Praising one`s achievements is frowned upon in Japan. If anything, you should minimize your skills as much as possible to appear humble. You should also not praise somebody else exceedingly as to not embarrass them. So, please forgive me for praising the skills of AcidSitter to the high heavens for the sake of this review, because this band is truly spectacular. Anything else would simply be dishonest.
Cover of Make Acid Great Again
AcidSitter is very close to my heart and I cannot stress enough how happy I am to receive their album to review. Polish -Japanese relations are my forte. I`ve spent many years promoting Japanese culture in my home country, as a journalist and through cultural events. Vanadian Avenue has always been a platform to help new artists, connect cultures and hopefully bring people together. Both Rita and I are founding members of Section 9, one of Poland’s oldest fan gatherings for those who were interested in Japanese culture, under the Silesian Fantasy Club. We put on the very first manga exhibition in the country, worked on at least 8 manga and anime conventions and held workshops and talks.
When people think of Poland and Japan, they have the image of Felix “Manggha” Jasieński running around Market Square in Cracow dressed in a samurai armour swinging katana above his head (arguably world`s first documented otaku) or in the least brother Zeno. But the truth is that historical and cultural ties between both countries have a long history dating back to Meiwa era, when Maurycy Beniowski and Antoni Straszewski (a pair of soldiers-turned pirates and rather shady human beings) landed on the island of Shikoku in 1771. In 1904, during the Meiji Restoration, writer and diplomat Nitobe Inazō dedicated his book “Bushido – Soul of Japan” to Poland (“samurai nation”). But over the centuries, it was an army of countless civilians, artists and volunteers that shaped the relations and kept it going.
If MANGAZYN, the periodical for which I worked as a journalist, was still being published, AcidSitter would be the perfect article. Not just for the incredible music, but as an example of those cultural ties that bring Poland and Japan together.
AcidSitter photo by Dua WDT
The band consists of Tetsuya Nara (guitar/vox, Tumbling Walls), Rafał Klimczak (guitars/synths/keys, Neal Cassady, NEAL), Tomek Głuc (drums/handsonic, Neal Cassady, Nucleon) and Filip Franczak (bass/loutar/synths, Fraktale, Tumbling Walls, Kaseciarz) – all accomplished musicians on Polish rock/avantgarde scene with years of stage experience. These guys already produced an extensive body of work, either by working together or through their respective solo projects.
Here`s a thing I absolutely love about modern Polish music scene. It`s so varied, multicultural and multinational. We have Bruce Waves, Yumi Ito & Szymon Mika or Veronicami just to name a few. Even Steven Wilson of Genesis moved to Łódź. For some reason, the country feels open and welcoming.
As I have mentioned in my review of Bruce Waves, the post-Brexit United Kingdom feels completely opposite to Poland. It becomes more claustrophobic and distant by the day. Leaving the European Union was disastrous to creative industries and alienation we are experiencing over here can be compared to the policy of sakoku (forced closure of Japan by Tokugawa shogunate). We rarely get ambitious and eclectic acts from the continent to come touring now. And when they come, like Izzy and The Black Trees, they are offered a gig at a cocktail bar with no stage (thanks but no thanks Liverpool Sound City, it was a classy way of treating not just a foreign act but a Keychange participant. I have videos and pictures if you want to see what fun Izzy and her band had on the merch table right next to a toilet…)
This is where records, even in digital versions, come in handy. If AcidSitter can’t come to Malicia, then Malicia will come to listen to AcidSitter. Released in November 2023 via Interstellar Smoke Records “Make Acid Great Again” is a powerful, dynamic and very modern take on psychedelia and garage rock.
Before the album was made available, the band published four digital singles, each one accompanied by a video: “StayWatch”, “Comets”, “The Healing Journey” and “Sweet Dreams”. It may not interest everybody, but if you are a fan of visuals to go with your music, then AcidSitter is your new best friend. The amount of work and creative input that went into each of them is worth a paragraph or two. “Comets” starts as a live recording footage, only to turn into a kaleidoscopic collage of lights and forms. Put it in a museum and you have an art installation that people will be talking about all season. Then there is “Staywatch” – a simple lyric video but shot against breathtaking footage taken in Norway. Or “Sweet Dreams” that animates old movie clips into a disturbing trip though a twilight zone.
