Author: Aleš Podbrežnik
Artist: Panda
Label: Self-released
Released: 2016
Runtime: 49:38
Rating: 4/5
»Stoletni ples« is an album that was a long time in the making, and Panda went through no fewer than three singers while making it. Still, the long stretch is justified by the quality behind the finished product. Given the well-known, almost proverbial perfectionism of the legendary Andrej Pompe and his crew, that’s hardly surprising anymore. »Stoletni ples« is another superb release from this Slovenian art pop rock band, which is already legendary in many ways.
»Stoletni ples« has a few exceptionally strong compositions that, as the band has made a habit of in its mature years, court radio airplay. The kind, of course, that favor middle-of-the-road music. The band, which has “progressed” into a sextet in recent years (with permanent percussionist Vanja Vogrinčič), doesn’t budge an inch from its proven recipe on the new album: musically infectious compositions that reach an atmospheric crescendo in seductively catchy choruses that grab you on the very first listen. The new album embodies everything the band has stood for since its mid-eighties beginnings, now with a mature, evolutionary, artistic step into new times. But the essence is right there, and it says one thing: »Panda!« The punchy opener and one of the album’s strongest moments, Ljubimec brez imena, is a first-class teaser for any listener, effectively stirring up interest in the rest of the album’s musical substance. In general, the first part of the album is incredibly strong, with a run of carefully polished, finely arranged compositions (Ljubimec brez imena, Noro (with probably the most successful chorus on the whole record), Stoletni ples, Kakšno sonce, kakšen dan) that never wobble in quality and literally steal the attention from one another.
The new album gives the impression of flirting with Latin rhythms more intensely than its predecessors. A key building block behind that feel, effect and contribution is certainly percussionist Vanja Vogrinčič, who, in a subtly perceptible, harmonious dialogue with drummer Damjan Mulej, strengthens the rhythmic undercarriage of the tracks and fills out the available sonic landscape of the songs. The always reliable Vlado Pirc keeps the bass organic, warm-sounding, softly supple and dynamic, active in bringing the melody. Meanwhile Samo Pirc shows an incredible, multilayered “chiseled” quality, since as a guitarist he’s spotlighted on the album at least as much as Andrej Pompe on keyboards, and he has to keep adapting to the arrangement leaps the songs call for. The guitar deftly fills the passages with the filigree softness of carefully measured notes, preferring fewer over more, keeping the arrangements compact and deepening the mood of the songs. Here the chief culprit behind the composing is of course maestro Pompe, who keeps all the wit and playfulness of the arrangements through colorful use of keyboards, and in performance always carves out a little free space for exploratory playfulness.
Among the three singers showing off their vocal expression across the album’s eleven songs, you can’t really detect any particular deviations, either in the basic color of the voice or in the approach to vocal expression. In fact, it takes a somewhat more attentive, sharper ear to tell them apart. Interestingly, the band chose not to re-record even the tracks that were already recorded before Nina Bauman joined. The Panda crew were obviously just completely happy with the results. That way, »Stoletni ples« conveys much more authentically the story of Panda that unfolded over the last five years, from the day the album began taking shape right up to its release. Despite the remark that a casual ear won’t immediately notice there are actually three different singers on the album, Nina Bauman’s performance gently takes the lead and the primacy, not only because her voice appears on six of the eleven songs, but because she wins you over with a special vocal softness that works intensely especially in moments of soulful improvisation. I’m aiming mostly at the album’s calm point, Grem svojo pot, so the band can be completely at ease and fulfilled with her going forward. Nina is, after all, a singer made of the right stuff.
The band also tacked the song Kje je ta mož II onto the tail end of the album. It’s an older song that first found its place on the album »Urbanavantura« (2001). Its co-author is former band singer Suzana Jeklic, who sings on the original. It’s an exceptionally strong track that, in a new and refreshed take under Nina’s vocal baton, wraps up »Stoletni ples« superbly.
Otherwise, Panda are a crew who, in their art-pop passion on the new album too, once again masterfully fuse a plethora of musical genres in the melting pot of their own distinctive musical culture. There are world music elements, always clearly perceptible, and a solid foundation of jazz spice in the arrangements, moments of soul and blues, and of course passages where the guitar digs in more heavily in the phrases, and as a result the album itself ends up more decidedly rock. The music is steeped in a melancholic yearning, the kind developed by the distinctive musical nature of Slovenian geographic origin.
The band once again works as a “mini-orchestra,” with the building blocks of the musical-sonic landscape distributed equally. In their dialogue with one another, the instruments surrounding the vocals at the center of the action don’t subordinate themselves to each other, but coexist throughout, tolerant and conciliatory. They get along superbly and complement each other wonderfully in the subtly crafted arrangements.
»Stoletni ples« is a splendid album from a mature band, one that took a good while to make, but can boast exceptional polish and refinement for it. That only proves that the members sense each other superbly and understand each other in arranging. Experience and know-how, long-standing camaraderie and creative chemistry all helped. In the songs on the album you feel the real strength and the band’s expressive character, which by now has become “folk-like” and entirely homegrown.
Panda – Noro (official video):
Line-up
Nina Bauman – lead vocals (2, 3, 6, 9, 10, 12)
Saša Danilov – lead vocals (1, 4, 7)
Sara Petrovčič – lead vocals (5, 8, 11)
Andrej Pompe – keyboards, vocals
Vlado Pirc – bass, vocals
Samo Pirc – guitar
Damjan Mulej – drums
Vanja Vogrinčič – percussion
GUEST MUSICIANS:
Klemen Kotar – saxophone (10)
Vid Žgajner – trombone (10)
Miha Smrekar – trumpet (10)
Production
Igor Potočnik
Track list
1. Ljubimec brez imena (4:10)
2. Noro (4:11)
3. Stoletni ples (4:23)
4. Kakšno sonce, kakšen dan (3:33)
5. Premakni se k meni (4:14)
6. Sanje (3:21)
7. Morda (3:19)
8. Češnjev cvet (3:39)
9. Grem svojo pot (5:28)
10. Moj ljubi mir (4:08)
11. Hočem tja (3:27)
12. Kje je ta mož (4:56)
