Rising Polish DJ and producer Bartosz Kruczyněski is a man of many aliases. His releases come in the form of ambient and minimal leaning works under his own name, sample-based explorations of Polish heritage as one half of Ptaki and new age infused deep house under the ominous title of The Phantom.
Bartosz’s musical creations as Earth Trax, often with long-time friend and collaborator Newborn Jr., have been picked up by such labels as Bradley Zero’s Rhythm Section, Lost Palms, Les Yeux Orange and our very own Phonica main label in recent years.
Aside from his excellent mix recording, we caught up with Bartosz for a quick chat to find out about his past, present and future plans. Check it all out below.
Check out the previous mixes in the series here:
Hi, thanks for having me. I think it just came with the first track by Moby, which set the mood. It’s slightly darker than usual maybe.
Are any of the records in this mix recent discoveries? If so, where did you stumble across them and what drew you to them?
Yeah, quite a few of them. Bought lots of new records in Dusseldorf and Cologne around the time I recorded the mix.
Could you tell us a little bit about your background, perhaps where you grew up and what first got you interested in electronic music?
I grew up in Eastern Poland. Most of my early knowledge of electronic music came from Viva Zwei (acts like The Chemical Brothers, Aphex Twin, Photek), Napster and magazines on club music that had a very fanzine-like quality with articles on Polish techno, goa trance or cover CDs with tracks from Ninja Tune, Bolshi or Koka Records catalogue.
I think it’s more DIY and less institutionalized than in many Western countries. I really like all the parties with more quirky techno, live sets (like Brutaż), EBM and wave oriented, experimental synthesizer music, ambient, ballroom nights (Bal u Bożeny) or labels like Dunno. Summers in Warsaw are pretty great too with thousands of people partying on the river banks.
Artists like Olivia (playing at Dekmantel this year) or VTSS are breaking through, Private Press (Rekids) with whom I’m starting a label – Ziemia (Earth), Lutto Lento from Dunno, Poly Chain, FOQL, Wiktor Milczarek released a great record last year, Zaumne too, Dextre coming out on Echovolt, house producers – Mozaika (Public Possesion), Tamten, Freux, Jazxing all close to Transatlantyk and it’s sister label The Very Polish Cut-Outs run by Zambon.
I play a mixture. Although to be fair – that’s pretty much my production style too. Varied sets still excite me the most.
What are your favourite record labels out there at the moment?
Brutaż, Mannequin, AM, Neubau, Shahr Farang, Stroom, Knekelhuis, Dark Entries, Offen.
What’s your preferred method for finding new music – do you still enjoy digging around in dusty crates or are you more of an order online kind of guy?
Definitely digging around in crates, although it’s mostly when I’m travelling abroad.
Thanks, Bartosz!
