label: Nika Records
release date: 14.10.2018
production: Žare Pak, Jernej Kržič, Robi Bulešič
album length: 35:05
rating: 9.0 / 10
Dan D are one of that handful of rock bands every Slovenian soul knows from the radio waves (well, Hamo have recently joined the heavy-rotation club too), and unlike the others, they dare, they have the nerve, and so they can’t fall into the trap of living in the comfort of the past. They made that crystal clear with their last two albums, the “white and black DNA”, so to speak. One was “stripped down”, raw and punky, the other its total opposite and therefore strictly experimental. So is the new “Milo za drago” somewhere in between? Really? Not at all. “Milo za drago” is a completely new story, a new chapter in the musical prose of this esteemed art and rock ‘n’ roll outfit.
The Dan D crew are grown men. Musicians with mileage and a musical vision that has been soaking up, over the years, the fact that they “put up” with artistic limits less and less. That’s why Dan D are getting more and more “art” these days, and the feeling that they make music purely for the sheer joy of it and first and foremost for themselves only gets more intense when you take in their new stuff. Not that long ago, Steve Hogarth said at one of Marillion’s press conferences: “We make music for ourselves first. We’re lucky that the audience that adopted it likes it too, otherwise we surely wouldn’t be here now!” It’s a similar story with Dan D. In their artistry they haven’t been chasing a hit for quite some time, and they don’t bother recreating the energy of the smash singles that cemented them on the Slovenian rock and pop scene either. They simply don’t need it.
For the general ear, “Milo za drago” is definitely a much more accessible album than the especially bold “black DNA album”, but as said, Dan D still took a step further with “Milo za drago” in their artistic exploration and musical evolution. On the new record they serve up a very successful synthesis of rock and electronics, holding on to their own artistic dossier, nurturing it and building on it. That means the mission has succeeded once again. The new album is, once again, a new story, yet still 100% Dan D. A one-of-a-kind thing that only the Dan D collective can create (and repeat). “Milo za drago” also has more of the rhythmic rhetoric of pop danceability. Dan D keep the tremendous musicality and singable catchiness on the new album, while skillfully complementing their elemental (starting-point) rock stance with a bold implant of art experimentalism on one side and a pop contour on the other.
This time there’s more room for a hypnotic, dreamy atmosphere. Actually, loads of it. Dan D have always been especially convincing in their calmer, mid-tempo numbers. That’s where their brilliance at arranging has always paid off the most artistically. “Milo za drago” keeps up that tradition too. But in its own way. The two elements that stand out in defining the album’s musical ID card are Obra and Boštjan. Obra drives the album with electronic rhythms throughout and is very agile about it (skillfully filling the space the whole time). This time Boštjan is often dominant in the arrangements (Daj mi upanje, Tu, Ne naredi mi tega). Across the album he reaches for an extremely colorful palette of varied sounds and sonic structures. It sounds retro and conjures up elements typical of the NDW era, even bits of krautrock and the first steps of synth pop, as laid down by Yazoo or Depeche Mode. Now and then a billowing curtain of rustling synths floods the arrangements, stirring up that eighties feeling again.
And then there’s Tokac. The “eternal” Tokac, whom you can drop into any musical setting the band dreams up and he’ll work fantastically in every single one. Tokac is Dan D, he’s the voice of Dan D and that’s how it stays. On the new album Tokac is once again everything you expect from him. Passionate, soulful, seductive, a little cheeky, a little melancholic, and then some. In the playful Ožina he seduces you mid-song with a soul contour of a gorgeously integrated falsetto. In Ne naredi mi tega Tokac is simply a story all by himself, with no shortage of vocal charm. This time the overall sound gets an especially compact contrast from the completely warm, natural, organic and musically dominant bass of the refined master Nikola Sekulovič. This time the contrast with the bass lines is all the more intense, because the guitar “lies low” in spots where you’d expect its phrasing, and the bass line takes over that role, filling the resulting “gap” in the space between the keyboards and drums.
Dan D recorded the album at their own rehearsal space. They recorded it live, the way they’d play a gig. The workspace was littered with a ton of different effects. A series of modified guitars that develop a unique sound, which is why Tučo actually sounds different on almost every track. Unique. This time the guitar steps back into the background a few times and acts as atmospheric filler, using concise, carefully placed inserts to liven up the curtains of synths (Sem v tebi). It definitely roars in a rocking way too (Bits, Morilec), but then it’s balanced in sound against the other building blocks of the new songs’ arrangements. Already in the opener Boli me K, you’re struck by the aforementioned space that opens up between the rhythm section and the floating synth drapery. This time it’s mostly filled by Sekulovič on bass, while Tučo cuts in with the guitar in a mid-eight passage and drops in an exceptionally successful bit that, by evoking moments of world music (the melos of Dalmatia or the Greek Mediterranean), whisks the atmosphere somewhere else entirely.
Deciding which there’s more of, electronics or rock, is left to the listener. Considering that Dan D are primarily chasing the moment of highly vibrant moods, that is, atmospheric hypnosis, the final impression this time leans closer to the feeling that the album is more electronic dance than rock. The sampling is once again slipped into the arrangements extremely skillfully and is in fact one of the main carriers of the huge charisma of the band’s new artistic era. There’s a pile of other finesses that you discover on the album slowly, peeling them back like veil after veil. For example, the use of additional, effect-laden melodies that accompany Tokac’s basic vocal lines. On the last track, Laži mi, using these levers comes close to gospel-style melodies, while the implantation of added vocal harmonies plays an important role in creating the art stamp at the album’s opening, the song Boli me k.
“Milo za drago” holds a fresh bundle of cunningly polished tracks from Dan D’s new body of work. On the new album Dan D keep their artistic courage, constantly “challenge” themselves with new ideas, and retain the fire, heart, freshness, authenticity and their own magic of creation. “Milo za drago” has a character of its own. After an excursion into heavier experimentation, Dan D have gone back to more defined arrangements, delivered a dozen infectious tracks, tried out new things, skillfully folded them into their musical body, and grown another step through their own evolution. That’s the something that gives Dan D’s artistry a special place in Slovenia’s mid-tempo rock and pop scene.
The soap story is by no means over for Dan D. The band promises to release “Milo za drago” on a classic physical format (CD, vinyl) too, postponed until later, when there’s been enough “washing” with the soap. At the same time, they’re announcing an expanded edition, which will also include some of the “fucked-up” tracks, as the band itself likes to call them, that didn’t make it onto the version with the USB inside the soap.
If you want to know how the Dan D album presentation on 15.11.2018 went, you can find out HERE.
author: Aleš Podbrežnik
Tracklist:
1. Boli me k
2. Malo pekla
3. Ožina
4. Bits
5. Daj mi upanje
6. Ne naredi mi tega
7. Sem v tebi
8. Tu
9. Morilec
10. Laži mi
Lineup:
Tomislav Jovanovič “Tokac” – vocals, acoustic guitar
Marko Turk “Tučo” – guitar
Boštjan Grubar – keyboards
Nikola Sekulovič – bass guitar
Dušan Obradinovič “Obra” – drums
