Poeticat – Smash the Floor EP Review

 

Poeticat are a band that WFM are quite fond of, mainly because of their unconventional style of music and how strange they are. After a streak of singles, Poeticat have finally released their debut EP entitled Smash the Floor, which seems to have been designed to complete exactly that.

Their interesting style of music is it at the heart of the EP, as it features in everything that the band completes. The contrast of the spoken words over heavy guitars and beats work increasingly well, as it is all pieced together nicely and not just thrown together.  This is evident in the opening song ‘Jetty’, as the vocals caress the heavy beat, and tame it, which is brilliant way of mellowing a strong guitar.

This is also happens in the following song ‘Centre of a Concrete Square’, as the words seems to dress up the heavier side of the music, without this it easily could be mistaken for just another rock –pop song, than an experimental one.

‘Rest Reprise’ steps away from this, as it slows everything down and the vocals lose their aggressive edge. This is where Poeticat are at their finest, as a giant microscope go over the vocals and they’re able to deliver, due to them being their best feature. ‘Kind Words Soft Kill’ and ‘3^rd Arm’ complete the album, and their style lives on through the songs. ‘3^rd Arm’ is a massive stomp on the ear, as it trudges on and the vocals clean it all up.

Smash the Floor is proof that Poeticat are not a one trick pony, and that they are capable of create a stable EP that can take hits, because it will receive them. Of course this will not be for everyone, as they’re use to their good old pop songs, but for the people who can muscle this, they will be able to appreciate this EP for what is, a good piece of work.

Words By Alex Wise @al4563

 

 

INTERVIEW: Ziggi Jadovski from Poeticat!

Before their debut EP is released, we caught up with Ziggi Jadovski to talk about the band, the EP and her favourite music

WFM: Hello guys, before we start would just like to say that we’re big fans your unconventional style, it’s very brave!

Ziggi: Thanks! Really appreciated!

WFM: Before we start the interview, what are your top 3 albums and why?

Ziggi: Well, since Spotify came along I have to admit I don’t really listen to albums anymore (controversial, I know!) so I’ll have to backtrack to the 90s when I had a longer attention span… My first ever tape was the Fugees – The Score. I remember my brother playing No Woman No Cry to me on my walkman after I’d had a tantrum. I was seduced by Lauryn Hill’s voice in Killing Me Softly. She has some really nice vocal whoops and calls in some of the songs (actually, this might’ve been my first musical inspiration). Despite the effects of the iPod shuffle, I can still pretty much listen to The Score from beginning to end because there’s a story and it’s got a grungy atmosphere and funny interludes which draw you in. I know some of my band members will cringe at this but Jagged Little Pill by Alanis Morrissette is another concept album which comes to mind as an all time favourite. It’s about her being a broke young artist and a woman on her own trying not to conform to what’s expected of her – which resonates. I know it’s massively compressed and produced but her lyrics are interesting and a bit edgy (this was before her India days) and I can listen to this one from beginning to end too cos i’m interested in the story. Number three? (queue drum roll) Patti Smith – Horses.    

 

WFM: And one final question before we officially start, your musical icons and why?

 

Ziggi: David Bowie – cos he wore awesome clothes and he had such a diverse following. He also bridges a gap between theatrical performance and music and he was constantly developing his interests in his music. 

 

Miriam Makeba – I think she was really a musician-activist and did so much for her country at great personal expense. Her voice and her song don’t hold back any of her story. 

 

Jorge Ben Jor – this is a Brazillian singer-songwriter who I LOVE (his most famous song, Pais Tropical, has been sampled worldwide). His lyrics are about liberation, indigenous communities, passionate love and mythical and historical Brazilian figures. He has a knack of reworking all his songs together into a surprising medley when he plays live which has you bouncing off the walls.     

 

WFM: Right now we can start! So how did Peoticat become?

Ziggi: This is contestable, but it was something like the big bang (er, there was a lot of gas involved?)

 

WFM: Your debut EP really stands apart from most music, due to it being spoken word, was there any point you considered changing style to suit the rest?

Ziggi: This kind of question comes up in band meetings a lot, especially when funds are tight. One of the difficulties about being ‘genre-defying’ is that it doesn’t necessarily make you very sellable. But if we wanted to make lots of money then we’d be working in finance or other day jobs or we’d split up and develop our individual genres more but we want to stay together and we like the energy that comes from this friction. If we changed our style to suit the rest then I don’t think we would be Poeticat anymore. We came together because of spoken word and a desire to put words at the forefront of current music. There are some great pop songs out there but a lot of them also sound like they’ve been re-hashed so there’s not much of a message there anymore and I think we’re an antidote to that. Words matter to us. And putting them together with music can urge people to think and feel and hopefully be inspired.

 

WFM: As this is your debut EP, how did you find the recording process? Did you feel like it was long process or did you find it quite easy?

