ONCE UPON A TRAIN

Once upon a time ... oh, wait ... the title is 'Once Upon A Train' I see, literally speaking both suits though. Here we have the current album of this Polish psych band from Warsaw which has a proper fanbase in the German neighbourhood too in the meanwhile. This is their fourth effort for what I know, hence it's clear that they are rather experienced, underway for some years now. The story is about a train ride between Otwock and Wawer, taking place in 1935, where maybe only a few at this time might have reckoned that the German Fascist Army would invade this country later on - which marked the beginning of World War II.

Now their journey is featuring ten stations in total, equivalent to the ten consisting songs.The digipack is provided with a nice booklet consisting of brown shaded pictures. Explanatory notes are given both in Polish and English - overall something interesting to explore in any case. Musically they are offering a relaxed melange of psychedelic, ethno/world and folk here. You won't find regular drums on this album, only diverse percussion instruments. On Otwock the flute is implementing some locomotive noise, the track is wonderfully meandering furthermore, lead by tribal percussion and psychedelic guitar. Falenica shows a rare trumpet appearance complementing the latin fundament.

While blending a spacey ambience with a Balkan beat Jozefow is a wondering thing by all means. Finally the train arrives at Wawer - a suburb of Warsaw today. 'Jamaica music is religion' ... which means dub space is the name of the game on this occasion - sounding in a quite optimistic mood anyway. 'Once Upon A Train' is released on German Microfon Records and worth it to explore. However, 30 minutes of music altogether for a regular album is little I'd say, speaking of some sort of disadvantage. Quite a few songs could have been stretched without further ado. Nonetheless this album can entertain, is really multi-layered, a nice workout all in all.