It`s incredibly hard to place the album in one category or genre. From one side the band likes to use all sorts of instruments, not just guitars, bass and drums. They heavily rely on synths and keyboards, even samples. On the other hand they sound not just like your typical psychedelic band either. It`s quite funny to even put it in the review but AcidSitters are shapeshifters. They become different acts. They can be early The Beatles “Comets”, only to flirt with 80s pop rock on “Last Few Days” and even post grunge on “It`s Fine”. I swear there is enough drama and pathos on “Staywatch” to consider it a visual kei ballad.
The band is supported by female vocalists Justyna Majewska in “Last Few Days” and Hanna Harmata in “It’s Fine” and “The Healing Journey”. Both singers fit in so well, that in the beginning I was thinking that AcidSitter were a six piece. I hope that we will see them performing with the band live as they bring something very personal, almost intimate to the album. Their voices tell a story, from a female perspective. Rock is male dominated and having women being an integral part of any project is essential, at least in my opinion. And the fact that AcidSitter invited two women and collaborated with them so closely (Justyna is also responsible for most of the lyrics on the album) shows that it is possible to offer a seat at the table for everyone. Big kudos for this from me.
Photo by Dua WDT
There is also another thing I’d like to mention – again, it shows how sensitive and responsible the band members are. One cover on the album (“Roller Coaster”) is from 13th Floor Elevators. The band even has a small tag line saying that “If Roky Erickson were still alive, he would have liked it”. For those who don’t know. “Roller Coaster” is often said to be about taking drugs and having some kind of satori or higher understanding of the universe. Roky Erickson wrote it about his recovery from mental illness and being able to function thanks to medication. I love 13th Floor Elevators; they were true pioneers of rock. But Rocky`s life was incredibly hard, his career punctured by mental illness, being sanctioned in hospitals and his miracle return to the stage – mostly because medication got better and allowed him to reclaim his life. In a way “Roller Coaster” is a triumph over odds, illness, and misery. It is yet another layer added to the fabric of wonderful material that AcidSitter woven on their debut release. It almost reads like hope in a world drowning in conflicts, polarisation and personal tragedies. Indeed I`m sure Roky would have liked it.
The album has been recorded and mixed in Taktik Studio by Marcin Gągola and mastered by Paweł Bartnik.
On this blog I am used to reviewing home produced demoes and self-released singles. There is nothing wrong with three chords and out of tune punky choruses, it is the charm of the independent scene that things are unpolished, crude and not always well mixed. With Polish bands it’s a completely different experience. Every act that I wrote about so far, including metal Alhena, provides material produced to jaw dropping standards, composed and played by artists who have significant achievements in their field. You folks make me question my life choices why I left the country…
I have a feeling AcidSitter would feel at home in Japan, their work ethic is a bit scary. They just released the record and already have a tour planned that will take them though Poland, Lithuania, Latavia, Estonia and Finland. “Make Acid Great Again” will be released in vinyl, CD and cassette formats in the meantime.
I am unsure how to end this article. Go buy the album – obligatory. See AcidSitter on tour if you can. But this record feels a lot like a gift. So, in the truly Japanese fashion I`m gonna say どうもありがとうございます followed by a deep bow from the reviewer.
You can follow the band on socials:
https://www.facebook.com/AcidSitter
https://twitter.com/AcidSitterband
https://acidsitter.bandcamp.com/
https://www.instagram.com/acidsitter/
https://www.youtube.com/@acidsitter
https://interstellarsmokerecords1.bandcamp.com/album/make-acid-great-again
https://open.spotify.com/artist/0qRWDSGqHvOEmzTfHMs8uL
Malicia Dabrowicz
Indieterria 
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