Author: Sandi Sadar Šoba
Location: Channel Zero / Ljubljana / Slovenia
Concert date: 06.10.2012
Attendance: up to 200 per band
Ticket price: 12 €
So what is »24 Hour Party People«? 24 hours of nonstop gigging by 24 bands? 24 hours of uninterrupted musical trance? A 24-hour cross-section of the Slovenian alternative music scene and all the gems it hides? A one-of-a-kind event in Europe, maybe even the world? Truth is, »24 Hour Party People« was and is all of that. 24 bands in 24 hours. 24 hours of a unique event in Europe. 24 hours to prove something to the Slovenian audience. 24 hours for Slovenia and its musical stubbornness, to wriggle out of that rut and show that music still means something here.
The event took its name from the feature film of the same name, which follows the Manchester music commune between 1976 and 1992, with a special focus on Factory Records, whose roster in that period included the likes of Joy Division, New Order, A Certain Ratio, The Durutti Column and others. The event borrowed the title of a film about a unique scene in music history to brand a unique event of its own.
Before the start it was announced that whoever lasted longest at the event would win a yearly pass for Channel Zero. That was one more »hook« to get people through the door, and an attempt to bring as many Slovenian »Factory Records« bands as possible to as many people as possible. 24 hours is one hell of a mouthful, and RockLine tried to cover at least a decent number of the sets. The lineup went like this: Srečna mladina, Xaxaxa, Trus!, It’s Everyone Else, Ludovik Material, Ewok, nevem nevem, Human Host Body, Veteran Kozmosa, Sweet Sorrow, Y, Hexenbrutal, Žižka hlače, Toxsick, Karlovčec/Drašler trio, Napravi mi dete, Vibesonic Jam, Nikki Louder, TheLIFT, Narat, Spock Studios, Dance Mamblita, Karmakoma and Moveknowledgement. The honor of opening the event went to what’s by now a Slovenian music institution – Srečna mladina.
Srečna mladina (00:00)
Srečna mladina don’t really need much of an introduction. A genre-hopping band, lately operating as a quartet, they’ve been one of the few constants of the Slovenian music scene since the early-to-mid ’90s. Their current mastermind Peter Dekleva, a guitarist, vocalist and all-round musician par excellence, has steered Srečna mladina from its early punk leanings so far that you can even hear prog rock influences on their latest record …pa srečno v prihodnosti!. The show itself – around 40 minutes – didn’t go quite as usual, though. The band’s incredible energy (Peter Dekleva’s especially) and their musical mastery were of course unchanged. What was different was that two former members joined them as guests – Tim Kostrevc on sax and Dado Sheik (Tadej Markelj) on vocals. The short set thus flew by in relaxed band nostalgia, mixing songs from the previous millennium (and so from a completely different Srečna mladina era) with new, »Deklevian« tunes. The start of »24 Hour Party People« was outstanding and hard to top, which handed the next 23 bands a tough job.
Napravi mi dete (15:00)
Napravi mi dete are a freshly sprouted unknown on the Slovenian scene. The band only started gigging this year and consists of the Lavrin brothers, known from We can’t sleep at night, bassist Marko Širec (Coma Stereo), and Eva and Kukla – two singers, one of whom is also a multi-instrumentalist. Eva, that is. The band is defined above all by a fresh, energy-charged sound, which is, as Kukla would probably put it, something »neviđeno« (unheard of) in Slovenia. The lyrics are entirely in Serbo-Croatian, which is far from the whole of their quirky image. Other obvious calling cards are the insane choreography and costumes. And the fact that the drummer apparently hurls cymbals into the crowd during his animalistic leaps off the stage, followed by a beastly wrestling match with a cymbal lying perfectly motionless. Which is exactly what he did this time. And that’s what really sums the band up – this live energy in rather unclassifiable music (some kind of trash disco pop-punk) is surely a trademark the band should claim as its own, and we’ll be witnessing the birth of one of the more interesting Slovenian bands.
