Etnobotanika is a mysterious duo from the capital of Upper Silesia (Wrocław), standing firmly with one foot in the realm of electronic music, while the other explores the territories of sampling and hip-hop.
Their focus is on fragments of the past – segments of old Polish movies, half-forgotten TV series, excerpts from more and less known domestic songs recorded years ago. All these associations and leads can be found on their debut long-play album – “Fruwający przestępca” (“Flying Criminal”).
Released by Superkasety Records, the album is a collage of melodies and sounds that are familiar yet simultaneously alien and disquieting. The duo takes listeners on a journey not just into a lush land of nostalgia but also into new genre territories. Here, one can hear a completely different, almost separate approach to the technique of sampling and combining beat-making practices with instruments and sounds of contemporary electronic music. “Fruwający przestępca” features 15 tracks that will stimulate the imagination at home as much as the body in the club’s semi-darkness.
The Superkaset catalog is densely populated with house, disco, breakbeat, jungle, and many other club styles. Just like beat tapes, dance tracks can be equally effective carriers of creative ideas. They also serve as a fantastic tool for updating sampled materials, placing them in a modern, eclectic context that characterizes the most interesting and valuable areas of club music. Its structure is based on repetition, aligning perfectly with the philosophy of looping samples. The Balearic-nostalgic trend increasingly falls into the traps of self-parody or the path of least resistance. The Superkasety Records catalog strides over them with an untouched foot.