- Dub-infused electronics with a knife edge.
- "I actually find it pretty disgusting that in the wake of global disasters, we still fall for this constant pursuit of fashion, clothes and objects," Justyna Banaszczyk, aka FOQL, told me ahead of the release of her new experimental electronic album, Wehikuł, on Jon K and Elle Andrews’ MAL Recordings label.
Banaszczyk's work is the antithesis of consumerism. She lives for grassroots communities and independent art, co-founding Poland's first community-run radio station, Radio Kapitał, and also co-running the label Pointless Geometry, which champions local experimental artists (to name just two projects amidst an exhaustive CV of music production credits in theatre, film, video game and sound installation). But in a world where everything gets quickly swallowed up by big tech, sticking to autonomous values is an uphill battle, to say the least. And it's been a particularly tumultuous journey for FOQL in Poland, where independent art is at “the bottom of the pecking order,” as she said in another interview.
The album's title track brilliantly captures her frustration with this rocky situation. After a celestial ambient opener and an ambivalent dub follow-up, "Wehikuł" is the first time on the LP that lightning strikes. A downpour of atonal percussive hits, arrhythmic kick drums and rippling acid synths plunges the listener into disorientating chaos. Towards the end, frazzled synths begin slingshotting into nothing amidst tense strings, as though all hope is lost and they're abandoning ship. When calm does finally arrive, it's tinged with sadness—a reflection of the struggle it took to get there, and a reminder of the fragile waters we drift on.