Strange, avant-garde and very Polish. -S- from what I can find out are a duo Patyr (bass Vocals) and Grzegorz (Drums), they are joined by Paweł Szamburski on clarinet. Whether the two main musicians in -S- are also in other bands remains unknown, I suspect there is a good chance of it though. Even more bewildering is the fact that this EP is a 26-minute track and the first in a planned trilogy. It is described as “Cold streams of drum ‘n’ clarinet ‘n’ bass” and that they play “plays dark occvlt funk exclusively.” This they play at 110 BPM which is kinda slow and lethargically too; naturally this is all a bit odd and is hard to determine just where it fits in.

The title of the EP translates to Killing Time and that is exactly what you feel like you are doing whilst listening to it. Thankfully it is not quite an exercise in watching paint dry as far as I am concerned, although others may beg to differ. Cymbals tap time and life is borne, slowly. Bass definition is a very thick twang, I guess that is the funk although to me funk is meant to be uplifting, this is not, it is very doomy and gloomy. Lyrics are in Polish and clean sounding, what they are talking about is all part of the mystery. Then there’s obviously the clarinet twilling through things and your liking of the music is obviously reliant on whether you like the sound or not. Things pause and flow back in the vocals now reverberate in an Esoteric fashion gradually fading into the distance as the jazzy drumming and avant-garde classicism of the music takes over. We are left to drift along with it and the mood is generally calm and settling so relaxation to the strange tones is probably the best move you can make for the next 20 minutes or so.

The melody mainly enforced by the strumming bass and clarinet is not only calming but it gets beneath the skin and is quite bewitching as one carries on killing time with it. We know bands like Furia play highly unconventional black metal that lingers into jazz tangents so Poland is perhaps a natural source for this. I check their line-up, they have a drummer called Grzegorz, a coincidence as it’s a common name surely but -S- have that sort of eclecticism about them. Things become more strident with an urgency about it, not quite so relaxing as the vocalist yells more and the clarinet screeches but it is gradually calmed back down by the pitter-patter of the drums. The vocals are now left and the instruments meander on, killing time and we are told “TIME DOES NOT HEAL. TIME THWARTS.” Strange, beguiling and something definitely different. I look forward to the other 2 parts with both anticipation and trepidation.

(7/10 Pete Woods)

https://i-voidhangerrecords.bandcamp.com/album/zabijanie-czasu-i