Album Review: pôt-pot, Warsaw 480km

Following last year’s Going Insane EP, pôt-pot's first album is an intense and often brilliant offering. The band is made up of members from both Ireland and Portugal, with frontman Mark Waldron-Hyden writing most of the songs while “not really living in one place.”

A sense of transience and impermanence permeates the music on Warsaw 480km. You get the feeling that Waldron-Hyden worked on some of these songs while only having lo-fi equipment at his disposal: they’re all the better for their raw edge.

Each song invites you in, but also displaces you, keeping you on your toes. First single ‘WRSW’ is extremely good – a psych-rock excursion with bluesy riffs and pulsing drums. ‘Fake Eyes’ offers atmospheric and experimental post-punk, while ‘I AM!’ begins with a straightforward riff, before building to an explosive finale.

Elsewhere, ‘The Lights Are On’ is an effort rich with jazzy rhythms and twanging guitar, rounding out a fine album.

8/10