24 Hour Party People, or a 24-Hour Cross-Section of the Slovenian Alternative Music Scene (2012)
Location: Ljubljana / Channel Zero / Slovenia
Date: 06.10.2012
So what is “24 Hour Party People”? 24 hours of non-stop 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 in the world? In truth, “24 Hour Party People” was and is all of that. 24 bands in 24 hours. 24 hours of an event with no equal in Europe. 24 hours to prove something to the Slovenian crowd. 24 hours for Slovenia to wriggle out of its musical stubbornness and show that music still means something here.
The event took its name from the feature film of the same name, which portrays the Manchester music community between 1976 and 1992, with a special focus on Factory Records, whose roster in that period included acts like Joy Division, New Order, A Certain Ratio, The Durutti Column and others. So the event borrowed the title of a film about a unique scene in music history to label a unique happening of its own.
Before the event kicked off, it was announced that whoever lasted the longest would win an annual pass to Channel Zero. That was one more “hook” to get people through the door and to bring as many Slovenian “Factory Records” bands as possible to as many people as possible. 24 hours is a hell of a chunk to bite off, and RockLine tried to cover at least a decent number of the performances. Anyway, here was the lineup: 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. Opening the event fell to what is by now a Slovenian musical institution: Srečna mladina.
Srečna mladina (00:00)
Srečna mladina hardly needs a big introduction. A genre-defying band, now working as a quartet, they’ve been one of the few constants on 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 taken Srečna mladina so far from its early punk leanings that you can even hear progressive rock influences on their latest record …pa srečno v prihodnosti! The gig itself – around 40 minutes – didn’t go down quite like usual, though. The band’s incredible energy (Peter Dekleva’s especially) and their musical mastery were of course unchanged, but two former members joined them as guests – Tim Kostrevc on saxophone and Dado Sheik (Tadej Markelj) on vocals. The short set thus passed in relaxed band nostalgia, mixing songs from the previous millennium (and so from a completely different Srečna mladina era) with the new, “Dekleva-style” tracks. The start of “24 Hour Party People” was outstanding and tough to top, which left Srečna mladina having set a difficult task for the 23 bands still to come.
Napravi mi dete (15:00)
Napravi mi dete are a freshly sprouted unknown on the Slovenian scene. The band only started playing gigs this year, and the lineup is a duo of Lavrin brothers, whom we know from We can’t sleep at night, bassist Marko Širec (Coma Stereo), and Eva and Kukla – two female singers, one of whom is also a multi-instrumentalist. Eva. What defines the band above all is a fresh, energy-packed sound, which, as Kukla would probably put it, is something “neviđeno” in Slovenia. The lyrics are entirely in Serbo-Croatian, which still doesn’t come close to rounding out how offbeat they are. Other obvious trademarks of Napravi mi dete are the crazy choreography and costumes. And the fact that the drummer apparently throws cymbals into the crowd during his animal-like leaps off the stage, followed by a beastly wrestling match with a cymbal lying perfectly still. Which is exactly what he did this time. And that is precisely what defines the band – the lively energy of music that’s pretty much impossible to pigeonhole (some kind of trash disco pop-punk) is definitely a trademark the band should classify 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 released one album so far – Egotrip (2009). This time, though, their gig was less of an ego trip than just a trip. A trip through psychedelic cosmic currents that broke through the walls of a decently filled Channel Zero, and it ended too soon. The mantra of Vibesonic Jam’s wall of sound was solid and floatingly fragile at once, specific yet undefined – in short, everything that great psychedelic space-y grooving needs. What’s interesting about the band 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, which Milan Murko adds a ton to with all sorts of musical manipulation beyond just drumming, while bassist Bernard Pintar takes over creating the “solo” line, which it isn’t, really – the bass still has its trademark “groove”, but it also takes on a fully guitar-like role of driving the red thread of the song more prominently, a thread that is of course fairly fragile in itself, given the sonic nature of the band. The trio’s extremely relaxing yet intense set was therefore an excellent “break” from the louder, energy-charged, active performances.
