Focus on Poland: Catz ‘n Dogz

Focus on Poland: Catz ‘n Dogz

16 November, 2010 | 7.07AM

• Written by: Beatportal
• Filed under: Music News: 3 channels, catz 'n dogz, dirtybird, mothership

A new chapter in the Catz ‘n Dogz story begins this month, as the Polish duo releases Escape from Zoo, the followup to 2008’s Stars of Zoo. Once again they’re with Claude Von Stroke’s mothership, a sublabel of dirtybird, and this time, as the title suggests, they’ve thrown the boundaries wide open. Sure, there’s plenty of deep, punchy, percussive tech house, but they also take forays into deep, disco-oriented house, shimmering electronica, and even dubstep.

Every sound is fair game, from crunk samples to scraps of vintage Polish jazz; that kind of range is just par for the course for the duo, whose Pets Gone Wild party in their native Szczecin serves as a platform for unbridled musical mayhem.

Catz ‘n Dogz, of course, were a no-brainer for our Focus on Poland series; we asked the duo’s Grzegorz Demiañczuk to fill us in on the ins and outs of Polish club culture. Read on to find out about the duo’s new label, Pets Recordings and for tips on a host of rising national talent, and get Catz ‘n Dogz’ latest top 10 chart—plus some mouthwatering culinary suggestions!

What’s your own history with electronic music—how did you discover it, and how did you come to start making it?

My first contact with electronic music was in the early ‘90s when I was watching the German broadcast and they were showing a new style called techno. Then I took my father to the shop and he bought me a bootleg tape compilation (because in Poland there were no copyrights then) called Techno Vol. 2.

Voitek was traveling a lot with the choir when he was 12 years old, and when he was in the U.S. he discovered GrooveRadio, with an amazing selection of house music. In the ‘90s it was very hard to buy non-commercial electronic music here, but we were lucky because our hometown is Szczecin (Stettin), the closest big city to the German border. So we were able, for example, to listen to the Berlin radio shows where there were DJs were playing good, underground music. The electronic-music influence from Berlin was very strong and a lot of good DJs were playing here. Of course we were also going to the parties and going to Berlin to buy records. Then we started to make our own parties, we met a lot of people and we started to produce music.

What styles of electronic dance music are most popular in Poland, and who are the key Polish venues, labels, DJs and producers we should know about?

Right now in Poland the most popular is house music; I think it’s like that everywhere now. Some time ago it was minimal and, earlier, big techno parties.

One key Polish venue is the SQ Club in Poznan, with an amazing lineup, not only house or techno. We have our night there called Pets Gone Wild. There’s a lot of good clubs in Warsaw (1500m2, 55), a lot of small bars with a good disco or deep house selection (Plan B, Powiekszenie) and famous afterparty place called Luztro (Mirror) where the security guy is selling sausage or microwave soup. Some other cities are Gdansk/Sopot, Krakow, Wroclaw, Szczecin, Katowice; you’ll also find good clubs there.

Festivals are also fantastic. There’s the Audioriver festival in Plock (close to Warsaw) with a great location on the beach and many good acts; Boogie Brain festival in Szczecin (located in the old harbor), Unsound in Krakow, Off in Katowice, and much more.

There are not that many labels but I see now it’s going much better. A key name is Recognition made by Jacek Sienkiewicz, and then a lot of smaller vinyl and digital labels. We had our label called Channels records, and right now after we changed the name to Catz ‘n Dogz, we opened a new one called Pets Recordings where we’re promoting Polish producers.

A few years ago you could count producers from Poland on one hand, but right now the situation is much better and there’s a lot of new talents! Jacek Sienkiewicz (Recogintion, Cocoon), SLG (Trapez), Pol On (Freerange), Marcin Czubala (Mobilee), Jackname Trouble, Supra1, Kuba Sojka, Envee, Martin Nowakowski, Kesho, Max Skiba, Karol XVII & MB Valence…

There are also well-known producers with Polish roots: Magda, Margaret Dygas, Dave DK, Robert Babicz, Adam Port, Daniel Dreier, Highfish…

Is there much in the way of underground parties in Poland—warehouses, unlicensed open-airs, etc.—or is most activity combined to nightclubs?

There were a lot of illegal parties few years ago. Right now most of the parties are legal and clubs are pro with good soundsystems, lights and crew. Same with the festivals. To be honest, we miss a bit this illegal feeling, when you were entering the secret place and you never knew what would happen.

Poland is celebrated for its progressive-thinking jazz and rock scenes in previous decades; did they have any impact on the shape of Polish electronic music today?

Yes the jazz scene was huge and it was amazing, the same with the rock music. It was very important for Polish people to have a bit of musical insulation from the grayness which was around them in Communist times. The government controlled everything, and music from outside (I mean, the west) was mostly illegal. That’s why people were jamming together, making music and trying to have some fun. Some people were experimenting with electronic music, but it was very hard to get the keyboards or any other equipment to make music. So it didn’t develop very fast, and it was very underground.

One key name for sure is Czeslaw Niemen.

After Communism, everything was legal, all the stuff from the west was here the next day, so we had a huge mess and some people freaked out…! There was a lot of crap, but because everything was fresh, it took some time for people to see what’s good and what’s bad (Polish disco called disco polo, for example).

Enough about music: what food should visitors to Poland seek out?

We have great soups: zurek, barszcz, flaki (you can eat it in the train from Berlin to Warsaw). Polish food fits great with vodka, so there are a lot of jellys with fishes or meat, teak soups, potatoes, sour cucumber, and of course pierogi or galabki; also try bigos. The thing to not try is pizza with kebap!

If you want to see how it was in 25 years ago here you definitly need to visit Przekaski Zakaski in Warsaw, where you can order a shot of vodka and with herring for just a couple of euros!

Catz ‘n Dogz Beatport Top 10

Catz ‘n Dogz, Escape from Zoo [Mothership]

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