Vibesonic Jam (16:00)
The space-jam trio Vibesonic Jam have been lurking in the hidden corners of Slovenian music for a while now. Music lovers who play more or less for their own souls, they’ve put out one album so far – Egotrip (2009). This time, though, their gig was less of an egotrip than a trip. A trip through psychedelic cosmic currents that broke through the walls of a decently packed Channel Zero, and it ended far too soon. The mantra of Vibesonic Jam’s wall of sound was solid and floatingly fragile at the same time, specific yet undefined, in short – everything great psychedelic-spacey grooving needs. What’s interesting about the group is that the roles of guitarist and bassist are quite different from conventional music. I wouldn’t say swapped, but guitarist Zlatko Kuret acts more as a rhythmic backdrop, to which Milan Murko contributes enormously through all kinds of musical manipulation on top of the drumming, while bassist Bernard Pintar takes over the »solo« line, which it isn’t – the bass still has that typical »groove«, but also has a thoroughly guitar-like role of carrying the song’s main thread more prominently, which is of course pretty fragile in itself, given the band’s sonic nature. The trio’s extremely relaxing yet intense set was therefore a great »break« from the louder, energy-charged, in-your-face performances.
Nikki Louder (17:00)
The noise rockers from Kamnik, Nikki Louder, are by now a firmly concreted constant of the Slovenian alternative music scene. They’ve got two studio albums behind them, both received brilliantly, especially their latest, Our world died yesterday, released last year. It points to a more eclectic band, one that on top of noise rock and post-punk now flirts with post-rock too. But one trait remains that the band keeps and will never shed – Nikki Louder are, as their name says, loud. And loud they were this time at Channel Zero. Over the many years in which I’ve had the chance to catch this Kamnik trio quite a few times (two brothers + a friend, as they describe themselves), the band hasn’t lost a speck of that initial energy, sonic racket and defiant angst. The band of course didn’t devote itself entirely to the latest album (after which they also put out the cassette Nikki Louder), but also played signature tunes from their debut, such as »Honey, I’m ok«. The contrast with Vibesonic Jam was obvious in the sound itself, though not in quality. Another excellent set drummed through the walls of Channel Zero and left them even greyer than they already are.
Narat (19:00)
At this ”24-hour concert marathon” Boštjan Narat was the only performer to appear in the most stripped-down and ”no-bullshit” musical role – as a singer-songwriter. Many know him mainly as the mastermind of the group Katalena, some also as the host of philosophizing at Variete and of the national broadcaster’s show Panoptikum. He’s a doctor of philosophy, a former teacher at the Poljane grammar school and above all a man of extraordinary musical talent. On his solo path he has released two albums so far: his debut Strah je odveč in 2010 and its successor Konec sveta vedno pride nenapovedano this May. The albums are close in their intelligent and subtle songwriting poetics, but differ in that on the latest one Narat expanded and enriched the sound of the songs with a backing crew of excellent musicians. Still, this time he showed up on the stage at Channel Zero alone (and the new songs didn’t suffer for it). He played twelve songs, distinguished above all by an inventive minimalist sonic base and rich, unusual lyrical metaphors that sketch out a poetic voice all their own. Narat captivates with a skillful, witty and striking interpretation of his own poetics, touching on different sides of life, from very intimate stories (Zdi se) all the way to pressing contemporary problems (Egon). Despite being alone on stage with an acoustic guitar, he’s able to ”push” people into different (concert) moods, from anger to laughter. He tackles the end of the world from a different angle than the media constantly portray and quasi-mystically inspired communities predict: he shows the apocalypse from the everyday human side (Konec sveta vedno pride nenapovedano). A flawless set from a musician who will have plenty more to say in the future.
Spock Studios (20:00)
After Narat’s calm yet apocalyptically tinged set came another Kamnik act – Spock Studios, led by Blaž Flerin. The trio (one member handles visuals, two handle sound) recently released their third album, A Degree Below Your Means. It’s a mix of analog and digital, instruments and computer, humans and drum machine, electronics and post-rock. The ambient spheres of the intros often expand into a post-rock exhale, especially when bassist Matic Šuštar lends his noisy vocals. The music is superbly constructed and built on quality foundations, but live, sadly and perhaps largely because of the backing tracks and the drum machine, it comes across as somewhat dead. You don’t feel the music, so it doesn’t reflect the otherwise excellent arrangements. Sinking into the sonic depths of Spock Studios rarely comes together coherently enough for proper headbanging, but their last track was exactly that – coherent and concrete. It felt alive, full, fantastic, and in feel came close to the heavy, distorted parts of Sigur Rós’ music. That’s why the gig leaves a better impression than it otherwise might, since the ending was excellent.
