The times we currently live in suck.
I wonder sometimes how I would be if I was a teenager in 2026. Of course, I can imagine myself being some sort of avant-garde enlightened Tik Tok influencer claiming to be on the verge of success, but this imaginary self born in 2010 would also probably be more miserable than the actual one of 1999 and might be firmly convinced that the world as we know and hate it is about to be annihilated by some madmen. And that's without mentioning the insane pressure that punk kids have these to pretend to love Turnstile in order to fit in. In my days when you were getting into "real punk" you had to pretend to hate Green Day because they were sellouts and dared to have tunes (which was the same thing). It was much easier and a cheap way to look rebellious. The irony in all this is that, I'm told, current teens fantasise about the 90's and even the 00's, an unspoilt pre social media - to be understood as prelapsarian - era, free from hateful online bullies and the constant stress to be connected, visible and available at all times which does sound horrible. The anti Myspace critique of the mid 00's do feel almost innocent in retrospect and have the aroma of desuetude, those days when punks still believed that social media and the world they carried in their dark hearts could be resisted. Not the most clairvoyant moment in punk history I'll grant your that.
Will the Kłamstwo tape cheer everyone up? Well, I think it might do the trick, at least for a while. This Polish band was all about energy and tunes, great ones, that will survive in your head for a couple of days. This rather obscure act were from Knurów, a mining town in the South of Poland where, according to the band's presentation online, boredom ruled in the 90's, the future felt bleak and punk was the ideal means to face reality and be creative, so not exactly a fancy seaside resort I presume. A classic punk origin story. The term "kłamstwo" means "lie" in English and it is, clearly, much harder to pronounce but isn't punk as much as a network of friends as it is a network of languages? I don't know much about the band itself and while I would love to have a great anecdote about how I came across this largely hidden gem, I'm pretty sure it just popped as a recommendation on bloody youtube which is certainly an unromantic anticlimax and a perfect example of how the internet sometimes makes our passion feel tame. But anyway, I clicked on the thing because I like Polish punk (knowing a bit of Polish I knew where they were from) and it was love at first listen.
Kłamstwo played tuneful and highly energetic female-fronted political punk-rock (the two doves logo suggests an anarcho leaning) with that distinctive Polish flair for catchy guitar hooks and vocals. The introduction from the label Zima you can find on its website (amazingly the tape is still available) says that the youthful band formed in 1998, somehow managed to record a very DIY demo in 2000 that they were unhappy with (one song off this recording "session" made it to the tape as a bonus and to be fair I think it's not that bad) and as result went to a proper studio to record 12 songs in 2001, the album Alienacja that would be released in 2002, and... well, it looks like it was pretty much it. The band then appeared on a massive tribute to Dezerter in 2006 but, not owning the thing, I am unable to tell you when the cover was recorded. Similarly I could not find any details about the members' whereabouts following the end of the band sometime in the mid 00's I assume. Zima was and still is a very active label that specialised in alternative music, not just punk but also reggae (the genre is very popular in Poland), that notably released the whole discography of legendary 80's band Śmierć Kliniczna who were local to the area and dozens of other weed-smoking acts I have never heard of (since I read somewhere that smoking weed could make people enjoy Manu Chao I firmly decided to never smoke again).
The label's blurb indicated that Kłamstwo were influenced, among other bands, by Post-Regiment, Konwent A and Kanada, three bands that have strong female singers. If the comparison to the immensely influential Post-Regiment can make sense (not just vocally but also because the guitar player tries to infuse some memorable melodies although Post-Regiment's sound remains somewhat sacrosanct) and is fairly obvious, the Konwent A parallel proves to be more relevant as the two bands share a similar sense of tunes and intensity. The chance that you would have heard about Konwent A is slim - unless you are an old-school punk from Poland - as they never released anything when they were originally active in the mid/late 80's although there are, of course, live versions of their songs recorded at the Jarocin festival. Pretty classic story for a Polish punk band at the time. This said, Konwent A must have circulated in DIY fashion through tapes and the appeal of the band is easily understandable. I would also throw the 90's band 105 Lux from Gdynia that displayed musical qualities and some elements of the songwriting that Kłamstwo would make their own and because of my own musical background I cannot help but think of tune-driven UK bands too like Dan or Sofahead too or even 90's DIRT, bands that made punk energy melodic.
The Polish scene has had this long tradition of strong female-fronted punk with a message and Kłamstwo fits right into this category. Some tunes on the guitar leads are absolutely brilliant and I challenge anyone to listen to "Konformista" and "Miasto" and try to resist the urge to whistle to the tunes. Of course, you can tell Kłamstwo were still a young band and there are a couple of sloppy moments, however the production is very clean, if basic, and highlights the catchy guitar work and the deceptively simple vocals that sound warm and upfront. It's such a shame that they never recorded more.
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