Wojtek Godzisz – ‘Burning Ideals EP’ (Tigertrap) Released 05/02/07

Before pop-punk became a dirty word, and before the use of “teen” as a prefix made it even dirtier, there was Symposium.  Stage-diving, hard-touring, music press darlings for a brief period in 1996, they didn’t get around to releasing their debut album until a couple of years later, and then fizzled out at the dawn of the new Millennium citing the usual “musical and personal differences”.

Two of the band’s members went on to recycle Symposium demos into hits as Hell Is For Heroes, while singer and lead songwriter Wojtek Godzisz went into “self imposed exile” (read: sat around drinking tea and watching repeats of Cash In The Attic) for a few years.  And before you ask, that is actually his name, not this writer fainting on the keyboard.

But now he’s back with the Burning Ideals EP, and a maturity that can only be the result of those years of exile.  How many former teen-punk stars can start a song with an accordion (‘Sun Is Up’) without sounding like they’re making a half-hearted stab at “grown-up” world/folk music?  Wilful nods to eclecticism aside, he’s still punk as anything, but songcraft-and-melody punk, rather than phlegm-and-hair-gel punk.

The achingly beautiful ‘Jealous Heart’ is a prime example – artfully feeble vocals that struggling to hit the notes, but sound gorgeous anyway, along with chiming piano and a sax solo that doesn’t come close to ska-punk predictability.  But you can still imagine sweating like a goodun to it in front of Godzisz leaping around onstage like in his late-90s heydey. 

You needn’t imagine though – Godzisz’ current shows are still said to be a phenomenal experience.  Every song on this small (but perfectly formed) six-track EP has become a live favourite during his regular London appearances over the last few months, as well as all of them being completely performed by the man himself in their recorded forms.

Okay, so maybe he’s been doing something over than watching daytime TV over the past few years…