Igor Boxx: Breslau (Ninja Tune, 12/14/10)
Igor Boxx: “Alarm”
[audio:https://alarm-magazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/12/Igor_Boxx_Alarm.mp3|titles=Igor Boxx: “Alarm”]
Polish electronic artist Igor Boxx, also known as Igor Pudlo, is one half of electro-jazz duo Skalpel. Skalpel explored Polish jazz from the 1960s and ’70s while reconstructing it with modern aesthetics, and though Igor Boxx’s solo debut has sonic similarities, it’s a weighty concept album about the Soviet Red Army’s 1945 Siege of Breslau.
It’s a sort of a reflection on the consequences of war, including the tension that was felt in Breslau in the decades following WWII, with music that’s a head-nodding collage of woodwind melodies, percussive clangs, and atmospheric samples. There are hooks and grooves, but it’s not nearly as lounge-y or dance-y as Skalpel’s material, and it’s an exciting new part of Igor’s career.