Artist: Avtomobili
Label: ZKP RTV Slovenija
Released: 2008
Duration: 68:35
Rating: 4.5/5
Studio 14 rarely lets a Slovenian act slip by if they’ve so much as brushed the airwaves at some point in their career, and it almost always offers them a gig. Nova Gorica’s Avtomobili, one of the most refined art pop rock bands Slovenia has produced in its day, played there in spring 2008, a set that laid out the whole evolution of the band’s musical legacy in chronological order in just under 70 minutes. »Nothing more« than an innocent radio exercise in running through fifteen songs, as they like to modestly say themselves.
Avtomobili’s music is recognized as a timeless artistic body of work, an exceptional creative peak of the strictly profiled art partnership of the Vuksanovič brothers, and over the band’s long career it has brought a whole lot of evergreens to the airwaves, ones that ring in our ears every single day. Skozi leta, as we might meaningfully say.
The albums from 1984 to 2006, to list them quickly, »Mjesec je opet pun« (1984), Dugo toplo ljeto (1985), Krenimo (1987), Mraz (1992), Skozi leta (1994), Navaden dan (1997), Enakonočje (2000) and Mesta železniških postaj (2006), are squeezed, with the band’s most recognizable moments, into a condensed vise of just under seventy minutes. What’s striking is how far Avtomobili have pushed their development artistically. That shows most on the oldest songs, like Ona nosi uniformu and Prljavi jezik. The latter gets a proper jazz contour and at the same time introduces the audience to the compact character of new guitarist Boštjan Andrejc “Bushy”, who, as the band’s new permanent member, had to leap all of a sudden into Alan Jakin’s shoes, which are far too big for many a guitarist.
Shortly after the release of the album »Mesta železniških postaj«, the band successfully integrated “Bushy” into the lineup. His painless arrival was surely helped by this guitarist’s rich experience from his many years in Night Jump, where he had to build on a multilayered shaping of the language of guitar playing. And that’s exactly the kind of guitarist you need for the diversity that defines Avtomobili’s musical legacy. With “Bushy”, Avtomobili also gained in vocal harmony arrangements. “Bushy” is, after all, a very good vocalist too, which the band deftly exploits to fill the available space between Marko’s verses (Enakonočje, Drugačno nebo), and Bushy also often “doubles” (read: duplicates) Marko on the chorus melodies, which thickens the harmony of the stage numbers.
The sound of the renewed Avtomobili on stage in 2008 is far more structurally dynamic, warm and lively. Marko Vuksanovič’s move to (exclusively) vocal duties freed up another spot in the lineup, and David Šuligoj took it. With Šuligoj on board, the rise of melody in the bass lines and of dynamics is more noticeable than ever, which puts the band’s art element on even more splendid display. With “Bushy’s” guitar language skillfully implanted in an ever-reliable dialogue with one of Avtomobili’s pillars, Mirko Vuksanovič on keyboards, this art exposé within the band’s pop rock sermon has never sounded so soft, supple, seductive and sensual. The renewed Avtomobili’s performing power is crowned by the outstanding ballad Hvala za pisma, which is in itself one of the concert’s peaks. The chemical intensity of the building blocks of the “Klub klubov” recording would never ignite with such a full yield without the unique vocal approach and unique voice color of Marko Vuksanovič. His warm, caressingly velvety delivery adapts flexibly and effectively and masterfully brings the sensitive character of the messages in the verses to life. We’re once again with songs like Hvala za pisma, which Gorica comes within a hair’s breadth of, and it’s precisely in these especially sophisticated numbers that Marko’s unique, consistently pleasantly tangible and highly infectious vocal character creeps intensely under your skin.
Then there are the evergreens Sama, Ljubezen, Skozi leta, Gospodar with the evening’s special guest Zoran Predin, who in a way symbolically returns the favor to Avtomobili, Enkrat v življenju,… They don’t let you catch your breath in all the vibration this unique document of the club scene gives off, in a packed little room of 140 heads.
Four years after the Studio 14 gig, Avtomobili released the album »Pozna pomlad« (2012) and celebrated it with a show for the band’s 30th anniversary at Cankarjev dom, with special guests, in a completely different ambience, with the Linhartova dvorana full to the brim once again. Let’s hope the »Klub klubov« release will also be enriched by a recording from Cankarjev dom, since it would be interesting to compare the further evolutionary growth of the substance of the band’s evergreens, as well as the further artistic maturing, which the songs from the new album »Pozna pomlad« offer as proof.
Avtomobili are, in other words, a band raised on radio. The cover of the »Klub klubov« album carries symbolic value, after all. It represents the collaboration between Val 202 and the band itself. The cover art shows a rustic model of a radio, with the band members perched on top of it in full stage mode. It’s about the mutual growth of two partners, once again meaningfully: »Skozi leta«.
Lineup
Marko Vuksanovič – vocals
Mirko Vuksanovič – keyboards
Boštjan Andrejc “Bushy” – guitar
David Šuligoj – bass guitar
Marko Lasič – drums
GUEST MUSICIAN:
Zoran Predin – vocals on track no. 8
Production
Avtomobili
Tracklist
1. Mjesec je opet pun
2. Ona nosi uniformu
3. Prljvi jezik
4. Sama
5. Enkrat v življenju
6. Ljubezen
7. V mrzlih dvoranah
8. Gospodar
9. Skozi leta
10 Argenitna
11. Hvala za pisma
12. Navaden dan
13. Enakonočje
14. Gorica
15. Drugačno nebo
