When you take ‘B FLAT A’s austere subject matter and wrap it around Trupa Trupa’s uncompromisingly dense and sinister post-punk-meets-psyche-rock-with-a-sprinkling-of-eerie-ambience, you get an album that’s unflinchingly intense and a product of years of paranoia and unrest. For the lion’s share of the LP, a fog of claustrophobia and intensity hangs large, with churning bass amalgamating with motorik drums and guitars that grind and wail, there’s little room for light to penetrate the stark gloom the band emit. Kwiatkowski’s vocals add to the feeling of woozy unease, as most of the time they’re indiscernible against the band’s din.

There is some wordplay that comes through with clarity on a clutch of tracks, with Kwiatkowski declaring “I want to eat all my uniforms”, supposedly a take on rebelling against authoritarianism, on the track ‘Uniforms’. The death trudge of ‘Lit’ has the band’s vocalist slurring “don’t be shy/don’t be ashamed” and “don’t hide/don’t be ashamed” as if to goad someone about emotional distress. The druggy-whirr of ‘Far Away’ documents a feeling of disconnection as Kwiatkowski trills “I’m here/you’re far away”. The formless slow spiral of doom that is “All and All” contains one of the more direct gut punch lyrics to be found on ‘B FLAT A’, with the band’s main man stating “I’m going to breakdown”, as a loose jam unfurls around him.

Aside from Trupa Trupa’s stark intensity, there are pockets of respite that present themselves via dizzy swathes of psychedelia that help dissipate the record’s foreboding storm clouds. Even then, these dreamy vignettes come from a place of sorrow and distress that straddle the realms of lucidity and nightmarishness.

‘B FLAT A’ is the product of current times, a record that flits from pleading escapism to wide-eyed torment.

Order B FLAT A by Trupa Trupa HERE