Author: Aleš Podbrežnik
Photos: Aleš Podbrežnik
Location: Ljubljana / Gala hala / Slovenia
Concert date: 14.01.2016
Attendance: 150
Ticket price: 0,00€ (free admission)
Koromač, a Slovenian all-instrumental, experimental outfit from Vrtojba, lately a sextet with no fewer than two drummers on the roster, with their debut »Punk Enough?« (RockLine review HERE) and a slot in the Domorodni četrtki series in their back pocket. At the »eternal« Metelkova.
No creative brakes and with a touch of unabashedly provocative eclecticism, a tight premise of homegrown originality and experimental attitude. On this night, 14.01.2016, Metelkova was bubbling merrily again. Over at the club Gromka, Prismojeni profesorji bluesa sold out the place, a pile of people stood outside in the freezing cold, just glumly milling around, while the smart ones went looking for the remaining open spaces on Metelkova that night. One of them was of course Gala hala, where these Thursdays are devoted to showcasing promising young bands with their own original music, naturally, the ones fighting their way up the scene.
Koromač are not a band »born yesterday«. Its members have mileage and experience behind them. The group carries a vision, a musical focus. Koromač are a prime example of a band that, by expanding the lineup, and I’m thinking mainly of the two drummers and the sax, has flung the doors wide open to exploring new and ever newer musical territory. We can loosely call them »jazzcore«, which neatly ties the band’s musical past to its present. In their soundscapes Koromač are merciless nihilists, sonic terrorists, totally unsuited to those »softer souls« who have »inherited« fragile mechanoreceptor organs.
That’s how the band’s show at Gala hala went down, too. About 20 minutes before eleven at night they climbed onstage and started the »thundering«. Two guitars hold down solid riffs, and the sax cuts right in, not necessarily sitting inside the frame of the guitar phrases but often drifting off freely into atonal dimensions, frequently kicking off a state of chaos. The guitar tone is crunchy, greasy, garagey, and in shades still HC enough, even though the riffs are built on metal. All in all, we witnessed a hugely interesting gig, driven by a musical derivative of absolute oddities of musical expression. Over time the band won over a good 100 people completely to its side. Especially in the front rows, little clusters of people quickly locked onto the energy coming off the stage and gave themselves over to it fully. Generally speaking, it was an extremely successful live performance, one that, let’s hope, widened their base of music connoisseurs.
Koromač are evolving, though. They’re going through a stylistic transition. There’s a huge amount of room left in their expressiveness, which they can exploit without restraint with their pledge to the freedom-loving jam experiment. It would be great if the band committed in the future to digging deeper into the experimental jazz through to progressive sphere. Especially when it comes to further optimizing the payoff of the two drum kits in the lineup. Bottom line: a splendid new musical provocation on the horizon. Worth a try!
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