Artist: Jukič, Robert
Label: Celinka
Release: 2012
Length: 49:39
Rating: 4.5/5
Robert Jukič is one of those musical masters who has already seen half the world on his musical journey. The man is always on the road, playing with plenty of jazz buddies in all sorts of incarnations, musical challenges and projects. He just doesn’t know how to stand still.
»Dobrote iz skrinje zarote« is the album Robert put out last year, and it picked up excellent reviews from Slovenia’s music gourmets. For a man whose second home is the concert stage, last year meant touring the album with his crew Kramp on stages all over Slovenia. Considering the artistic qualities this album carries, performing it live must have been a truly huge and one-of-a-kind pleasure for Jukič and company!
Experimental music, the kind with no limits on expression and no genre baggage, crawls under your skin most effectively when it’s played live. So the shrewd Robert recorded the concert performances and gathered the best moments into the live album »Kramp«. Of the fifteen tracks on »Dobrote iz skrinje zarote«, seven made it onto »Kramp«, while the opening Zgodba and Trese se trese are a pair of “lost” creations that didn’t make the cut on »Dobrote iz skrinje zarote«, even though, judging by when they were written and the mood they carry, they belong in the album’s recording period.
The material is an eclectic mix of jazz fusion and rock, seasoned with a generous helping of blues. Anyone who knows »Dobrote iz skrinje zarote« won’t be able to miss the western flavors. And now the western has gotten a live echo too!
»Dobrote iz skrinje zarote« is an album of unique value. It has exceptional charisma and a recognizable character. The recordings on »Kramp«, which come from the April edition of the Godi Bodi 2011 festival, Kamfest 2011 (mid-August) and the show at Cankarjev dom at the end of January this year, deliver Jukič and company’s expressive reach as authentically, rawly, nakedly and directly as it gets. You can’t get more honest than this. Robert Jukič shines especially with the lucidly guttural vocal he unleashes on the track Me je sram. Thanks to its experimental abandon, the jazz rock fusion soaked in blues even brings a whiff of Frank Zappa’s concert performances from the late seventies! The delivery of the verses hints at that too: more often than not it’s narration, occasionally rounded off with a melody (which mostly feels like decoration), and that again draws parallels with the musical giant I just cited. Not to mention the correlation between Robert Jukič’s and Frank Zappa’s use of wild humor.
A cowboy rides in, but it isn’t Lee Van Cliff like on Primus’ latest album »Green Naugahyde«! Still, there’s no avoiding the cowboy rides and western-pattern engravings, and tracks like Oj moj brat and Trese se trese, with all that western heaviness, definitely stand out on the album. There’s no shortage of fun, thanks to the wild humor (human physiology is covered in the lyrics in detail), while a melancholic moment of depressive anxiety evens it out, since the album »Dobrote iz skrinje zarote« unfolds in the glow of a sad-ending drama, and naturally the live »Kramp« doesn’t hide that either.
The songs from »Dobrote iz skrije zarote« sound noticeably different live, because they’re played by seasoned musical tomcats who revel in the mission of musical experimentation. The frameworks stay recognizable, of course, and so do the melodies of the lead motifs, while the vocal manliness is uncompromising, even cruel, and it certainly shows sinners no mercy! The bonding chemistry between the building blocks of »Kramp« is extraordinary, and this is undoubtedly a gem not just on the Slovenian music horizon but on the world stage too. A hidden gem. Plain and simple. »Dobrote iz skrinje zarote« is such a unique album that a “reprise” of this one-off in a live interpretation can only come across as one of a kind and unrepeatable. In that sense, the idea of the band recording a live album couldn’t be more fitting.
Three studio tracks keep that western sentiment alive, since they’re a logical link to the album »Dobrote iz skrinje zarote«. Trese se trese conjures up (in both the live and studio versions) the contrast in Robert Jukič and crew’s musical mission, living between the studio and the concert stage, in the most authentic way, even though the studio version sounds as if the band had played it live in a single take. At this point you get both faces of Robert Jukič and the Kramp lineup served up on a platter.
The track Težko je breme once again points to that sly, lucid yet cruel touch that runs through the duality of Robert Jukič’s poetry. The album is closed out by a third studio track, Zlo se kuje, whose opening is backed by a “southern” weave of harmonica and dobro. Zlo se kuje has that psychedelic touch: imagine Pink Floyd trying to play the blues as the soundtrack to the film »More«…. Keep an ear out for the hidden thirteenth track, a banjo version of Trese se trese.
Let’s hope this live album sets an example for similarly minded eclectic artists on our home turf, who will then take on live releases themselves. We know there are tons of excellent musicians here, plenty of them boldly challenging their musical talent and genius without following trends and molds. The album »Kramp« is a prime example. A real little textbook on the outstanding stage culmination of musical genius and the masterful interpretation of that genius’s musical vision!
There’s not much room for philosophizing here. Just for enjoying! So take the time and space for that pleasure! You’ll be rewarded!
Lineup
Robert Jukič – guitar, bass, double bass, vocals
Andraž Mazi – guitar, pedal steel, lap steel, banjo, dobro, vocals, harmonica
Metod Banko – vocals
Sergej Ranđelović – drums, percussion, vocals
Tonč Feinig – Hammond organ, vocals
GUEST MUSICIANS:
Aphra Tesla – vocals
Gašper Bertoncelj – percussion
Production
Robert Jukič