Karmakoma (22:00)
Karmakoma are a young trio from Krško playing a unique fusion of interesting rock subgenre elements and electronic backing tracks. The band constantly sways between dance music and more complex, heavier music, which makes for an extremely interesting mix that mostly works on both levels. Above all, though, it’s less dance music than energy music. The whole trio radiates that youthful yet primal energy today’s rock scene needs, and they draw it from electronic dance rhythms that are anything but hollow. What’s more – there isn’t a trace of the classic »untz-untz« sound of electronic beats in the backing, because the quite intricately crafted rhythm patterns are handled by the brilliant Beno on drums. The only thing that currently drags them down is the vocals – Enej sometimes sounds okay, but basically has no ear for pitch, which showed more than once. Still, a gig charged with energy and, above all, unique fusion was a great send-off into the closing and peak of the event – Moveknowledgement.
Moveknowledgement (23:00)
Everyone was waiting eagerly for the last gig in particular. The Novo mesto natives based in Ljubljana have rightly been seen as a real live treat ever since their latest album Pumpdown. Not that they weren’t before (when they also shone in the experimental and dub/funk territory), but the latest record, with its lively, rock’n’roll-spiked sound, makes it all the more possible. Moveknowledgement are becoming a true little institution of alternative music in Slovenia (the album Pumpdown was named best Slovenian album of 2011 by various media). Anywhere else in the world they’d already be an established name on the mainstream scene, only in Slovenia, where the Sazas pedigree and the stuffiness of our home (musical) backwaters rule, that isn’t possible. In quality, in energy and in their ever-growing number of listeners, they belong at the very top of Slovenian music production. The likes of Big Foot Mama hide in their shadow (with all due respect to that band). And Moveknowledgement, with frontman N’tok at the helm, lived up to expectations. Channel Zero filled up to the last corner and the biggest devotees crammed in right under the stage. Many had bought a ticket just for them. The gig went by in a relaxed, feel-good mood. Moveknowledgement kept cranking up the heat with songs full of primal rock’n’roll energy and an incredibly appealing, danceable sci-fi aesthetic, unleashed on keyboards by Miha Šajina. The highlights of the setlist were above all La Droga E Il Buio and Hands. The fired-up crowd even got an encore (the only one of the marathon), where the group pushed the temperature to boiling point with the banger Pump Down!!. A fantastic gig to close this incredible event.
The first thing that probably surprised me most was how punctual the bands and the whole organization were. In the end there was about a half-hour delay, and that was it. It actually worked. 24 bands in 24 hours. Insane.
The turnout was very solid, and many people stuck around for several hours at a time (two are said to have lasted the full 24 hours, one visitor and one organizer). Of course the most people showed up for the opening and the finale, for Srečna mladina and Moveknowledgement, when Channel Zero was more or less packed. The event was at least a partial proof of what the Slovenian alternative scene can do: it has enough quality to deserve wider support. We’ve got the potential and the quality for our own »Factory Records« bands too, and it’s about time somebody other than the Metelkova regulars noticed.
Setlist
Vibesonic Jam:
1.) Angel’s Dream
2.) Extasy
3.) Noisy Wind
4.) Speed
5.) Psychedelic Call
Narat:
1.) Yet Another Tango
2.) Ženske, ki ljubijo pse
3.) Na pol poti do kraja
4.) CDG
5.) Dvajset let
6.) Tisti, ki zna, in ona, ki ve
7.) Egon
8.) Konec sveta vedno pride nenapovedano
9.) Strah je odveč
10.) Zdi se
11.) Kako končati to pesem?
12.) Romeo Julija
Photo gallery
