Author: Sandi Sadar Šoba
Artist: Srečna Mladina
Label: Kapa Records
Release: 2010
Length: 64:14
Rating: 4/5
It may well be true that Srečna mladina started out as punks, but over the years their musical outlook has grown into a clearly defined charisma all their own, the kind that marks their artistic identity. They’re still swimming in alternative waters, of course, but they’ve added a hefty dose of musical experiment and a fresh angle to the mix. This is a band that draws inspiration freely and without baggage, and doesn’t box itself in with the clichés of genre limits. Today you could call Srečna mladina the gurus of psychedelic rock alternative in Slovenia, the kind who can’t and won’t settle for a banal, trivially minimalist delivery of the basic message of their songwriting.
Despite the apparent happiness of the name, the music is far from stressing that feeling. Still, the happy part is that this is a band that isn’t hung up on pleasing the crowd first, only to find its own groove afterward. In that sense, Srečna mladina are surely happy. No doubt about it.
Peter Dekleva stepped into the recording process for the new Srečna mladina album well-oiled and in top form, no question. Just a month before “…pa srečno v prihodnosti!” came out, he released a studio debut with the band Adam. He had already left a strong experimental stamp on Adam’s album “Alfa”. Srečna mladina, though, bring way more rock raucousness compared to Adam’s currently much “nimbler” look. The reason surely lies in the integration of two guitars that talk to each other and sense each other brilliantly, and that are the main carriers of the band’s charismatic, recognizable character. Since there are fewer vocals on the album, “…Pa srečno v prihodnosti” comes across as very experimental in its artistic content overall. But all you devotees of this band surely waited with the greatest excitement for the word “experiment.”
The album highlights the band’s live garage sound, and it hardly shakes it off across its generous running time of a good 64 minutes. No wonder! It was played in the studio, after all. Srečna mladina, as a quartet, basically played a gig in the studio. So amid all the colorful trial and error, as the band fights its way through textures of varying difficulty, the sought-after and desired feeling of spontaneity and unpredictability fits superbly. Occasionally the band sets off on journeys of free experimentation, stringing together countless leaps between moods through relived feelings of their own absorption and the decoding of musical information into a unique expressive blend of their own recognizability. The first standout moment of the band’s total devotion to exploring new dimensions in music and sensing primal information is the third track, Še ena snežna kepa.
Once again the band isn’t shy about putting elements of psychedelia and esotericism front and center, and the track Ogledalo embodies them richly on the record, with its exchange of vocal duets. Moj prijatelj Brut opens with a pronounced stereo chorus effect and lingers in a psychedelic moment through the opening section, but soon the content unfolds and we’re right in the middle of a melodically compact main motif. It doesn’t take long to figure out that this is yet another track riding the supple suspension of many shifting moods, strung together by the band through a rich tangle of harder-hitting rock and calmly balanced, more subtle passages. One of the most interesting moments on the album is Toubab (the meaning of the title is for the band to unravel for you), which feels the most unpredictable and even packs, in its closing minutes, a juicy bundle of unexpected blues detour of “Slovenian craft”, which of course doesn’t hide for a second its (at least thin) veil of psychedelia. Gourmets will devour the witty guitar flyover by Dekleva and Mihajlović with great pleasure, especially on this track. Across the whole album the two guys prove why their pairing in Srečna mladina is so fruitful, sparkling, challenging, and, in its probing experimentation and poking at the “unknown,” freethinkingly provocative to a degree.
If the punk rumble on this album weren’t called Viagra, as the ninth track is titled, and it weren’t plain as day that the band meant this song as a big joke, you’d say a track like that has no business on any Srečna mladina album. But it gets pulled out of the fire, especially by its experimental instrumental middle section, which once again redirects the listener’s attention entirely and keeps them effectively busy. Srečna mladina realized long ago that their intellect is too good to waste on punk “strumming.” Luckily, the punk dabbling is confined to this one track.
In all this provocative musical mixture, where even a little open-mindedness will quickly reveal a high order, the vocals work merely as filler, an additional instrument, since the instrumental experimental escapades on the album decisively take priority over everything else. And yet it’s worth mentioning that the messages in the verses are woven with perfect depth into a metaphorically seasoned disguise, which, through this way of emphasis, effectively brings the listener closer to the reality of the verses’ rich message.
The track _Kolo_ gratefully relieves the already annoying weight of distorted usurpation that the Viagra onslaught brings. The instrumental _Kolo_ works, with its series of motif twists and its effective smashing of templates, almost progressively in its artistic content. Psychedelic prog alter rock burning, where in certain demanding phases of tempo changes in the sequence of motif figures and the placement of pauses at transitions, the band shows off the excellent tightness and high pragmatism of the quartet, finally sails into the closer Brez naslova. In colorful collages of sonic washes, both guitars conjure up a new dreamy, imaginative mood. It’s an absolute leap in the dynamics and atmosphere of the album, with a completely fresh experience that delivers an expressively strong finish.
“…pa srečno v prihodnosti!” is a captivating piece of work that belongs in the league of the best albums Slovenian rock music has produced so far. It pays no mind to clichés, instead following, at the most primal level, only its own feelings in delivering its musical message. It was played live in the studio. It’s packed with the experiment of a hefty instrumental romp, enjoyment, and the development of musical unpredictability as the world of avant-garde rock knows it. As such, it will offer especially demanding listeners a juicy bone to gnaw on, one they’ll gladly come back to whenever they need to feed the cerebral cortex and enrich their inner world of original and rich imagination. “…Pa srečno v prihodnosti” is a new high point for the Slovenian music scene, and I warmly recommend that everyone give it at least a pinch of their attention. It will reward you richly.
Lineup
Peter Dekleva – guitar, vocals, keyboards
Vladimir Mihajlović – guitar, vocals
Gašper Gantar – bass guitar, vocals
Andrej Zavodnik – drums, percussion
Production
Srečna mladina & Julij Zornik
Tracklist
1. Bürokratia paranoia
2. …pa srečno v prihodnosti!
3. Snežna kepa
4. Še ena snežna kepa
5. Nejča
6. Ogledalo
7. Moj prijatelj Brut
8. Toubab
9. Viagra
10. _Kolo_
11. Brez naslova
