The Recommender

With a blog that exists to bring new bands to your computer’s virtual doorstep on a weekly basis, we understandably find the service a little harder to uphold over the Christmas period. Most artists are awaiting the beginning of 2011 before launching their assault on the public, venues are more focused on New Years Eve than gigs, and almost everyone else in the industry takes a break.

But we weren’t going to let a little festive celebration get in the way of yet another new discovery. We could have held them back for a post in the new year, but this band have approached us from half way around the world, over in Argentina, so the least we could do was to let you know about them.

This four (and sometimes five-) piece band call Buenos Aires home and have been pumping out their music to some of the area’s hottest parties since 2008/2009. Polen‘s sound has a variety of influences, from 2007′s electro, to more traditional rock and pop influences. In all fairness a band that skips from genre to genre this wildly often suggests they don’t yet know their own best sound, but thankfully they do it rather brilliantly so the confusing schizophrenia is forgiven in this case.

With the track ‘Drop The Line‘, we get a straight up banging electro slam, which feels horribly dated when placed in a European context, but all is forgiven when the vocals kick in after one minute. Suddenly the pop reveals itself with a refrain that could make any party peak. If it doesn’t remind you of Lipps Inc‘s ‘Funkytown‘ then you’ve simply forgotten the 1980 hit (correct that here). Although the influence is rather heavy it’s definitely a good thing, as that’s something of a classic, but with Polen they keep their fingers properly jammed in the sockets all the way through.

They move the drums to the front of the stage with ‘Dos.40‘, which pounds it’s opening few bars, before an acoustic riff lightens it as the pop vocals arrive. It perfectly shows off their ability to thump and jump, whilst never losing sight of important elements, such as melody and a tidy chorus. Their softness continues with the excellent ‘I Wonder‘ and ‘Bed Times‘, which, in our opinion, clearly marks out the path that they should continue taking.

They’ve received comparisons to Soulwax and Digitalism, which is evidenced in part on their rock/dance hybrid tracks such as ‘KO‘, ‘IPO‘ and the rather tasty ‘Triste‘, but we think the suggestion is a little obvious, as it seems most of their music shares more elements with the likes of Barcelona’s Mendetz.

Elsewhere, they rock out more directly with ‘MedusaX‘ or ‘Alto Valle‘, using a darker bassline, which we suspect the South Americans may particularly hook onto, but it never disappears down a metal hole, giving us just enough funk and sampling to keep it suitable for a European club. However, its worth noting that they’re definitely at their best when they include a better balance of vocals and pop, in place of the rock or electro.

To date they’ve released four EPs, ‘Metamorphy‘, ‘Compressor‘, ‘EP10‘ and the new promo EP, ‘White Light‘, (you can hear selections from them all here). They plan to tour Europe between May and July next year, including stints at The Secret Garden Party and the Camden Crawl. We think their variety could work, with them being capable of switching up their sets – hit the electro hard in Germany, whilst focusing on the dance and pop in the UK etc. We hope to be there to catch the live show, so lets see which Polen turns up. (MB)

POLEN – DROP THE LINE

POLEN – I WONDER

POLEN – DOS.40

POLEN – BED TIME