When a German bands attracts fans like James Murphy or Alex Kapranos their most significant work is likely to date back to the 1970s. Not with Pollyester! Polina Lapkovskaja, Manuel da Coll, Benedikt Brachtel and Benjamin Matthias live and work in Munich. Their debut album Earthly Powers was recently followed by City of O, an album which – watch out for a real music journalist’s allegory! – should come with seat belts. Minsk-born Polina Lapkovskaja aka PollyEster aka Koshka Valerianka (allegedly Russian for tranquilized cat) must be considered the band’s nucleus, already in 2010 Süddeutsche Zeitung called her «one of Munich’s most important cultural figures».  Around Polina’s voice (no evidence of tranquilizers) float all sorts of analogue electronics, synthesizers tremble while drums and bass mulishly point at the dance floor: a retro-futuristic precision landing, cosmic, funky, accurate and punchy, somewhat nervous, somewhat nutty even. Dada is in the air, wave, kraut and italo-pop play a role, too.  The music might most aptly be compared with Glasgow’s Franz Ferdinand.  No wonder that Mr Kapranos is a fan and no wonder Polina once played with FF-guitarist Nicholas McCarthy in a  Munich underground institution called Kamerakino. it’s a real spectacle, rarely have taste and fun gone so well together. And, hear hear, Pollyester will perform their new album in Berlin for the very first time!

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