 

Ziggi: It was an epically long process because we tried to do everything on the cheap, which means that our sound has changed since we recorded a year ago but we’re always developing and trying to be better so I think this would happen even if we recorded the EP in 3 months. We’ve learnt a lot though, especially that money = things getting done a LOT faster! We’re still learning how to record and we like to craft things a lot in the recording and editing process which makes things doubly long but I don’t think we can stop being creative and we want to get the energy we have live on stage onto the recorded track. 

 

WFM: On the topic of recording, who would you guys love to record with?

Ziggi:Hmm…this is a tough one! We’re like 5 different elements and I think individually we’d all want to be produced by someone who respects our particular instrument. But really we need someone who can have a bigger vision than that and I have no idea what it would sound like. They also have to know how to record words with music so that they can be heard without the music sounding like backing track because we’re a collaboration. People often want to record us live but it’s never quite had the same energy and we think that a recording is a whole other craft in itself. To get what we have on stage you may actually have to have quite a lot of fresh ideas in the editing process so that it’s a different listening experience on CD. Anyway, if you’re out there and you think you’re our dream producer then please get in touch!

 

WFM: Spoken word has never really made it into more mainstream music, why do you think this is? And do you think it will?

 

Ziggi: I’d like to think spoken word could get bigger but we’ve had to be careful about how we describe ourselves to music promoters because they seem allergic to that term. I think the difficulty is that spoken word doesn’t really describe the music and we know several artists doing spoken word and music in a totally different way, which is what I think makes it exciting but if you’re not into lots of different types of music then you won’t like all spoken word bands so this is hard to programme. But maybe the type of delivery will become more popular if people want to listen to words. I like electronic music but that’s what’s in the mainstream at the moment and it seems to be more about synthetic sounds than something organic like the human voice and the words are often recorded with a dreamy effect so you can’t really hear them. That said, Kings Will are an awesome  electro-spoken word duo who got radio play on 6 music and I think they mix the genres really well in a way which people who like electronic music will like. Roots Manuva also has a bit of a spoken delivery.

 

WFM:  What can we expect after this release, a mini UK tour or will you be looking to get even more material out there?

 

Ziggi: We’ll be releasing our EP, Smash the Floor, on 5th May and having a launch for it on the 29th Aprilat Notting Hill Arts Club with support from the fantastic spoken word and music act from the depths of Deptford – Gemma and the Mil Men. After that we’ll be gigging more and looking to get the EP out to as many audiences as possible. We’re always looking to get more material out but at the moment we’ve been focusing on getting on the gigging circuit after our residency at the Windmill Brixton. We absolutely loved performing to the crowd there but we were getting quite comfortable performing to an audience who know what we’re about and we need to have the challenge of performing to unsuspecting audiences, so you’ll see us on more stages in London during the summer! It’s also always fun to get gigs outside of London because audiences are very appreciative of new music so you may see us somewhere South of the city soon too. 

 

WFM: Final question, most embarrassing thing you have experienced as a band? (Optional)

 

Ziggi: It involved a henge and some miscalculations. No, actually I think it was a case of mistaken identity. We went to the wrong hall at a country festival and they thought we were the function band. We found out pretty quickly that Letter to David Cameron is not everyone’s choice for a first dance!

Poeticat – 3rd Arm

 

Poeticat are a well-respected band at WFM, due to their controversial style and their refusal to adapt their music to a more familiar style. With their previous songs gaining pace and credit, they have continued their good work with their recent releases, this being one of them.

‘3^rd Arm’ is much heavier than their previous work, as the bass its terrifying due to the volume and the guitar riff sounds like something ripped off a classic heavy rock song.  However with this, they continue with their style and do not change it up as vocalist Zigi Jadovski delivers the well-crafted words by Catherine Martindale with conviction and meaning. The contrast of the heavy sounds and the soft voice of Zigi is special, as they seem to complement each other without even knowing.

Due to the emphasise on the lyrics and the vocals of their songs, sometimes the music gets left behind and not thought about, which will not do. Although it may be a tad too heavy and aggressive for some ears, it captures the feeling and anger that is possessed within this song.

It’s another good instalment from Poeticat, one which should see them gain more appreciation from music lovers, who look for something more than a good hook line in a song. Here’s to the next one.

Words by Alex Wise @al4563

6.5/10

Poeticat – Kind Words Soft Kill

Band: Poeticat

Hometown: London

 

Spoken word is sometimes misunderstood and a lot of the time put on the back burners of music so we forget about those acts. Poeticat are an act who are looking to take their imaginative spoken word music to new heights, with the release of their double A side, which includes ‘Kind Words Soft Kill’ and ‘Centre of the Concrete Square’, and they’re two songs that should make you take notice.

Obviously in spoken word, it’s about the lyrics, the language and the poetry, but Poeticat have taken special care of the background music too, which really sets the scene and environment for these songs. Spoken word music is often disregarded mainly because it’s not what people are used to listening to,  so they immediately turn off, but Poeticat have done such a job on these lyrics and stanza’s that they’re worth taking note off and listening to. Well thought out words, and the timing of the words play an integral part to these two songs, which they’ve done well with and for that alone it deserves credit. Understandably it won’t be at the top of most people’s playlists, but it does deserve a place within that playlist.

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