Nikki Louder (17:00)
The noise rockers from Kamnik, Nikki Louder, are a firmly cemented constant of the Slovenian alternative music scene. They’ve got two studio albums behind them that were received brilliantly, especially their latest, Our world died yesterday, which came out last year. It points to a more eclectic band, flirting with post-rock now on top of noise rock and post-punk. One trait remains, though, one the band keeps and won’t ever shake – as their name says, Nikki Louder are loud. And loud they were this time at Channel Zero too. Over the many years I’ve had the chance to catch this Kamnik trio (two brothers + a friend, as they describe themselves) quite a few times, and the band hasn’t lost a speck of that initial energy, sonic racket and rebellious angst. They didn’t devote themselves entirely to the latest album (after which they also put out the cassette Nikki Louder), but also played some trademark tracks from their debut, like “Honey, I’m ok”. The contrast with Vibesonic Jam was obvious in the sound itself, though not in the quality. Another great set drummed the walls of Channel Zero, leaving 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, no-bullshit musical role – as a singer-songwriter. Many know him mainly as the mastermind of the band Katalena, and some also as the host of the philosophizing on Variete and on 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 exceptional musical talent. On his solo musical path he’s released two albums so far, his debut in 2010 titled Strah je odveč and its successor this past May, Konec sveta vedno pride nenapovedano. The albums are close in their intelligent and subtle authorial poetics, but differ in that on the latest one Narat widened and enriched the sonic picture of the songs with a backing crew of excellent musicians. Still, this time he appeared on the stage of 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 paint a poetic voice all their own. Narat impresses with a deft, 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 modern-day problems (Egon). Despite being alone on stage with an acoustic guitar, he can “push” a person into different (concert) moods, from anger to laughter. He approaches the end of the world from a different angle than the media constantly portray it and quasi-mystically inspired communities predict it: he shows the apocalypse from an everyday human side (Konec sveta vedno pride nenapovedano).An accomplished set from a musician who will have plenty more to say in the future.
Spock Studios (20:00)
After Narat’s calm yet apocalyptically tinted set came another Kamnik act – Spock Studios, led by Blaž Flerin. The trio (where one handles visuals and two handle sound) recently released their third album A Degree Below Your Means. It’s a blend of analog and digital, instruments and computer, humans and a drum machine, electronics and post-rock. The ambient spheres of the intros often swell into a post-rock blowout, especially when bassist Matic Šuštar lends a noisy vocal. The music is excellently built and rests on quality foundations, but live, sadly and perhaps largely because of the backing tracks and drum machine, it comes across as somewhat dead. You don’t feel the music, so it doesn’t reflect the otherwise excellent arrangements. Their dive into sonic depths only rarely comes off coherent enough for serious headbanging, but their very last track was exactly that – coherent and serious. It felt alive, full, fantastical, and in feel came close to the heavy, distorted parts of Sigur Rós’s music. That’s exactly why the gig leaves a better impression than it might have otherwise, since the finish was excellent.
Karmakoma (22:00)
Karmakoma are a young trio from Krško who play a unique fusion of interesting rock subgenre elements and electronic backing tracks. The band constantly swings between dance music and more complex, harder music, which makes for an extremely interesting mix that mostly works on both levels. Above all, though, this is music of energy rather than music for dancing. The whole trio radiates that youthful yet primal energy today’s rock scene needs, and they draw that energy from electronic dance rhythms that are anything but hollow. What’s more – there isn’t a trace of the classic “oontz-oontz” sound of electronic beats in the backing tracks, because the pretty intricately crafted rhythm patterns are handled by the brilliant Beno on drums. The only thing that currently limps is the vocals – Enej sometimes sounds fine, but he basically has no ear for pitch, which showed more than once. Still, a gig charged with energy and above all a unique fusion was an excellent send-off ahead of the finale and high point of the event – Moveknowledgement.
Moveknowledgement (23:00)
Everyone was eagerly awaiting the last gig in particular. These Novo Mesto natives based in Ljubljana have deservedly been considered a true live treat ever since the release of their latest album Pumpdown. Not that they weren’t in the past (when they also proved themselves in experimental and dub/funk territory), but the latest record, with its lively, rock’n’roll-spiked sound, makes that all the more possible. Moveknowledgement are becoming a real little institution of alternative music in Slovenia (the album Pumpdown was named the best Slovenian album of 2011 by various media outlets). Anywhere else in the world they’d already be an established name on the mainstream scene, but not in Slovenia, where Sazas provenance and the stuffiness of local (musical) backwaters rule. In quality, in energy and in a steadily growing number of listeners, they belong at the very top of Slovenian music production. The Big Foot Mamas of the world and their ilk hide before them (with all due respect to the band mentioned). And Moveknowledgement, with frontman N’tok at the helm, lived up to expectations. Channel Zero filled to the last corner and the biggest devotees crammed up against the stage. Many bought a ticket just for them. The gig went by in a relaxed, feel-good atmosphere. Moveknowledgement kept ramping up the heat with tracks 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 band pushed the temperature to boiling point with the smashing Pump Down!! A fantastic gig to close out this incredible event.
The first thing that probably surprised me most was that the bands and the whole organization were pretty punctual. In the end there was maybe a half-hour delay, and that was it. They actually pulled it off. 24 bands in 24 hours. Insane.
Attendance was very solid, and plenty of people also stuck around for several hours at a time (two supposedly lasted the full 24 hours, one visitor and one organizer). Of course, the crowds were biggest at the opening and the close, for Srečna mladina and Moveknowledgement, when Channel Zero was more or less packed. The event was at least a partial showcase of what the Slovenian alternative scene is capable of, one with enough quality to deserve wider support. We too have the potential and the quality for “Factory Records” bands, and it’s about time someone other than the regulars at Metelkova realized it.
author: Jan Podbevšek
photos: Jan Podbevšek
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
