Poland’s Chlopcy Kontra Basia spin original folk-tale lyrics and weave them with voice, double-bass and percussion. ‘Oj Tak!’ leads you along a cake-crumb trail to an irresistibly surreal world. The band’s name (pronounced “Wh’ opsee Kontra Basha”) translates as ‘Boys Against Basia’ and features wordplay around the double bass (kontrabas). This reflects the line-up: headstrong singer Basia fronts the band gently guiding things towards an educated folk edge while Marcin and Tomasz bring up the backline with their jazz outlook. Basia trained as a classical musician before realising her vision to create contemporary music that voices the folk music of Poland in new, modern settings. As Basia puts it herself, this is a band that lives in a “modern reality but are fascinated by disappearing sounds”. Traditional Polish forms that have inspired the trio, such as mazurek, oberek and kujawiak, can all be detected in the tracks heard on this album. But the band’s energy runs much deeper than a simple exercise in folk revision. They embrace the aesthetic of Polish folk set in a jazz tone, but also author their own rich imagery and invented quirky fairy-tales via their inimitable lyrical voice.