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Ye.Stem: Pojedyncze Utwory
(Sanctus Propaganda)
Ships May/June 2023
LP
Polish punks Ye.stem manage to sing about famines, refugees, and class war over melodic hardcore that is really happy sounding and danceable on DIY label Sanctus Propaganda. FFO: Propagandhi, Leatherface, SLF. Nathan Brown writes.
Ye.stem contains members of Post Regiment, a giant of Polish punk who made it to these shores in the late 90s and made a strong impression. However, while Post Regiment did have melodies, their overall sound was far angrier and harder than Ye.stem so this may be something of a misdirection. Fans of melodic hardcore, and even pop punk: this is for you!
A bright pinging bass and punchy drums that frequently accelerate to double time propel Ye.stem. The guitars weave around the melodic vocals providing harmonies or transmitting Morse code messages. Combine this with stops and starts and the overall effect is close to early Propagandhi, although there are shades of Leatherface and even Stiff Little Fingers. The songwriting and production are up to that standard so this really should be checked out by fans of melodic hardcore.
Hipersonic in particular is damn catchy and while the demo version in this video is not quite up to the quality of the song as played on the album, it still demonstrates what a great song it is.
The Polish lyrics are of a political nature, reflecting the world around the band. This includes a look at the Belarus-Poland border crisis where refugees are stranded in the forest stuck between the Polish state pushing one way and Lukashenko’s regime pushing from the other direction over the border.
Given that this part of the world is in the midst of a brutal war a song about war, and specifically Russian invasions was bound to feature. Holodomor looks at the man-made punishment famine inflicted on Ukraine by the USSR to crush its independence movement. It’s a form of oppression and punishment that has been used by the Russian state repeatedly over the last few centuries no matter who controlled it: Tsar, dictators, Party elites, or oligarchy.
Class war analysis is strong. A song celebrates Jakub Szela, a Polish leader of a peasant uprising against the Polish gentry in Galicia in 1846. Meanwhile, on the flip side of the coin, the track Elon is about Mr Musk, using him as an avatar or bellwether for his kind – people motivated by greed and wanting to own everything.
Ye.stem take time to pay tribute to underground Russian punk poet/musician Yanka Dyagileva (video above). They also take time to rip the piss out of Polish neo nazis.
This is the sort of album that Epitaph would fall over themselves to release but it’s coming to you from the DIY label Sanctus Propaganda (“We love animals and hate fascists.”).
~
Words by Nathan Brown. You can read more of his reviews on his Louder Than War archive over here.
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