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Baaba Kulka

Baaba Kulka

Written by: PP on 27/07/2011 05:52:41

Covering Iron Maiden songs isn't a novel concept. On the contrary, most metal bands have at some point taken a stab at a song or two by the heavy metal legends, whether in studio, live, or just in rehearsal space. But doing it like Baaba Kulka definitely is. Fronted by the (nationally) accomplished Polish pop artist Gabriela Kulka, this group's self-titled debut album takes ten Iron Maiden classics and completely reimagines them largely without guitars (!!) while preserving the original melody - to a certain extent at least. Trust me on this one, you won't have heard Iron Maiden songs played like this before.

From avant garde-synths to soulful pop songs and jazz melodies, the previously evil, but glorious heavy metal anthems have been tamed to groovy tunes that wouldn't feel out-of-place at a jazz club. Have you ever wondered how "Prodigal Son" would sound like as a soul song with playful flutes on the background? Or "Children Of The Damned" as a piano and saxophone-driven jazz piece? I mean you could play these songs to your grandparents and they'd get their groove on, so to speak. Take "Aces High", for instance. The timeless interplay between an epic guitar riff and fantastic vocal lines in the original song is testament to why Iron Maiden are one of the most critically acclaimed metal bands of all time, but here they have been reduced to a strange synth/keyboard mix and 80s pop vocals that have more in common with Gloria Gaynor than with Iron Maiden, yet you can recognize the infamous melody in an instant. Or how about "To Tame A Land", which replaces the guitars entirely with an arabic/oriental melody instead? It's a common theme for the whole album to take attempts at the original guitar melodies with entirely other means, such as in "Clairvoyant", where the signature riff is replaced by some kind of horn instrument, possibly trumpet.

All of this requires one to appreciate just how talented the musicians behind the Baaba Kulka moniker really are. Covering songs is not particularly hard in 2011 when you have more or less exact notes and/or tabs freely available on the internet, but re-arranging and re-interpreting the songs in this manner is something extraordinary and requires a considerable amount of artistic talent. If the band set out to prove that it is possible for a covers album to be original, then the resulting product is a resounding success, as it does just that. However, it's also not easy to get around the fact that this is very clearly a gimmick, and the novelty could wear off rather quickly, which is why it's not possible to rate the release much higher than this. Finally, a question to the fans of Iron Maiden and heavy metal in general: have Baaba Kulka committed blasphemy with his album, or is it simply pure genius?

Download: Wrathchild, The Number Of The Beast, Clairvoyant
For the fans of: Iron Maiden, weird covers, re-imagined classics
Listen: Bandcamp

Release date 21.03.2011
Mystic Production