News Poland

Holly McNaught isn’t from Poland. In fact, it’s difficult to know whether she has even been, has any interest in its history or is even aware of the fact that there is a country that shares the same name as her bizarre musical project. Based in Melbourne, Australia, she’s been making noise for the past 6 years under various different guises and, whilst there are loads of people who claim to be quirky and off-beat or whatever, McNaught is one of the select few who can claim to genuinely be weird.

‘Sea Woof’ is the culmination of her efforts, and it’s likely to inspire awe, give you a headache or perhaps maybe even do both. The works vary from song to song, but one definitive theme is that of there being a really good pop song that has been lovingly deconstructed and pasted back together again, rather like the victims of Sid’s experiments in the original Toy Story. How pleasing they are to the ear is often a case of the ones that McNaught has shown enough restraint to not completely hacksaw into.

Whilst not always the most enjoyable ride, the gems you find are worth the lucid roughage you have to journey through to find it – the title track has the hallmarks of the kind of thing Kate Bush might have been doing if she’d been raised in the modern, post-modem world rather than way back whenever, and opener ‘Sure’ is loaded with neon, spliced charm, even hinting at a possible career in laying down beats for other people’s works with some daring synth play. With the right direction, you feel she might have a classic album in her: in fact, ‘Sea Woof’ sounds like she might have already made it, and then put it in a blender. Poland: definitely one to watch, but definitely mad enough not to know she’s sharing her name with part of the old Eastern Bloc.

Sea Woof by Poland