BUY LINK: tance.bandcamp.com/album/gus-a-human-rites
(via Tańce)

1. Gusła (Human Rites) 05:27
2. Szeptucha (Hex Therapy) 04:54
3. Stop Bzdurom (The Bad Gays) 04:33
4. Nieludzie (Ignorance Ha) 05:05

Avtomat is one of the most important queer artists in Poland's nightlife - a producer, DJ and singer, who is also promoting and organising club nights such as Ciężki Brokat. The ex-Oramics member's "Gusła (Human Rites)" EP premiered on 6th November 2020 and inaugurated the Tańce label.

"Gusła (Human Rites)" was conceived during a turbulent time both for Avtomat and every other queer person in Poland. Partially shaped by the artistic residency at the Centre for Contemporary Arts in Warsaw where Oramics performed a healing ritual, the EP is described by the artist as a "collective scream of a community put up against a wall". In August 2020, on the eve of the performance, Avtomat was arrested for protesting the unlawful arrest of Margot Szutowicz of the Stop Bzdurom collective and the intensifying oppression of the LGBTQ+ community in Poland.

The EP features four aggressive club tracks informed by the polyrhythms and syncopation present in Polish folk dances such as oberek and chodzony, a knack for DIY drum production and vocal manipulations, turning songs of the past into vocal drones and desperate shrieks. Opening with metal pots and pans arranged in a swirling openwork structure, the title track leaves a lot of space in the mix for a tense, rubbery groove to ride on, while on "Szeptucha (Hex Therapy)" Avtomat turns openly confrontational, grinding together dramatic stabs, witchy howls and metallic sounds in a skittering curse cast on the perpetrators of anti-queer violence.

"Stop Bzdurom (The Bad Gays)" seems like the angriest cut on the record and is dedicated to the titular collective and their fight with pseudoreligious bullshit coming from shady pro-life organisations. Trucks plastered with homophobic slogans drive all over Poland under police protection, so it seems fitting that the track is built around revving engines, going all in your face with screams, clangs and the sounds of suka*, alluding to this uneven fight.

Finally, "Nieludzie (Ignorance Ha)" is an updated version of the 2019's track that featured on Oramics' Total Solidarity compilation. Now featuring Przemysław Czarnek's (the recently appointed minister of education) infamous dehumanising quote** about the LGBTQ+ community and human rights being drowned out by its doomy stabs. The track's distorted bass and slo-mo deconstruction of ballroom tropes sound even more ominous than ever.

*a Polish string instrument similar to viola, but also the slang term for a police van

** the full sampled quote goes: "Let's defend ourselves from the LGBT ideology. We have to stop listening to this nonsense about some human rights or some equality. These people are not equal to normal people. End of story."