a soundtrack and appear in a movie "Wojna Światów - Następne Stulecie" (The War of the Worlds - The Next Century) by Piotr Szulkin. After SBB disbanded in November of 1980, to finish the project, Józef Skrzek quickly formed a new band with his brother Jan Skrzek playing the blues harp, Robert Golla on guitars, Tomasz Szukalski on saxophones and Janusz Ziomber on drums. Like in SBB, Józef Skrzek plays the keyboards, bass guitar and sings. Unfortunately, the band didn't exist for too long, they disbanded in the fall of 1981 when Robert Golla and Janusz Ziomber went abroad.

The Józef Skrzek Formation was formed in late 1980 and recorded the soundtrack in January of 1981. The album they recorded was probably the most hard-rock oriented and heaviest one Józef Skrzek ever recorded. After the recording they went on a tour and played in the mentioned movie.

"Wojna Światów - Live" was recorded during that tour, in March of 1981. The band played songs from their soundtrack album ("Wojna Światów", "65th Street Sermon", "Wonderful Sky-Ride", "Interception"), previous Józef Skrzek solo albums (suite "Toczy się koło historii" from the album "Ojciec Chrzestny Dominika" and "Hung-Under" from "Józefina") and classics from SBB repertoire (fragments from the suites "Follow my Dream" and "Freedom with Us").

This album's sound quality is not perfect (but it's not bad either, it's just decent), for there was no professional recording equipment used. That makes this album rather a fan release but anyway the sound quality doesn't hurt the ears.

Although it starts with an aggressive intro, the music on that concert is rather mellow, especially in comparison to the studio album The Formation recorded. There is extensive use of Tomasz Szukalski's saxophone (both as a melodic and solo instrument) which's sound affects the older tracks - SBB's suites and "Toczy się koło historii". It doesn't make these tracks sound better or worse - they just sound different. Listening to these version is a good reason to get this album.

But, on the other hand, there are some really hard rocking songs. One of them is a great verion of "65th Street Sermon" with an impressive guitar solo by Robert Golla. He shows his skills also in the "3rd Reanimation" movement of "Freedom with Us" suite. There is also a very good version of "Wonderful sky-ride", a great song from "Wojna Światów" soundtrack that originates from a brilliant SBB's improvisation they played in Karlstad in 1975.

Overall, the performance quality of this concert is at least good, with some highlights. This album may be recommended to any fan of SBB and Józef Skrzek. It's a worthy addition to their discographies, but as mentioned, its sound quality is not perfect.